Americans like to view our nation as special. For much of our history, we have been. We put the first men on the Moon, we won the World Wars, we defeated the British and enshrined the most progressive founding documents the world had seen to that point, we built the interstate highway system, American innovators have consistently created technological breakthroughs, and we rose again after 9/11 to fight al-Qaeda- to name a few things we’ve done that were great. America has a record of being great, being exceptional as we like to tell it. In each and every one of those instances, and others, it took people actually taking action and being great. We weren’t just great because we were born in sovereign American lands.
The thing is, we like to leave out the low-lights of our history, of which there are plenty. We had our long history of slavery, followed of course by Jim Crow. Women couldn’t vote for the first 150 or so years of our existence. There was the “Trail of Tears,” and our general treatment of native peoples here. In none of those cases did we behave exceptionally. In none of those cases were we a “great” nation. We were not great when we banned immigration for most people in 1924. We were not great when we interned the Japanese during World War II. There have been many cases in which we did not live up to our greatest values. Now, 240 years after the birth of our nation, we are dealing with another low-light episode in our history, starring Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Donald Trump. Whether it’s denying climate change and shutting down our scientists, banning Muslims from nations that don’t do business with Donald Trump, or attacking and lying to the media, this is not going to be a high point in our history.
Once again, America will not be great just because we woke up in the United States in the morning. If America is to be great, it will be because the people who live here live up to our highest ideals. Make no mistake, it’s not going to be a pretty or fun four years- as we have seen in the cabinet approvals form Donald Trump’s team, patriotic Americans will have to deal with losing almost all of the battles that lie ahead. Congressional elections in 2018, particularly in the U.S. Senate, are almost certainly not going to yield a Democratic Congress to stop him. Trump is most likely going to serve at least a four year term, and do a lot of damage along the way. He’s going to trample on the ideals of a multi-cultural nation, he’s going to empower white nationalists and other bigots, and he’s going to tilt our economy towards billionaires like him- and we’re going to have to bare it. Just being American will not be what makes us great, as we saw during the election. How we respond to terrible negative event after terrible negative event will likely define us. Donald Trump will choke off immigration, start trade wars, take health care from millions, and do untold other horrible things. We will have minimum opportunity to stop him.
Eventually though, we will rid ourselves of Trump. We can hope that is on January 20th, 2021, but it might not be. If you want America to be an exceptional nation again, if you want us to be the nation of the Statue of Liberty, and not of a big, ugly, useless wall on our southern border, then what happens after will matter. Resist now, march, protest, and make your voice heard against this occupying regime that was selected by the system and not the majority of American voters. Fight as hard as you can. Most of all though, remember that we must convince our neighbors, our families, and our friends to come along, and make America truly great again, when we get past this dark chapter in our history. That is what exceptional nations do. That is what we must do.
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