As Americans, we’ve heard the claim over and over again: America is the greatest nation in the history of the world. The question has rhetorically been asked: What would the world be like without America? We brag about America ingenuity. And we call America the leader of the Free World. The last claim is a curious one since why would a free world need a leader and could a world with a leader be really free?
Or let’s compare the branding of products by both parties. ‘Made In America’ is proudly/pretentiously displayed on products made in this country with the implication that those products are superior to similar or the same products made elsewhere. Have we ever seen the TRUMP label proudly displayed not just on products that his businesses have produced, but on other products too?
Now we have a Presidential candidate who has claimed, in previous campaigns and during his Presidency, that he knows more about ______ than anyone else in the world. He has campaigned on the claim that only he can fix it—whatever it is. And he claims that Russia would have never invaded Ukraine under his watch.
In the past, America has acted unilaterally against those it sees as a threat and those that America claims have violated International Law. We should note that almost every single time, America doesn’t have to prove its accusations in any kind of objective, international setting. That is what is almost always meant by American Exceptionalism. That America is the judge of the world.
This America Exceptionalism assumes that America is not subject to International Law like the rest of the world is. And America will extend its self-proclaimed international immunity to its allies, especially Israel, because it can. In fact, America is now threatening to sanction the International Criminal Court because the Court seeks to put Israeli officials on trial for crimes against humanity over its actions in Gaza. Why can America do that? Because it says so. America can do whatever it wants because it assumes that it alone has the right, actually privilege, to operate by the Rule of Force, though American leaders rarely if even call it that. And it can do so, rather than depend on the Rule of Law, because of its superiority to all other nations.
And when faced with a possible trial over the January 6 Insurrection of 2021, Trump and his lawyers claim that he should be immune to any criminal charges for any laws because he was President at the time. That the President should not be bound to our nation’s laws regardless of what he does as long as what he does is part of an official act.
So do we see any similarities yet? If there are enough similarities between the two parties here, does the narcissism in one party mean that there is narcissism in the other? Does the belligerence in one party imply belligerence in the other? Does it follow that if there is arrogance in one party, then the other party is arrogant too? And if one party acts as an authoritarian ruler, is the other party far behind? Are the similarities between the two parties a coincidence or a cause and effect? Do we understand why Trump appeals to his MAGA followers?
If you are annoyed by Donald Trump or even feel threatened by the possibility of his reelection, can you understand why many parts of the world feel the same way about America? Certainly our allies don’t necessarily feel the same about America as many Americans feel about Donald Trump. At least their leaders do not express that kind of irritation. Some, if not many, of the citizens under those leaders may feel that way, but their leaders are silent. Their silence should remind us of what Martin Luther King Jr. told us in his speech against the Vietnam War when he told us that sometimes, silence is betrayal.
Is what America is to the world what Trump is to America? MAGA followers would celebrate such a comparison. For many of the rest of us, even considering the comparison would be a heart attack to our corporate self image. Of course, the first step in recovering from a problem is to admit one has a problem.
So we should note that during Trump’s Presidency and if he is elected again, karma can be a bitch. ‘That what goes around, comes around.’ That those who believe in American hegemony and exceptionalism have no one to blame but themselves should Trump wins the 2024 Presidential election and rule America the way he wants to. And if Trump escapes criminal sanctions for the crimes he has committed, karma can be a bitch. After all, when has America ever allowed itself to be accountable to the world for its actions? For it seems that Trump is 100% made in America. And so, just perhaps, for some Americans, the realization of what America has been and still is to the world will never be adequately realized until we suffer through an authoritarian Trump government when the gains made in equality for certain groups are thrown away into the ash heap of American history.
Karma can be a bitch, but it doesn’t have to be.
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