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Have we been respected before? Our power has been respected, especially by those who were rescued by it. For the rest of it, for who we are and how we have perceived ourselves, it seems we've been more disliked and envied than respected. We've almost always been looked down upon as being uncultered, and have been despised for spreading our commercial pop culture. Sure, there are those who wanted a piece and emigrated here. In the early 1960's the phrase "ugly American" was bandied about by others and by our own elites. It referred to loudmouth travelers who felt superior by being American. Americans were disliked, or envied, for most of our existence because of our greater freedom, greater consumption, perceived feeling of superiority, aggressiveness, and just about anything that Americans used to be proud of. Even our immediate neighbors just to the north and south of us have always harbored varying degrees of antipathy to us. Of course, we were heroes to some after the World Wars. Not so to those who lost. Certainly not so to those who espoused socialistic political views, and, I'd guess that the more the rest of the world became socialistic, the more the rest of the world disliked us. There may be a chance for us now to become beloved if we can continue to flip over to their view of social justice. I think that was the hope the rest of the world had when Obama was elected.
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