Bradley Jay: What's So Wrong With "America Is Number One?"
While President Obama is far from perfect, I do not harbor the distaste for him many of my friends do. For starters, Osama Bin Laden was killed on his watch, I am a fan of the drone program, and he is able to cobble together complete sentences.
That said, I do have a problem with what I perceive as the President's aversion to the notion America may better than other countries. I get the feeling he feels cheering, "America is number one" reeks of arrogance.
We in America are basically, in spite of our differences, on the same team, and there is nothing wrong with shouting "hooray" for one's team. There is no culpability in rooting for the team. There is no sin in being proud of your team. There is no shame in mourning a team loss or cheering a victory. It is natural and healthy for team America to shout, "We're number one," as long as we respect the other "teams."
I sense President Obama believes the world's competing factions should be one big politically correct soccer league, with no winners and no losers, working together towards the betterment of humanity. And in theory, he is right. But until such time as all the peoples of the world share the same values, we are not a unified global "team." Until the globe's cultures are on the same page regarding what is right and what is wrong, we are competing with the rest of the world to define these concepts.
I do not believe in cultural relativism. I believe there is a finite right and finite wrong. And until we reach a consensus on which is which, Americans have every right to root for team U.S.A.
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