I've come to the same set of realizations and conclusions, but have never left the country. And I too am from Colorado. So I think it's the thought process that

I've come to the same set of realizations and conclusions, but have never left the country. And I too am from Colorado. So I think it's the thought process that counts, the education, critical thinking, absorbing lots of information, etc. Not whether you've travelled enough or lived outside the US. I do agree that many Americans live inside a kind of bubble, one built out of a mixture of propaganda and intellectual laziness, perhaps, but a perceptual bubble all the same. The Republican party, for example, I think to a large extent helps to feed it and is in turn fed from it. But we don't really live in the world portrayed in that bubble. And it's going to increasingly bite Americans in the ass unless they wake up and make changes.