Quote Originally Posted by Energizer View Post
I'm not altogether sure that the American constitution is what everyone is claiming as the reasoning for why America is as it is.
The American Constitution is EXACTLY the reason why America became such a great and powerful nation.

Excerpt from The 5000 Year Leap;

The Constitution [Benjamin] Franklin and his friends gave to us resulted in the greatest nation in history. With the adoption of our Constitution our nation became a nation based on law, the Constitution being the supreme law of the land. A quick review of our history as a nation certainly supports Franklin's observation that our nation represented a rising sun. Consider, for instance, that the United States represents approximately 5% of the world's population but has created more new wealth than all the rest of the world combined. Moreover, during this time period we have never suffered a famine, this in spite of the fact that even today famines continue to stalk the world over. Throughout the ages humans have gone hungry and many have starved, in spite of their fertile land and the manpower to work it. "The ancient Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks were intelligent people, but in spite of their intelligence they were never able to get enough to eat. They often killed their babies because they couldn't feed them. the Roman Empire collapsed in famine." For more than a hundred years the United States has been the food basket of the world.
During the past two hundred years the United States has outdistanced the world in extending the benefits of inventions and discoveries to the vast majority of its people in such fields as medicine, housing, education, power-energy, transportation, space, aircraft, and agriculture. Furthermore, Americans have been responsible for more discoveries and inventions in science and elsewhere than any nation on earth. It's young men and women have fought in wars throughout the world in defense of freedom, asking nothing for their efforts and sacrificing their lives in return. The U.S. is always the first nation to provide relief and aid to other nations that have had natural calamities, sometimes even providing aid to our enemies. We have given more dollars in aid and relief than most other nations combined. In spite of our largess we are the target of the hate and envy of the rest of the world.