Well, I actually think America is usually pretty good and always fairly different.
It's the comparisons that are odious. It doesn't need to be the greatest country on earth. Just a country which tries as hard as it can to do as well as possible. With decisions that have been more successful and others that have been more failure than success. Enough reasons for pride without at the same time diminishing others.
As soon as America stops complimenting itself and allows for its own imperfections, it will grant space for others to provide the compliments and render criticism unnecessary.
The need to assert American exceptionalism by Americans as if it means superiority rather than difference encapsulates the issue neatly. When I hear someone assert their own relative brilliance I normally assume that means they are answering a root sense of inferiority which needs to be denied. Confident people don't brag. What sort of people drive sports cars?
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