Fearlessness. I believe that it is the one trait that set apart the creators and the innovators who propelled this country to the forefront in every conceivable field, weather as a coal, oil or steel baron, or just striking west for points unknown. Just with a vision of doing something because there was no one stopping one, but oneself. Creative genius was let loose, and the results were spectacular. There were no shackles on the creative minds, no mindless oversight by a tax-drunk government, and crony capitalism had not yet completely enmeshed an entire country.
Fearlessness is what I believe made this country great, once.

j_IR1776wg, It may also be mentioned that Wayne
Hage wrote "Storm over Rangelands" which now is
part of the library of the Supreme Court. Wayne
died of cancer some years back and his wife,
courageous and outspoken Congresswoman
Helen Chenoweth, died shortly thereafter in a
one car accident.
She had spoken out against the tyranny of the
BLM and ForestService on national tv.

Thanks amagi. I was not aware that judges still exist who believe in the same philosophic principles that the founding fathers did. I plan to read some of his work.

Greed.

Quoting Nietzsche proves my point.

The fact you quoting Nietzsche proves my point.

"I know what begging the question means"
Many other readers might think it means raises the question.
Regarding genocide, slavery, and tyranny, clearly those things (factors/mistakes) were present in US history. Why do you call them foundational?

A lot of good came from US, as dbhalling points out. Why call the bad foundational?

Yes, j_IR1776wg, and I am tempted to add the
words of Judge Loren Smith who not many years
ago said:
"Before I came to the court, I thought liberty and
property were the two fundamental purposes of
the Constitution, and that they would make the third part of the trinity - life - worth living."

(He was involved in the Hage case in Nevada
where federal agencies were working on
destroying Wayne Hage's cattle ranch/land.)

Right. You know nothing of Rand's works. Rand was clear and correct that was the only country founded on freedom. Your arguments are standard Marxist diatribes.

Right, those factors are true of North Korea and the former USSR, did they create wealth and spread freedom - NO.

Your handle is BS.

That is absurd. According to your argument, all of the Americas (Mexico, Caribbean, Venezuela) would all be rich. Your are not analyzing you are pontificating. The US is the only country in the history of the world based on the idea that you own yourself. That was not only in the Declaration of Independence, but in our common law. The main legal text of the US was Blackstone's commentaries which were animated by Locke's idea that you own yourself.

I like that book, although I don't agree with all its conclusions. Your answer is begging the question, i.e. using what you're trying to prove in the proof. You're saying the worst mistakes of American history are its foundation b/c they are in fact the foundation.

"Mind your OWN business." And . . .
Mind your own BUSINESS. And especially,
MIND your own business.

We have no exclusive on noble, good and productive people. What we have an exclusive on are our constitutionally guaranteed rights which no other people have ever had. Even communists in Cuba have privileges limited though they may be, but no one other than United States citizens have ever had rights.

Unfortunately people now confuse rights with privileges, considering privileges (I have a right to buy a cake from that guy, and he has a duty to provide it whether he wants to or not) to be rights and rights to be privileges (strip that guy of his second amendment rights, he's a criminal).

Freedom.

And Carnegie influenced the government not to buy better steel from his competitor, which made the competitor go out of business and Carnegie scooped up the factory and the technology for pennies on the dollar and became a billionaire. People will always do what people do; the government will always act as an evil catalyst.