Our Ugly American

When you consider our dontard the one thing that stands out most is how he fits the profile of the ugly American.

I'm not just talking about his looks, he actually used to be reasonably handsome and while he hasn't aged well, that's not the real issue.

The ugly American is characterized as loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric.

If that doesn't describe him, I don't know what does.

Now this behavior is not universally disliked in parts of this country by at least some individuals, but for the majority it is not something we aspire to.

The first problem is that while I'm an American and I've served her in some capacity most of my life, I know that when I've been in foreign countries the people are not inferior or different than Americans are.

Many Americans profited from a series of events which they had little to do with, and it doesn't make them special.  At one time, especially shortly after World War 2 we lived in the country that probably benefited most from that war, since except in Pearl Harbor, we didn't see our cities bombed or factories destroyed.  Few other countries were so lucky.

Add to that the educational benefits we provided our returning GIs and we entered an age of prosperity that had never existed previously and as the baby boomers grew of age it continued.

Of course this didn't make us superior to other people and starting in the 70s we saw a resurgence of other countries where in many ways because of pension and health care benefits, the average worker here is less fortunate than those in many other developed countries.

However, when we were on top, many Americans became arrogant and apparently our dontard's attitudes have never adjusted.

His behavior and attitude are almost a caricature of the ugly American and he certainly lends himself to cartoonish behavior.

Its only a matter of time before he commits a blunder beyond recovery.  Unfortunately its the rest of us who will suffer.