My father was a US Marine. Right-leaning, fiercely patriotic, and utterly convinced that the American way was the only way. I respected the hell out of him, but we never saw eye to eye when it came to politics or what it actually meant to serve a country — really serve it.
It’s easy to chant slogans like “Make America Great Again”, but no one seems to ask the obvious question: great for who?
Right now, the United States is great if you’re a corporation. It’s a dreamland for lobbyists, billionaires, and defence contractors. But if you’re just trying to make a living — raise a family, afford healthcare, avoid bankruptcy if your kid gets sick — it’s not even close to great. It’s a high-stakes hustle with no safety net.
Australia and New Zealand aren’t perfect — not by a long shot — but they at least try to give working people a fighting chance. There’s public healthcare. There’s a minimum wage you can mostly survive on. The idea of community still exists.
Meanwhile, in the US, inclusiveness has become a dirty word to the right. The hypocrisy is blinding. You’ll hear the loudest voices preaching “family values” while quietly covering up sex scandals, underage abuse, and corruption that would end anyone else’s career — if anyone actually held them accountable.
The most frustrating part? The systematic culling of anything that creates long-term good. Science? Undermined. Medicine? Privatised or politicised. Climate data? Muzzled. The very tools we need to face the future are being defunded, mocked, or ignored — all in the name of profit, short-term votes, or some warped idea of “freedom.”
I don’t have the energy to write the rest tonight. Maybe I will another time. But for now, I’ll say this:
You don’t make a country great by waving a flag and shouting over your neighbour. You make it great by building systems that care for people — all people — even the ones you disagree with.
Leave a Reply