Very Exceptional

Republicans love to tout "American Exceptionalism."  And that the rest of the world looks to the U.S. as that "shining city on the hill."  And how America Leads the Way for the rest of the world.  And that Statue of Liberty is a beacon to welcome the world.

American Exceptionalism!

After the Supreme Court ruling ending the 50-year right to abortion, and the High Court’s ruling that expanded the right to carry firearms outside the home, Republicans now must rethink that concept.  If they truly believe the world admires any of this, including efforts to take away the right of same-sex marriages – and maybe even mixed race marriages – as well as the right to contraceptives, that's pure delusional.  As delusional as thinking, as well, that the rest of the world wasn’t watching in horror at the Jan. 6 Insurrection to overthrow democracy, and seeing the Republican Party foundationally now insisting in races across the country that elections can’t be trusted, as well as noting Red states passing laws to suppress voting and banning books and not allowing history to be taught.  And while rethinking the concept of the world admiring America, they only have themselves to blame. 

And for those Republicans on the radical right who don’t care what the rest of the world thinks and, in fact, are happy that all immigrants stay away, including those who have the legal right, then “American Exceptionalism” was never a concept for them anyway, nor was the idea of the rest of the world looking to America to lead the way.  And the welcoming Statue of Liberty is no representation for them to admire.  Because for them, democracy is not what they want, but rather the tyranny of despots and fascism.

We see that clearly when the Republican-led CPAC invited Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban to speak – only weeks after his own longtime advisor quite for a speech she said could have been given by Hitler.  Indeed, we see it even more clearly not just with the growth of neo-Nazi groups and white supremacy organizations, but with the refusal of Republican officials to denounce such anti-democratic groups. 

This isn’t to say that there aren’t still reasons for people wanting to come to the United States.  Of course, there are.  In fact, it’s one of the reasons Republicans cry out so loudly against immigration.  (No, no, they insist, we’re only against illegal immigration.  Expect their actions show that that’s not even remotely the case.  The whole Texas-Florida debacle shipping around immigrants who were actively protected in their efforts to become citizens gives one more lie to it all.)

But the issue isn’t “Does America have a great deal to offer the world?”  It’s that whole “American Exceptionalism” rubric that once defined a growing country but is now used by conservatives to go backwards and give a blind cover to all the transgressions of today’s Republican Party.

No matter how much it is what the extreme far-right dreams of – using Medieval edicts to justify ending abortion, allowing even more use of guns, not trusting elections results, blocking people from voting, embracing dictators, promoting white supremacists, passing laws to ban books and to forbid the teaching of history, wanting to stop same-sex marriage and prohibit contraceptives, and blindly following the lead of a literally anonymous voice without question to pursue insane conspiracies, like that a dead president’s son will come back to life (and not just come back to life, but run for office with a man who is utterly opposed to everything that person stood for in his life) is not what the rest of the world looks for what is great in America -- unless your vision of the world is comprised only of Russia, China, North Korea, fascist dictatorships and America’s enemies.  It is not why the rest of looks to America to lead.  And it is most certainly not why the rest of the world thinks that the United States of America is “exceptional.”

No, what they are – is exceptions.

Exceptions to the foundation of what America has been for 250 years, to itself and to the world.  Exceptions to embracing the ideas and tyranny that the country has gone to war and fought against since it began, the very reason it was founded.

American exceptions.  Every single one of them.  Exceptions to what the world has seen when looking for America at its best.  Exceptions to the the foundations it has stood on those times it has wanted to lead.  Exceptions to what America is supposed to be.