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Even Barack Obama eventually came around to embracing American exceptionalism. But if one hangs around social media, one is periodically treated to a clip from an old HBO program in which a character played by Jeff Daniels seems to puncture the idea that there is something special and unique about the United States of America. The clip is often shared by those who wish to demonstrate that they are too smart and knowledgable to succumb to enthusiastic patriotism. In the scene from a show called “The Newsroom,” Mr.
Daniels is wittingly or unwittingly portraying a self-important and semi-informed media personage. His character dismisses the idea that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world and argues that freedom doesn’t particularly distinguish the U.S. He quickly rattles off an extensive list of other countries where people also enjoy freedom. What he does not mention is that in every single one of the countries on his list, free people enjoy the protection of the American defense umbrella. The smug character then goes on to make the preposterous suggestion that roughly 180 countries in the world are free, as if it’s the natural state of things and not a blessing paid for with the blood of Americans and other brave people over many generations. Of course there have also been enormous financial bills to pay. In only one country did free people build an economy large enough to fund the worldwide defense of liberty for decades. This exceptional and indispensable quality of America underlines why the financial health of the U.S. is also indispensable. There is no backstop for us. It’s essential that U.S. government spending is reduced and put on a path toward budget balance not just for Americans but because a collapse of the United States would be uniquely catastrophic for the world. Search history and it’s hard to find happy endings for governments that took on so much debt that interest payments rose above defense spending, as has recently occurred in the U.S. During his two terms
President Donald Trump has demanded with some success that U.S. allies contribute more to their own defense. The website of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization notes: At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, Allies made a commitment to investing 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually on core defence requirements and defence- and security-related spending by 2035.
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