I have never been much into American exceptionalism.
It seems to me that we would all be better off if our country just assumed its place in the family of nations. And that place would be like the middle-aged, middle sibling. We would recognize our responsibility to look after both older nations with their slow growth rates and aging populations and young nations with their need to develop stable governments and regulatory frameworks. Assuming that kind of burden is what mature adults do and it has a lot more honor in it than just thumping our chests and chanting, USA! USA! USA!
But Donald Trump has changed my mind about this, at least a little. The phenomenon of Trump has made me see ways in which America really is exceptional.
Our democracy has had its share of stress tests: the Civil War, obviously; World War I, when dissent was crushed; World War II, when people were imprisoned just because of their race and ethnicity; the Cold War with its witch hunts; the 1960s, when leaders of the civil rights and anti-war movements were the subject of government suppression; Richard Nixon’s attempt to subvert the Constitution.
But it might be fair to say that Trump represents the biggest test since the 1860s. We have probably never elected a national leader with less respect for our institutions, for public opinion and for the balance of power. He denigrates them when he’s not being ignorant of how they work or of their very existence.
And how’s he doing? Terrible. Big league. His repeal of Obamacare is in tatters. His budget was declared dead on arrival by his own party in Congress. He hasn’t even gotten his tax bill or his infrastructure plan (to the extent it can be called a plan) off the launch pad. Meanwhile, his approval ratings are at historic lows and his party faces obliteration at the polls in about 15 months.
Let me put in a word here for unhappy Democrats. The four House special elections they lost this spring are great news for them in two ways. The first is that they almost wiped out what had been huge Republican margins in those deeply red districts. The second encouraging thing is that rank and file Democrats are still furious that they lost. Good for them. The first step toward winning elections is being unwilling to accept defeat with too much serenity.
Our darkest hour is behind us, I think. For me that darkest hour was the moment Trump took the oath of office. I actually thought on that day that the next move would be for Russia to foment a terrorist attack somewhere so that Trump could declare some form of martial law.
That now seems paranoid and laughable. It turns out that Trump isn’t so much Joseph Stalin as he is John Blutarsky. (My apologies to the late John Belushi.)
Trump’s Muslim travel ban has been thwarted by the courts. The final Supreme Court ruling, while upholding some of his order, was also claimed as a victory by lawyers arguing against it. His disastrous health care plans have been set back due to the inability of his own party to come up with the votes in Congress. And even if they do succeed, I have every confidence that they will pay dearly for that “success” at the polls. His attacks on the press have, if anything, enlivened that profession.
We’re far from perfect, but our system of checks and balances works. The system that our own city’s namesake, James Madison, invented is standing the test of time and a would-be tyrant. So, despite the illness that Trump’s existence represents, there is still reason to celebrate the best of what America is.
Happy Independence Day.