America is the Greatest Nation

America is the Greatest Nation. The greatest of all the nations. Yes. And what can such a statement mean? There are three ways to interpret it: as a slogan, An opinion or an assessment. I will address these in turn. 1. As a slogan. Florida is the sunshine state. Denmark is the happiest country in the world. The USA is the greatest country on Earth. These are slogans. Even people who do not like America will recognise that "the greatest nation" refers to it. This is because, As I said in the previous round, Americans are famous for their superlatives, And because this is the only country to have this slogan. The term "great" is vaguer than terms like "sunshine" and "happiness" which can be measured. In that way, It is more similar to a slogan such as "Incredible India! ". Suppose India became predictable and boring, Then someone could argue that it is not incredible. But because of the vagueness of the term, It would be a subjective argument. In the same way, Con's argument that America has become too paltry is subjective. It is his opinion. 2. As an opinion Con argues that America is no longer great. And yet, He would die for his country. He would rather live there than anywhere else. He says that "it is still an amazing country". The USA is still the greatest nation in CON's eyes. If we were to frame this resolution as an opinion, He would have already conceded. 3. As an assessment Suppose the resolution were that the USA was the biggest nation. It would be easy to refute - Russia and Canada are bigger. What if it were that the USA had the most people - again, It could be easily pointed out that both China and India have bigger populations. CON argues that the USA is not the greatest, But he does not point to another country that is greater. I invited him to do so in the next round. In the meantime, Let us consider the criteria for greatness that CON mentioned: OPPORTUNITY: It's true that the USA's scores on the GINI coefficent, Which measures inequality, Have been rising in recent years. However, The USA has always been unequal, And it has scored higher than other countries such as Canada and countries in Europe ever since records began in 1947. That is because the USA does not have a welfare state. The rich do not protect the vulnerable as they do in other countries, And this has always been so. ENDING RACISM: CON argues that, At some point, Racism was stomped out in America. I disagree. I think that the USA has had a a consistent history of racism, And that the current inequalities are a result of that history. I invite him to provide evidence to the contrary. ACHIEVING TRUE EQUALITY: As described above, The USA has a very high Gini coefficient for a developed country and always has. LARGEST WORLD ECONOMY: America still has the largest economy! America is the greatest! UNITY: CON argues that American politics is too polarised. However, Free speech and robust disagreement have always been part of the American tradition. Unity is oppressive and occurs in regimes where disagreement is stomped out. The political disagreements we see are signs of America's greatness. MORAL FABRIC: It is unclear to me how moral fabric can be measured. I believe it cannot be, That it is subjective and relative to an individual's moral framework. I invite CON to provide evidence otherwise. BALANCED BUDGET: The US federal deficit is less than it was 10 years ago. MODERN MILITARY: The USA has the strongest military in the world. As such, It is in the best position to respond to modern threats. Already we can see personnel being deployed in new ways. SUMMARY America has the world's strongest economy and military. Although its society has inequality and political disagreement, These are qualities that the nation has always displayed. If the USA was ever the greatest (as CON has argued), It is still the greatest.