Wake Up America – You Are Becoming An Unexceptional Nation in Exceptional Times
The party is over. American exceptionalism is dead. To believe in 2021 that America is in any way superior to other nations is patently false. Its life expectancy is decreasing. Its wealth gap is expanding. Its political institutions are in disarray and unravelling in real time. Its moral high-ground is long gone and the light has gone out from any beacons on any hills….
On its present course it is outrageous to foster the belief that the American nation still has a ‘one-of-a-kind’ mission to transform the world. The US did indeed hold this position of global influence at least since the end of WW2. However in the last 20 years and especially over the most recent presidential term, the US has abrogated any leadership role it may have previously established. Worse, it has lost the faith of millions of people from many nations across the globe. The Trump administration has made it abundantly clear that even long-standing allies of the US the world over are seen as foes. Even my home country of Canada has been deemed a threat to US national security due to its pricing of aluminium. Canada… a threat to US National Security??? Really?
For 70 years America has created real greatness of thought and action, shared globally by a small group of well educated, American intelligencia and business people. Perhaps, 6-7% of Americans formulated pan-global ideas that created and shaped the world from WW2 to 2000. The protocols they implemented led to a highly integrated, largely peaceful planet, with growing prosperity and increased lifespans through the sharing of technologies and spreading open trade agreements. Life was great.
Then along came a thirst for change at any cost, and it now appears, the change delivered comes at great cost – to Americas global stature, to its place as a hub of innovation and ideas, and as a defender of democracy. Whatever happened to the American quest for excellence? Whatever happened to the once immortal words of Emma Lazarus who wrote on the dedication stone of the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? Whatever happened to the US voice of human rights that was a cornerstone of emerging democracies entrance into polite political acceptance?
President elect Biden has a giant effort ahead of him and his team. Not only must he overcome the health and economic impacts of the global Covid19 epidemic, he must place America back onto a righteous path that demonstrates goodness of purpose bound together with unified hearts, fairly constructed laws and shared values. This task, complicated by a growing wealth gap, a stock market that each day becomes more like a casino and with a social media cosmos that encourages and rewards the outrageous to garner ‘likes & followers’, makes the task ahead almost herculean.
The global world order has been set off kilter. Perhaps in some ways a change was due and certainly all things need to adapt to the ebb and flows not only of time but alongside the seawash of new ideas, technologies and moral rectitude hopefully found within society. However, the Trump administration has given the mantle of global leadership away and it is to be seen what new order will emerge. The times are ripe for discord but also for strong leadership. The democratic world feels cut adrift from America. We can go it alone and will form new alliances to defend our open democratic ways of life. America can be a welcome force for good if it chooses to re-engage the world. We can still see the beacons on the hill… but will it ever relight? Our collective gaze will soon be forced to look to other lights as we each build new paths ahead.
The coming months will tell if the newly emerging democratic order has America within its ranks. For the sake of a continued, healthy western styled democracy we can all hope so. Otherwise American exceptionalism not only in phrase but in all practical purpose may very well be dead forever.
