The individuals responsible for “Watergate” served time in prison and the President responsible was forced to resign in shame for his actions. What other country can you point to where this would have been the outcome.

Carter’s bumbling foreign policy resulted in the rise of Reagan and the resultant fall of the Soviet scourge.

The men responsbile for the gay man’s death face a future bent over and takeing the one thing they fear most - for the rest of their lives. And also true of the Olympics bomber.

Clinton’s sins came to roost with the one thing that will be remembered over anything else associated with his legacy - Impeachment.

Yes there are instances where, for a moment, one can feel shame about the actions of our fellow Americans. But I ask you - is there a better country in the world? Is there a country in the world that wears it’s problems so prominently on its sleeves for all to see? Is there a country in the world that is so caring that we are the first on the scene with aid for virtually any disaster that the prople of the world may ever face? For every one of the items listed in anyone’s “hall of shame”, I can provide dozens of items that one can be proud of - per year.

FYI: White men are the most discriminated group in America.

Escalation of the Vietnam War by whom? The Viet Cong during Tet? North Vietnamese during the Eastertide Offensive? Have you ever been to Vietnam?

“Undeclared” war in Cambodia? Pol Pot came to power because the NVA took South Vietnam while the democrat congress made us sit on our hands and watch. See the Case-Church Amendment.

Our country did not support apartheid in South Africa, we embargoed them.

Whose death squads in El Salvador? ARENA? Have you ever been to El Salvador?

Iran/Contra? Have you ever been to Iran? Honduras? Panama? What do you know about cocaine smuggling?

What Intelligence? Do you have a security clearance? A need to know?

Katrina? You must also believe in the AGW hoax.

* “You cannot tell me, and the rest of the patrons of the board, that in the last 35 years there hasn’t been ONE thing that the USA has done to be proud of?”

The logical fallacy above is called a Straw Man. This sort of “reasoning” is fallacious because attacking a distorted version of a position simply does not constitute an attack on the position itself.

I did not say that there was nothing I was proud of, but you knew that. You’ve created an emotional appeal that verges on yet another logical fallacy.

People who say “Shame on you for not leaving” don’t seem to grasp the basic tenants of the constitution itself. The founders put together a beautiful document. They said, here are the rules, all written down for you. But, the best rule of all of them is the rule that says you can change the rules. There is nothing in there that says, if you don’t like it, get out. The founders dealt with that in England, and specifically designed the system to avoid that mentality.

People who say “Shame on you for not leaving” would do better to say “If you don’t like it, then try to change it.” To me, that’s a far more patriotic and truly American thing to say. Much better than hiding behind the guise of patriotism and launching poorly thought out attacks at vocal people unhappy with certain aspects of their government.

The thesis of the piece is that Michelle Obama’s words matter, which I agree with. The thesis of your post is that based on your straw man I hate America and should have left already, which I do not agree with.

You cannot tell me, and the rest of the patrons of the board, that in the last 35 years there hasn’t been ONE(1) thing that the USA has done to be proud of?

Shame on you for not leaving, if you couldn’t find one thing to be proud to be an American over the past 35 years. You either directly help put these “assholes” in office or you helped facilitate their existence. If you were proud enough to help elect/facilitate by voting for them or their policies, then I find it somewhat disingenuous for you to profess you couldn’t find something to be proud of.

I am 60 years old, my father was in WWII, I served in Vietnam at the behest of LBJ, although I have seen a lot things this country has done to be ashamed of, I have also seen a lot of things this country, and its elected officials, have done to be very proud of.

I think if someone can’t find anything for which they can be proud of their country, in 35 years, they haven’t looked deep enough, they don’t want to find anything or they have an anti-American agenda.

Good luck to you guys in the rest of your pitifully empty lives, you are looking in the wrong places.

His examples are right on the money. I can think of several more that have occurred within the past seven years too.

We are a democratic republic. Our elected officials represent us both internally and to the rest of the world. When they behave like assholes, it reflects poorly on us. Because of this, some of us feel a degree of shame when someone we’ve chosen as our advocate goes and does something counter to what we believe.

I’d argue that events like those cited caused one version of our country to die and get replaced with another. The world sees us differently, treats us differently.

At first glance, it’s easy to not care if the world sees us differently. As second glance, this affects us in countless ways, commerce and security being chief among them. Then the altered perspective cascades down to every other aspect of our interaction with the world.

The examples cited are not ridiculous. I felt some degree of shame or embarrassment when reading them. Embarrassed that I’m part of a country that elected those people that pulled that crap.

So, if Michelle Obama hasn’t felt proud of her country, maybe she’s got her own list. Maybe it’s longer, or other things affected her more deeply. I don’t know, but what I do know is that her words affect us because of who she is, our potential first lady. Thus they matter.

As for your comment “There are plenty of instances in the last 35 years I have been ashamed to be an American:” I offer my own list.

The escalation of the Vietnam war, the undeclared war in Cambodia leading to the ris e of Pol Pot and the needless loss of millions of their lives. A pogrom ironically brought to an end by communist Vietnam.

The needless support of apartheid in South Africa, when calls by people like myself at university for divestment was met by indifference and scorn.

The training and backing of Death Squads in El Salvador, where military leaders in that country were trained in the US at the School of the Americas. Say goodbye to tens of thousands.

The Iran/Contra scandal, where cocaine was smuggled thru Central America by Ollie’s buddies to buy weapons for use in the mideast to circumvent congressional restrictions. And Reagan had the nerve to call the Contras the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers, when they were Somoza holdouts operating out of Honduras.

Skipping ahead…the refusal of the Bush Administration to accept foreign aid after Katrina, in spite of Brownie doing a heck of a job.

The hubris of Bushco to absorb intelligence that could probably have prevented 9/11.

And why not mention Karl Rove, whose evil treatment of McCain derailed the better candidate in 2000? Will we see a deathbed confession a la Lee Atwater from his minion?

Please help me to be proud of, to put it kindly, the bull in the china shop.

All of your examples are ridiculous. You are projecting shame of the actions of individuals on your country. The actions of Nixon, Carter, Clinton and yes even Reagan were not the actions of your country, but the actions of a few individuals that we elected. No human is perfect, even Presidents. Our country has survived the actions of these men, and I daresay, that we are better for it. This is and has been the greatest country in history and will survive the actions of any one individual. The fear I have is that the comparitive ignorance of our people to generations past will allow the election of a poser, a true demogogue. that will change our country in ways that are infathomable to the young and easily impressed.