I had the misfortune of walking into my dorm room a few days ago while my roommate was watching Fox News. They were airing the Republican “rebuttal” that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell gave in response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address. I only watched for a minute or so, but in that minute McDonnell managed to make two statements that I took to be profoundly absurd.

The first: “Most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government.”

The second: “America is the most generous and prosperous nation on Earth.”

Wow.

I could understand these kinds of remarks coming from one of our more naively patriotic brethren among the general populace, but for an elected official to air them on national television (albeit Fox News) is a bit frightening.

First, we do not have the best medical system in the world. We spend more per capita on health care than any other country and yet the World Health Organization ranked us 37th (between Costa Rica and Slovenia) last time it published a worldwide ranking.

Numbers aside, if our nation really did have the best health care system in the world, there wouldn’t be a three-decade-long debate raging over its reform. Indeed, even President George W. Bush addressed the need for health care reform in his last State of the Union address.

Second, we are not the most prosperous nation in the world. According to the CIA World Factbook, the U.S. had the 10th highest GDP per capita in the world at $46,400 (less than a third of first place Lichtenstein’s).

Even if we ignore GDP, the leading factor in determining a nation’s economic prosperity, we need only shift our gaze toward the national debt. Our federal government is in debt more than $12 trillion. That’s $12,000,000,000,000. And as if it weren’t bad enough already, our biggest creditor, other than ourselves, is none other than communist China. Ironic much?

Compared to reality, hyperbolic assertions that we are the “most prosperous” nation on Earth and that we have the “best medical care system in the world” are not only wrong, but grotesquely misleading. It takes little more than willful ignorance for anyone to believe these statements.

Perhaps more to blame than ignorance, however, is simple-minded, unfounded patriotism. Many of us have grown up thinking that America is, and always will be, the richest, strongest, smartest, most just, best country on God’s green Earth.

How wrong we were.

It doesn’t take much to see that, although “best” is a subjective term, it probably doesn’t apply to 21st century America. However, this shouldn’t be taken to mean America is the worst country in the world, not by a long shot. Rather, we simply need to realize we are by no means the best, whatever that may mean.

And no, I’m not an “unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping vegan weenie” just because I will admit my country is not perfect. Rather, I find it more patriotic to admit its faults and then work to fix them.

We are no longer, assuming we once were, “a city upon a hill.” While we are a great nation, we are not perfect. We are not the most prosperous. We are not the most healthy. We are not the smartest, hardest-working or happiest either. Conversely, we’re definitely not the poorest, sickest, dumbest, laziest or saddest.

The point is we shouldn’t assume America’s dominance because at some point it was the “greatest” nation on Earth. Those of us who haven’t realized that need to confront reality. We have problems. They need to be addressed by us. Let’s stop ignoring them, stuffing our ears, yelling “Socialism!” and hiding behind unfounded patriotic, nationalistic, jingoistic rhetoric.

Let’s make America the best. For real this time.

Click here to read The Daily's Becca Skupin's take on nationalism