why does america have to be great

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i foresee an ensuing shitstorm, so i may or may not reply to comments here. but i don't mean this as a provocation, this is actually something that i don't understand

"make america great again" was trump's slogan, as most everybody knows. but i've noticed that americans on both sides of the political divide tend to agree that "america should be great", and mostly differ on their belief on who can accomplish it and how. the tone usually seems to imply that it's not in the sense of "a great place to live", but in the sense of "a great nation in the world"

but... why does it even matter? or do i misunderstand what people mean when they use those words?

Each side is committed to America's imperial project, but in different ways. Basically, Americans have a sense of entitlement and arrogance, they believe they are the shining city on the hill, so they believe America should be on top of everything. Many Americans have become aware in recent years that America's power relative to the rest of the world is declining, which alarms them because they may lose claim to being number one, so they want to restore it, by any means necessary.

In the worst case scenario, I imagine America becoming something like Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan.

I just want America to be GOOD.

Making America great again means to me fixing our military so we can protect ourselves, bringing down our debt, and taking care of our own country and people first for a change with jobs and affordable healthcare. No one even respects America anymore. If something doesn't change, we will become a third world country.

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My two cents... patriotism and programming. That's why. Maybe indoctrination and nationalism would be better words, but a lot of people in the states get pissed at you when you use those two...

Fact is, here anyway, we live in a world where kids are told from early on in school that not only is our country great, but the best place in the world for people to live. It's the home of the free, the land of the brave, a place where poor/miserable/opportunity lacking immigrants can come and make tons of money and live that american dream. They play it up like the only dream any sane person would have is the american one and god help you if you say anything else. Those 'MERICA!' screamer will rip your face off if you speak anything less than praises in regards to this country. Dramatic... maybe... but there is truth in the fact that people get crappy with you if you say less than great things about this country and you live here. A lot of people fly flags in their yards, slap bumper stickers on their trucks, and will even decorate their neighborhoods with pro america items. To me, this kind of patriotism boarders on nationalism, but I am a terrible patriot.

Weird tirade aside... if you grow up completely immersed in a culture that force feeds you the idea that you are not only great, but the greatest it will undoubtedly put some kind of pressure on people to uphold those ideas. It will undoubtedly cause confusion/distress if and when the greatness thing gets called into question because that is not something you are supposed to do. I'm not sure if people in this country really care if other countries think we are the greatest. I think it is more important to people who feel that way to be able to think they are the greatest just because they think and say so. I think it's probably part blow to the ego and part being forced to confront the idea that what we have all been force fed and immersed in might not be true. I mean... we were a bunch of disgruntled colonists who won our freedom from a huge world power. We made crazy huge leaps for awhile there with government, settling, infrastructure, steel, transportation, manufacturing, space exploration, available health care... for years as a baby country (we are relatively new comparatively) we rocked it. That will give you a big head. If that''s all you know as a citizen, what else are you gong to think... we have always been what we view as great so to be anything else seems somehow fundamentally wrong.

So very sad. It's been so long the American people don't even know what "Great" means anymore.

Great does not mean "We have the most powerful army." This was a bunch of crp started by the military/industrial complex after WWII; remember President Dwight D. Eisenhower's warnings this was forming when he was President???

When America was "Great" the average working man was able to support himself, wife, and kids AND afford a small home. NO wife forced into the workplace to let the kids grow up like animals under stranger's supervision in order to survive.

The United States had a strong economy with many good paying jobs available. Compare this to the dog-eat-dog system in place now...we're looking pretty sad...and the government does NOTHING about it, only wishing to fill their own private coffers. We've been sold out.

But Trump, like myself, remembers that distant time and knows this is the America we want vs. the America we get after the plundering is over. Maybe Trump has the guts to get something started to reverse this trend.