Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal.

This year on July 4th will be the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States,

as exemplified in the ratification, signing of the

Declaration of Independence. A lot of people ask ourselves, why are we so exceptional? Are we

exceptional? Or is this just American braggadaccio? Well, if you look at some major indicators,

it's pretty clear that America stands like a colossus over the world today. Look at the economy.

The U.S. economy is roughly $30 trillion nominal economy in goods and services. It's one-third

larger than the Chinese economy. We hear a lot about ascend to China, but it essentially means that one American is producing as many goods and services as four Chinese counterparts.

It's a third bigger than the EU, which has about 70 million more people than the United States. If you look at its culture, if you look at

Netflix, streaming, entertainment, Hollywood, even in its decline, popular music, it accounts for

about 75% of international box office receipts of all sorts.

Educationally, there's a lot of global indices,

and they usually have the United States with eight to nine out of the top ten universities.

That kind of mimics the same economic standards that show that at the top 10 companies in terms of international market capitalization, I think eight of them now are American. In the case of the

educational surveys, it's usually Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, et cetera, in the top 10.

But at the top 50, 40 of them are American.

If you look at politics, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest surviving blueprint for a democracy, a democracy dash republic.

All the others have either faded or they come in and out of existence.

But ours is that continuity of one particular

consensual government and its foundational document is unprecedented.

Finally, militarily, we have about 13,000 combat aircraft and their logistical support craft.

That's larger than China, the EU, and India put together.

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