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The Myth of American Exceptionalism
Dec 12 · 5 min read
The founding fathers were exceptional — we are not.
Can we please stop pretending Americans are better than everybody else?
Yes, the founding fathers were exceptional human beings, but the American people are not. Some are great, and some are jerks. This is true of people in every society, every religion, every country.
What made America great back in the day was a system of government that grew from the desire for religious freedom and the opportunity to raise themselves up, no matter where they came from. The concept of a ‘more perfect union’ also meant we could work toward even greater equality and freedom over time.
It was a beautiful idea.
Unfortunately, the Republican party is doing everything possible to destroy this idea. Their issue seems to be with democracy itself. They didn’t really want everybody to vote — only the people who think and look like they do. They didn’t plan on women and POC getting educated and moving up the social and political ladder. Now, they see how capable and confident we are, they are scrambling to stop us from infiltrating their ranks and replacing them.
This is their biggest fear. If they have to compete with us, they can’t guarantee their place in the hierarchy. They need to put a stop to this ‘American Experiment’ before they lose all their entitlements.
While Democrats are focused on solving problems and moving toward greater equality, the Republicans (and two Dems, namely Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema) are putting up roadblocks at every turn.
What’s more, the Republican party’s focus on maintaining their privilege at the expense of democracy is making it harder to pass any legislation that would allow us to progress toward a more democratic society and toward creating a safer and healthier place to live, for all of us.
It doesn’t help that we can cite examples of how to solve a myriad of problems by pointing to successes in other countries because Republicans refuse to believe that any country can come up with better solutions than they can. When they see evidence that contradicts their ego-based beliefs, they negate that progress by labeling it as ‘socialism’ — thus giving themselves a convenient (if disingenuous) excuse for continuing to do nothing.
The Republican base is no better. They are so uninformed and easily led that simplistic labels are all they need to go down a rabbit hole of stupidity and ignorance. Never mind that those who fear socialism often don’t even know what it is. The label works and Republicans know this. If an individual behaved this way, I would refer them to a therapist.
We are not a shining example for other nations — we are an embarrassment.
As hard as Biden and many other Democrats are working to solve problems and move our country forward, the majority of Republicans behave as if everything will be fine as long as we keep them in power — forget progress, equality, and infrastructure. Leave it all to the old white guys who’ve been running the country since its inception, and all will be well.
But it won’t.
These are the same guys who brought us Armageddon-like climate disasters, 10 and 20-year wars, institutionalized racism, and failing infrastructure. They have repeatedly failed to respect women and POC and our rights as individual human beings.
These are people who will do anything to prevent us from having power because they understand that once we do, their place in the hierarchy will no longer be guaranteed.
Their obstructionist tactics are preventing Biden and the Democrats from doing what they committed to when they ran for office. We may have a technical majority in Congress, but obstructionist tactics have given Republicans control of the legislature.
This is the tyranny of the minority.
The Republicans running our country are not exceptional people. They are money-hungry, self-serving, power-mongering liars who have sold us out to ‘dark money’ and are willing to watch their followers die of Covid while they rake in campaign donations and line the pockets of Fox TV hosts.
As for the Democrats, if one more so-called Democrat blames Biden for letting us down, I’ll lose it.
The reality is we can’t enact any legislation without the help of Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema. That’s because no Republicans in the Senate will support voting rights, women’s rights, or infrastructure (beyond the $1.5T which most say isn’t nearly enough). Without Manchin and Sinema supporting Biden’s agenda, we don’t have a majority in the Senate. What’s more, every time we bring something to the floor, Republicans filibuster it.
We need to get a larger majority in Congress so Manchin and Sinema can’t block legislation. Without that, nothing can get done because neither of them will vote to toss the filibuster.
Biden can’t do this alone. Dems need voters to vote for more Democrats in 2022. Nothing else will fix this stalemate. When people clamor about how they’ll give up on Democrats if Biden can’t pass his agenda, they are contributing to the problem by spreading bad faith.
If we want to gain a larger majority in the Senate and keep our majority in the House, we need to encourage voters to continue to support the Democratic Party, not diss the people trying to make things better for us.
We are not exceptional. But if we want to work toward that, we need to maintain a large enough majority in Congress to pass Biden’s agenda. If we can do this, we can make real change happen.
However, if people are foolish enough to keep blaming Biden for the idiocy of Manchin, Sinema, and the Republicans, there is no hope. If that continues, we will not be able to gain enough seats in Congress to do what’s necessary to save our planet or our democracy
If that happens, we will not only fail to achieve that lofty goal of a ‘more perfect union,’ we will not have a union at all.