All of what you say is true but it doesn't make it right nor does it validate the claim that the US is an exceptional nation that has sought to expand exponentially since its inception. A war like nation with a national Anthem hat reflects its nature with song of rockets and bombs exploding. For over 100 years the US has had a fondness for capitalist imperialism by proxy and been in the business of assassinations , and propping up client state dictators, Tyrants, and corrupt puppet-presidents, who have been aided, supported, and rewarded handsomely for their loyalty to American business interests. American tax dollars and USA backed loans have made billionaires of some, while others are drug dealers who also collect CIA paychecks. But the US government was held responsible for supporting some of the worst human rights violators in history. Their troops receive arms, training and advice from the CIA as well as Latin American terrorist at the school of the Americas Ft Benning Georgia. t is American military that guarantees their hold on power and the fact they provide free access by Wall Street to their countries natural resources.

The USA has over the years, installed financed , supported with cash and arms, 44 bloody dictators. In 13 of those cases the USA actually overthrew a legitimate functioning democracy for the sake of installing one of their own dictators who would be more pliable to US foreign policy. In several cases when the population of a country revolted and overthrew the US installed Dictator, the US sent warship to put down the revolt and install their dictator once again. To the population back home the reason often given was for protecting" freedom " "stability" "controlling the Soviet Union" and so on..........tye CIAplayed a considerable role in the overthrowing of Chilean of President Salvador Allende in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet who is credited with a 17 year reign of oppression and used the Chilean people as Guinea pigs for Milton Freidmans neoliberal economic theories that doubled poverty from 29 % to 40 % in 17 years

They were brilliant but they wanted to be aristocrats did not believe in Democracy regarding it as mobocracy and only the educated elite such as them selves need participate in it and only men of property possessed the were with all to vote and serve on a jury al others were excluded. The fight for democracy came from the bottom up and began to make real progress with the progressive movement and the founding convention of the Peoples party in 1892 and merged with the Democratic party in 1896 and lasted until the last third of the 20th Century

It seemed so simple for so long, so black and white. America was great and good and right and just in all that it did. We were exceptional! We were God's ideal for this weary and wretched world! The true hero! I loved being an American. Dressing in the morning since I was seven was like putting on a uniform for the defense of Liberty. All Americans were warriors for Freedom. And then I read too many books, only looking to see how great our country truly was. I found that our nation is deeply flawed. Not irredeemably, for we do look and act to correct ourselves, a true marvel in any age, but grievous mistakes have been made. America is no hero by a long stretch--and that hurts.

To admit to our many mistakes as a nation is not to undermine our nation. The exceptional thing about America is that it tries, and usually does, correct its wrongs as best it can. Coming to accept my nation as weak and flawed at times, even terribly wrong, increases my respect and awe at our Constitution and governmental processes. We right those wrongs and move on. Where I need help is in not reacting to citizens who see America as having done no wrong. Those history revisionist that see our slave-holding Founders as "tirelessly working" to end slavery. They did not.

It seemed so simple for so long, so black and white. America was great and good and right and just in all that it did. We were exceptional! We were God's ideal for this weary and wretched world! The true hero! I loved being an American. Dressing in the morning since I was seven was like putting on a uniform for the defense of Liberty. All Americans were warriors for Freedom. And then I read too many books, only looking to see how great our country truly was. I found that our nation is deeply flawed. Not irredeemably, for we do look and act to correct ourselves, a true marvel in any age, but grievous mistakes have been made. America is no hero by a long stretch--and that hurts.

To admit to our many mistakes as a nation is not to undermine our nation. The exceptional thing about America is that it tries, and usually does, correct its wrongs as best it can. Coming to accept my nation as weak and flawed at times, even terribly wrong, increases my respect and awe at our Constitution and governmental processes. We right those wrongs and move on. Where I need help is in not reacting to citizens who see America as having done no wrong. Those history revisionist that see our slave-holding Founders as "tirelessly working" to end slavery. They did not.

It seemed so simple for so long, so black and white. America was great and good and right and just in all that it did. We were exceptional! We were God's ideal for this weary and wretched world! The true hero! I loved being an American. Dressing in the morning since I was seven was like putting on a uniform for the defense of Liberty. All Americans were warriors for Freedom. And then I read too many books, only looking to see how great our country truly was. I found that our nation is deeply flawed. Not irredeemably, for we do look and act to correct ourselves, a true marvel in any age, but grievous mistakes have been made. America is no hero by a long stretch--and that hurts.

To admit to our many mistakes as a nation is not to undermine our nation. The exceptional thing about America is that it tries, and usually does, correct its wrongs as best it can. Coming to accept my nation as weak and flawed at times, even terribly wrong, increases my respect and awe at our Constitution and governmental processes. We right those wrongs and move on. Where I need help is in not reacting to citizens who see America as having done no wrong. Those history revisionist that see our slave-holding Founders as "tirelessly working" to end slavery. They did not.

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I remember those days........the most disgusting America has ever been.....HIPPIES with nothing better to do, every one of them worthless pieces of flotsam. The one saving grace is that they DID get some blowback, and I enjoyed that a LOT. Those hippies are the same ones who believed in sex with anyone at any time, then they were all in favor of abortions......and that negated their "baby killers" LIE. They became the baby killers of all time, and they were too stupid to see that. Those hippies were worthless trash, an embarrassment to all decent Americans.

To which "Trump incited burning of mosques, beatings of Mexicans and Muslims and Gays" do you refer? Kent State was not exactly peaceful. The shootings ocurred at the end of several days of physical violence initiated by the "peaceful protesters."
Do you REALLY want to try and compare one or two instances of violence by so-called conservatives to dozens of violent protests by the left? There are well-documented cases of Trump supporters being attacked and beaten. I have not seen any of Trump supporters doing the attacking.

It would be good to read John Erlichman's comments, actually a confession, on how the Nixon administration invented ("lied about," his words) the severity of the marijuana use for hippies and heroin use for blacks to begin the "war on drugs." The Right always has a problem with protest and always demonize the protesters. Very curious for supposed Constitution-lovers: that right is central to our liberty. I got spat on at Idlewild Airport in 1968 when I returned from overseas. It was after eleven at night and very few people. Just lucky, I guess. It was a couple dressed much like you would expect: it was the woman who did the deed. The war (conflict, lol) was wrong and a heinous act by our country. I knew this then. That fact takes nothing at all away from the good men who gave their blood, sweat, and lives in Viet Nam. Our government screwed us. The Hippies were not wrong to protest. She was not wrong to spit.

To the Right, the term Hippie means an homogeneous group of doped up, dirty, sex addicts, and sycophants with commie roots and no values. That is simply not true to reality but perfectly true to how Republicans wanted them to be seen. Easy to hate and dismiss. Nixon's engine of disinformation worked overtime in disenfranchising this voice of protest. I was there, returned home and a marshal for the Friend's Society at organized protests. I did not agree with either side for the very reason neither side wanted to listen. Both had valid points. Without the extremist rhetoric, I believed a workable resolution was possible. But no one budged.

Two of the dead, and one paralyzed from the chest down, were simply walking across a parking lot,over a hundred yards away, going

between classes; when shots were fired over the heads of demonstrators. The other two were actually involved in the demonstration

From the governor down to the national guard privates, it was the result of a tragic lack of training, lack of communications, lack of

competent leadership and documented fear amongst the individual guardsmen.

NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED.