Well, seems to me that everyone's a pessimist and loves to bash the US. How about for a change you list one item or idea you like about the UNITED STATES
OK, i'll start.
1.) The ability to amend the constitution.
go...
With respect, I think you are wrong. I have not come across anyone who 'loves to bash the US'. I have been to your country and there are loads of things I like about it, but mostly it is the people. I think your present government, and some of your systems (like health insurance) suck, but I think you are the nicest people I met anywhere. I was 13 when my uncle took me on a world trip, and he knows heaps of people in the US, so we spent a lot of time there.
I like the way you are not class conscious like us Brits, and that you are so friendly and generous, especially to kids. (Like one family in Washington wanted me to come home with them and spend Christmas with their kids, coz they thought I was by myself.)
I know other people feel the same way as I do about America - we all like you as people.
But what most of us in Europe can't understand is why you think you are the only country that has freedoms and opportunities and all that good stuff. There is nothing in the US that can't be found in any developed western nation (excepts guns, that is). Like who in western Europe, or Canada, or Australia, doesn't have freedom of speech, freedom of association, etc.
Is it coz you don't know anything about these other countries, or what?
Let's take the first item you mention - the ability to amend your constitution. Every country with a written constitution has the ability to amend it, or even to rewrite it. In the UK, the unwritten constitution is constantly amended by various findings of the High Court. To say you like this about the US implies that only the US has this ability.
Like I said, there's loads of stuff I like about the US, but one of the few things I don't like about the US is all that flag waving and nationalism.
