What about America are we proud of anymore?

This was from a radio talk show host last week talking about America. He simply entitled it: What are you proud of? In many ways, the past 7 years have caused many of us to become extreme pessimists and apathetic to the American experiment. If you believe in the "goodness" of America you are laughed at, called idealistic or oblivious. If you are a Christian, your told you hate all of the other countries and neglecting there "image of God" for your own idolatrous America-lust.
When did love of country become equated with idolatry? When did we lose our appreciation? Why?

"As Americans, what, today, are you proud of in your country? Are you proud of our insurance industry? I bet not. It's been demonized. People hate insurance agents, hate insurance companies, and think they're a bunch of crooks.

How about our financial institutions -- Wall Street, your bank, your savings and loan, your credit union -- are you proud of that? No. It has been demonized, too. They're just a bumbling of crooks. They don't care about you. How about our automobile industry? Are you proud of the automobile industry? No, you're not proud of it. They're getting skunked by the Japanese. Besides, they make products that use oil! And they make products that are destroying the world! "Hell no, we hate the auto industry." Are you proud of your pharmaceutical industry? Hell no! You're not proud of the people that rape you at the drugstores with these exorbitant drug prices when you think you can get 'em cheaper from Canada. You know they're running ads on TV for all these different drugs. They're just trying to get you to go to the doctor and get some. They don't care about curing you. They don't care about making you better. They just want to soak you. Let's see, are you proud of the US Military?

No, you're not proud of the US military. The military kills babies and innocent civilians! The US military tortures people at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. (I know because John McCain tells us so, along with the liberal Democrats.) Uh, let's see. Are you proud of anything? Are you proud of the home building industry? No. You hate the home industry, because they build cheap stuff and they overcharge you for it, and it doesn't work, and you can't end up paying for it. No! You're not proud of it. Are you proud of the airline industry? Hell no! You're not proud of the airline industry. Hell, you hate flying. No peanuts anymore. You're sardined in the seats and the planes are always late, they're never on time, you can't get where you're going comfortably when you want to get there. Let's see. Do you like government? "Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Government cares for me. Government loves me. Government wants me to have health care, that they don't have to pay for, and government wants me to be safe from storms, and government wants me to not have to pay taxes.

"Government only wants the rich to pay taxes. Oh, we love government. We are really proud of our government in America." Let's see. Are you proud of the retailing industry? "No! We hate Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart why, they're mean to unions. We love unions. We are really proud of our unions in America. But we hate Wal-Mart, and we hate Kmart, and we hate the malls." Let's see... Are you proud of our schools? "Well, we're proud of the public education system." Are you proud your kids aren't learning anything? "Well, we're trying, but we need more money for our public schools. If we just had more money, then we could be proud of our public school system." Let's see. Are you proud of the shipping industry, FedEx, UPS, oceangoing vessels? "No! They pollute. They don't get my packages here on time, and they're just out to shaft me. They're just a bunch of crooks just like the people on Wall Street, just like the people at the banks. But we love our government."

Now, this is an illustration. I just asked you: What in this country are you proud of, versus 30, 40 years ago what we were proud of? We were proud of all of this. We were puffed up with pride about all of this! We were proud of our achievements. We were proud of our accomplishments. We were appreciative of our freedom. But now look at what they've made us hate. Look at what they've made us detest. Look at the absolute BS that they have more and more educated people believing -- that, oil is just a conspiracy, that there is a replacement. "There's alternative fuels out there, but they don't want to release 'em because Big Oil and big Republicans and Halliburton, Cheney, Bush. They're all in a conspiracy to keep it from threatening their own investments in oil." Is it not shocking, ladies and gentlemen, to realize just how few educated Americans understand how the world works? More than that, isn't it scary to understand how few educated Americans understand how their own country works?"