Quoted:
Americans are locked in what I've termed a "cold civil war," an all-consuming internal struggle playing out through its political institutions that is not in any way exceptional.
It’s the sort of political warfare you see in severely polarized, failing democracies like Chile in the early 1970s (under Pinochet) or contemporary Poland.
— Coronavirus, Trump, and the death of American exceptionalism (Vox)
While the rest of the world pulls together in a crisis; Americans are increasingly divided. By politics; the very worst reason I can think of. Members of the same nation blaming each other for their problems instead of acting together to find solutions to those problems.
The rest of the world is watching the self-destruction of the USA with horror and disbelief.
There's a major irony in what's happening in the United States of America. The United States of America truly began as a "united" confederation of independent states.
Not just independent populations; they were diverse populations.
They spoke English, German, Dutch, French ... and other languages.
Yet, from that diversity, Americans formed a nation.
That's the strength of America: "nation building."
And therein lies the irony: the major weakness of Americans today is that they cannot accomplish what their forefathers did (and, in historical terms, not very long ago, a scant 250 years).
Americans cannot rise above their differences, and unite around a shared set of values.
They betrayed their foundational principles and the legacy of their founders.
They betrayed themselves.
No people who are guilty of self-betrayal deserve our full respect.
And Americans are no longer one nation, united.
___
No comments:
Post a Comment