Are the New Conservatives right, the US can't do big things?

I saw that we shut down the Tevatron at Fermi Labs this week. We have been leapfrogged in particle physics by Europe with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

And the Chinese are leading the entire world in investment in renewable energy ike solar, wind, tides, and geothermal. They intend to own the world market for green energy. South Korea leads the world in green energy adoption, followed by China and Germany with the US in a distant 6th place. South Korea is moving ahead in green energy 8 times as rapidly as the USA is.

Should we be thankful to our right wing for showing us that American Exceptionalism means NOT doing big things, particularly if it’s government trying to do them? Is American Exceptionalism instead taking exception to doing anything that wasn’t already being done in the 18th century, or anything that isn’t done at a profit by a corporation?

Weren’t we fools when we did stuff like building the Transcontinental Railroad, the Panama Canal, Grand Coulee Dam, The Interstate Highway System, and the Apollo Moon Landing missions? Didn’t we know government can’t do anything? Didn’t we know those people who worked on those projects had no jobs, since government can NEVER produce any jobs?

What Corporate Exceptionalism should we look forward to now that we know that government can’t do anything, and only private, for-profit corporations can build things that really work and last? When can we get around to laying off the 40 million Americans who just think they have a job, but actuality work for local, state or federal governments? Maybe then the economy will really take off.