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Do you think this concept is held by many of today's U.S. politicians?

Manifest destiny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lon;1399249 wrote: Do you think this concept is held by many of today's U.S. politicians?

Manifest destiny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I'd say so, yes - they certainly act as thought they believe it to be true.

Bryn Mawr;1399251 wrote: I'd say so, yes - they certainly act as thought they believe it to be true.


I was unfamiliar with the term until this morning and found it a very interesting read, and I agree, many of the politicos have bought into the concept.

Lon;1399252 wrote: I was unfamiliar with the term until this morning and found it a very interesting read, and I agree, many of the politicos have bought into the concept.


That really surprises me. Did you not cover it studying history in school? I would have thought it would be difficult to read any american history without coming across the term even in a wee secondary school in Scotland it came up when studying american history albeit in a context of how it affected britain. The monroe doctrine for instance only had any impact because the britush weren't going to let any of their rivals re-establish control over the colonies they had lost in south america.

Americans gave it their own peculiar twist but essentially it's the same racist justification for imperialism the Europeans came out with - white man's burden and all that but we were perhaps a bit more up front about being imperialist. Nowadays it's spreading democracy and freedom some of the politicians might even believe it but their enthusiasm tends to be confined to areas where there is an economic resource to be got at.

Yes, I think that the mindset is still quite prevalent. It isn't thought of in those terms, of course, but it is still there. The school systems gloss over the concept in the K-12 curriculum. The Spanish-American war was not fought because US business interests were afraid that the revolution in Cuba might result in a democracy - it was fought to defend against the threat by the evil Spain. Hawaii was not forcibly annexed - it was invited to be a part of the US, etc. The underlying concept of "American Exceptionalism" is still thriving. If the US is not rated #1 in every area, it is because the rating system is rigged or flawed. The Christian right wing is busy rewriting the history books to make all of the founders devout Christians and to minimize the contributions of Native Americans. Texas removed the part of their history where the Texans who stole the land from Mexico wanted to be part of Mexico until Mexico outlawed slavery in 1830 (then they wanted to be part of the US until the US outlawed slavery 30 years later).

You can still hear the politicians talk about how "God created the US" and how the US is "God's chosen people".

Yes, the concept is still present today in the U.S.-just using different terminology.

I agree that they do not teach it in schools the way we learned it, pc-ing the curriculum. One of the reasons why I will not teach social studies, unless forced to.

chonsigirl;1399277 wrote: Yes, the concept is still present today in the U.S.-just using different terminology.

I agree that they do not teach it in schools the way we learned it, pc-ing the curriculum. One of the reasons why I will not teach social studies, unless forced to.


I'm embarrassed --------I thought I had received a good education on U.S. History too----I either forgot or it was glossed over re: Manifest Destiny

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely that public school education will change in the near future. In fact, there seems to be more pressure than ever to teach a fictionalized version of history. By avoiding the factual history, students are unlikely to see the dangerous parallels to some current situations and events.

Lon;1399279 wrote: I'm embarrassed --------I thought I had received a good education on U.S. History too----I either forgot or it was glossed over re: Manifest Destiny


We were taught about Manifest destiny in our school. Maybe they dropped it for awhile then brought back the teaching of it. Or it was a regional thing.

It would be rather interesting to see a history book that was written using the terms today's kids could understand, to show the repeating pattern. The Spanish-American war entry might look something like this:

When the Cuban people rose up to overthrow the Spanish and create a democracy, the 1% in the US was worried about their investments in Cuba. Using the concept of Manifest Destiny to get the general public to buy into the idea, they sent troops to Cuba to prevent them from achieving their goal of democracy and installed a right wing dictator that was friendly to US business. The 1% chose not to annex Cuba because of the tax implications, so they kept it as a separate country under the control of US businesses. Meanwhile, since the 1% wanted to open China as consumers for US industries, California, Hawaii, and the Philippines were conquered so that there would be sea ports and coaling stations along the route.

Wandrin;1399286 wrote: It would be rather interesting to see a history book that was written using the terms today's kids could understand, to show the repeating pattern. The Spanish-American war entry might look something like this:

When the Cuban people rose up to overthrow the Spanish and create a democracy, the 1% in the US was worried about their investments in Cuba. Using the concept of Manifest Destiny to get the general public to buy into the idea, they sent troops to Cuba to prevent them from achieving their goal of democracy and installed a right wing dictator that was friendly to US business. The 1% chose not to annex Cuba because of the tax implications, so they kept it as a separate country under the control of US businesses. Meanwhile, since the 1% wanted to open China as consumers for US industries, California, Hawaii, and the Philippines were conquered so that there would be sea ports and coaling stations along the route.


You can write all my history books - tell it like it was

Might dent a few sensibilities if they did.

"I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear."

— U.S. President John F. Kennedy, interview with Jean Daniel, 24 October 1963[11]




The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power.

Franklin D. Roosevelt


The thing is all of it is out there for anyone that is interested enough to look. We have similar conflicts here I donlt thuink we need apologise for having been an imperial power but let's not pretend it didn't happen.

Our culture has evolved (for want of a better word) into one of denying wrongdoing and avoiding responsibility.

Accountable;1399296 wrote: Our culture has evolved (for want of a better word) into one of denying wrongdoing and avoiding responsibility.


That's always been there as has the tendency for some to think they are somehow better than everybody else and are entitled to have more (and no I don't mean benefit scroungers and the like I mean the I am really rich and need to keep all my money and not pay taxes brigade) ) and once they get the reins of power they have to be taken away from them time after time. They always blame the feckless and the poor for all the troubles and people are daft enough to buy it for a while then they wake up to what is happening and get annoyed enough to do something about it.