All in All?…American IS a Pretty Damn GOOD Place….

Which IS why people WANT to come to this place….

Jim VandeHei @ Axios…

Yes, we screw a lot up. Always have. Always will. But nothing bothers me more than the widespread pessimism and plummeting patriotism — when it should be a time of great hope and possibility.

• To me, that yawning gap between our reality and how people feel about it is among the biggest macro issues facing us.
• There’s no better place on Earth to start a business, take a risk, dream big — doing what you chose to do, where you chose to do it.
• We’re the widest, deepest, richest, most transparent economy anywhere — the engine behind phenomenal growth and wealth.
• We’re the greatest meritocracy on earth, unshackled from limits of age or pedigree. We’re wired for risk.
• We can think, say and worship as we please without fear of imprisonment. Faith may be fading, but the freedom to practice is unfettered.
• We stir and enjoy a magical cocktail of democracy, capitalism and individual freedom that produces history-bending ideas like AI.
• We’re protected by the world’s strongest military — at once the most feared and the most sought after by other nations for help.
• We’ve got two protective oceans on our shoulders, friendly neighbors to our north and south, and abundant energy beneath us.
• We’ve racked up four straight years of record energy production on our soil.
• We’ve created history’s longest-surviving democracy, with a rare ability to evolve and meet the craziest challenges….

…

The bottom line: I’ll end with my anchor belief: most Americans are good people — generous, hard-working, idealistic — who need and deserve better leadership around them.