Asher,
First off, Happy Thanksgiving!
As with you, I'm not looking for a fight. This is just an "as I see it".
I would say, at least for me, the benchmark is not how do we compare to the rest of the world. It is how do we compare from the last seven years to the previous 224. And if we don't like what we see, then how can we change it? Realizing there is good and bad in everything and everyone, my desire is to emphasize the best and to reduce, if not eliminate, the worst.
First, countries are not moral, people are or aren't. That's not semantics. Governments, organizations, institutions are not moral, only the people running them. In my view it doesn't matter whether the U.S. is "more moral" than another country. I don't know if morality can be measured but it can be demonstrated. And at the moment I think our government does a poor job of demonstrating our morality.
Second, governments and companies are based on power -- economic, military, whatever. Power always acts to preserve itself and to expand itself. Governments and companies are necessary. It is our job as citizens to guide and sometimes "check" the path these would take on their own if it weren't for more socially minded people. At the moment, there is little the average U.S. citizen can do to check the abuse of power by these entities.
Third, I can't measure corruption and I don't know who can. On some level everyone is corrupt. At the moment it seems as tho' people in federal government seem to be particularly corrupt. More-so, they have no shame about it. Even more-so they are hypocritical about their actions compared to what they criticize in others.
Fourth, I don't think we are xenophobic. Because of our position in the world, we tend to believe the world was made for us. We are a large country that has been richly blessed for several hundred years. Because of that we tend to think we had something to do with that blessing, rather that it being bestowed upon us as a gift. Most other countries are smaller, with nearer proximity to each other, so other cultures, languages, etc. are encountered more often by the people in those countries. The idea that we should have to encounter, let alone know, another language or culture is something new to us so we are resistant. But to be true citizens of the world we need to be exposed more to the world. And quite frankly we as a people don't like to share nor do we like to play well with others. Our attitude is often, "I don't hafta if I don't wanna".
The U.S. is a wonderful place and I think everyone here agrees on that. We who criticize are not criticizing the country. We are criticizing the people who are not operating the country in the way many of us have preferred over the last couple of hundred years. We want to see people uplifted, fed and educated. We want them to be free, happy and peaceful. We want the world to see us as representative of what the best can be. Unfortunately, at the moment there are people in charge who are not interested in those goals.
It is about them we complain.
Never mistake our criticism for a lack of patriotism. Caring about one's country enough to worry about its direction and its leaders -- and then acting upon that worry -- is one of the most patriotic things an person can do.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. We have a lot to change in this country but thank God we have the opportunity to do it.