It seems to me that history will judge America as a necessary
ingredient in the political and social transformation of the
latter part of the 2nd millenium AD.

Certainly the idea of 'government by the consent of the governed'
wasn't invented over here. Equally certainly, it gained traction
here at a rate and in a way which might have been impossible or
at least very difficult in Europe due things like per-capita
resources and space, geography, and a few dozen other factors
that mitigated against the success of something like the American
Revolution. Recall that even the French Revolution faltered
significantly, and gave the world Bonaparte...

I certainly don't think that it says anything about the relative
qualities of the population of the New World vs. the Old World. It
does say a great deal about the differences in the circumstances
of those two populatons. Even after the better part of a couple
of centuries of Europeans having a toe-hold, this was very much
a 'resource rich' and 'opportunity rich' environment.

To put it another way, America has been a 'proving ground' for all
sorts of 'nutty ideas,' some of which have worked out quite well for
the world as a whole. I much prefer that way of looking at it to
some lofty idea of this being the annointed place, the home of
the brave, the patriotic, virtuous, etc.

It's a place of extremes--- witness how polarized our politics are.

A place of absolutes 'either you're with us or against us' views.

Sometimes that works favorably--- for example, Americans tend to
be quite absolutist about civil rights. Our mind-set is that 'free
speech' actually extends well past what's actually in the First
Amendment to the Bill of Rights. But especially in terms of what's
really there, it's very absolute. It's really hard to make a case
to compromise it here--- even if it's offensive speech. By the same
token, to most American minds the idea that women or girls might
not be able to wear head-scarves at work or school or in public
is just not even worthy of consideration.

Then again, many Americans also think that the Bill of Rights gives us the right (or even a duty) to own a machine gun :-)

America really is the crucible of Christian fundamentalism. They
came over here from Europe in the 15th-19th centuries and haven't
slowed down since.

It's a land of contradictions, then--- the same people who are rabid
about their constitutional freedom to practice their own religion
are equally rabid about it being okay to impose their views on what
women should do with their own wombs or to pray in schools or to
teach 'intelligent design' as an alternative to Darwin in same.

If the World didn't have an America--- they'd have to invent one.