Facing Stark Reality with a Cold, Sharp Eye

American Exceptionalism is Dead

The day after the election was a day of mourning for me and so many. I wanted to curl up in a hole and retreat from the world. But not today. Stark reality is upon us and a cold, sharp eye is needed.

What I mourned most yesterday was the belief that America, all we stand for—this city upon a hill, this beacon of light around the world, this haven for the oppressed, this dream of freedom and democracy, our idealism and optimism—was no more.

America was always a beacon of hope to beleaguered people around the world and a model for nations everywhere. If we are no longer that beacon of hope, then what hope is there?

American exceptionalism is dead. We are like everyone else, and always were:

We are the Germans who voted Hitler into power.

The Russians who praise or tolerate Putin.

The North Koreans who worship their Dear Leader.

The Hungarians who allowed Orbán to dismantle their democracy.

We are the Palestinians who allowed Hamas to terrorize Israel.

The Israelis who watched Netanyahu create a Holocaust in Gaza.

We are the Iranians, the Syrians, the Saudis, the Afghans . . . .

We are the people who put our trust in a tyrant, knowing he’s a tyrant, out of fear or favor, or because we believed he would serve our own personal needs—regardless of the common good.

Yes, American exceptionalism is dead. But exceptionalism is not.

And by that I mean, all “except us”—those who resisted Trump’s dark vision before the election and those who will continue to resist.

Exceptionalism lives on the the hearts and minds of those who still champion democracy, freedom, and the common good wherever they live.

Like Navalny in a Russian prison, like his wife in exile, like Zelenskiy in Ukraine, and Martin Luther King before them, and Ghandi, and Mandela, the fight continues wherever tyranny and injustice resides.

Perhaps I speak too soon. Perhaps things are not as dire as I paint them.

Perhaps in two years people of integrity will win back the Senate and House. Perhaps in four years a new leader championing democracy and the Rule of Law will be elected.

Perhaps. Although I’m not hopeful we will succeed in overthrowing Trump’s New World Order that soon. Not with all its power to corrupt and its billionaires behind it.

Yet we who resisted Trumpism before the election will fight on after, regardless, in whatever way we can—through our writing, our art, our songs, our activism, our coalition-building, our newsletters.

I don’t know what the future holds for the exceptional few who hold out against the hate and lies in whatever country we reside. But don’t count us out.

We may not be able to topple the tyrant, but we will be the annoying gnat in his ear, the thorn in his side, the roar of freedom that shakes the ground he stands on, the pride of lions waiting patiently in the shadows . . .

I am heartened by knowing this, and hope you are too.

Truth and Love may not have prevailed in this last election, but they are still the lights in the darkness that lead the way out.