Wednesday 28 June 2017

Trump is the end of US "exceptionalism"


I've always been highly insulted by the whole idea of "American exceptionalism". The idea that simply because of a chance of birth that you're better than anyone else on the planet, just because you were born in the US. Apart from being entirely absurd, it gave Americans the notion that it was actually true.

It has lead to extreme arrogance on their part to the rest of the world, including Australia and New Zealand. Even though we've fought along side them in wars, particularly Australia, Americans still arrogantly think they're better than us just because they're Americans. 

Am I wrong? I'd like to think that by foreign people now engaging with US citizens on the internet that this attitude of theirs is changing. Who knows?

It was never true, and never should have been. The US borrowed many ideas from European history, including the Enlightenment and the Magna Carta from France which became the basis of independence. Hence the statue of liberty gifted from France. The US wouldn't have had independence if not for France.


Anyway Trump has pretty much ended the idea, outside of the US at least, that America is "exceptional".

At times President Trump has shown his ability to merit the mantle of the American presidency: his plans for mending our infrastructure, his concern for those thrown into unemployment by the faceless forces of globalization, his nudging of allies to carry their fair share of the burden. However, by his proposed ban of Muslim immigrants from selected countries, he has erased the words of Emma Lazarus from the Statute of Liberty. With his erratic tweeting, he has shown disregard for the necessary machinery of democracy and has promoted a democracy of chaos and distraction. By slashing the budget of the Department of State and increasing that of the Department of Defense, and by his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson—in a public speech—placing interests over universal rights, Trump has magnified the idea of might makes right at the expense of the idea of might for right. By his labeling of the media as the “enemy of the people,” he has taken a page—however unwittingly—out of the totalitarian handbook of the 20th century. By not revealing his income tax returns, he has shown contempt for a vigilant, free-thinking citizenry. And by his coarse words and actions, he has promoted the vulgarization of American society. Raw Story

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