As a Brit, I shall refrain commenting on American dreams and nightmares, leaving that to those such as yourself who are better placed to administer tough love from a place of having America's interests at heart.

What I will say is that I've never cared for Independence Day. It has a great War of the Worlds-remix premise it then utterly squanders, degenerating into the usual militaristic nonsense. When I first saw it at the cinema in the summer of 1996, I was excited as the trailers had been so good. Then the trailer for the soon-to-be-rereleased Star Wars trilogy played, prompting a deep sense of anticlimax for the film I'd actually come to see. George Lucas managed to upstage Independence Day with a mere trailer for films that were already about twenty years old.

I much preferred Mars Attacks! to Independence Day. Much more subversive and fun, with Tim Burton pointedly making heroes out of misfits and the marginalised (nerdy kids, old people, etc) rather than politicians or the military. Great stuff. :)