Not exactly
Russia threat should unite us, not divide us: “It’s not about Republicans or Democrats. They’re coming after America, which I hope we all love equally… And they will be back, because we remain…that shining city on the hill, and they don’t like it. “ Me (Senate Intel 6/8/17)
— James Comey (@Comey) January 25, 2018
Comey:
Russia threat should unite us, not divide us: “It’s not about Republicans or Democrats. They’re coming after America, which I hope we all love equally… And they will be back, because we remain…that shining city on the hill, and they don’t like it.” Me (Senate Intel 6/8/17)
Well, we don’t, really. One, we never were, because slavery and genocide just for a start, and two, we’ve gotten worse in some ways instead of better. Russia is much worse still, yes, but that’s not much of a standard.
One huge flashing-sign reason we are not any kind of shining city on a hill is the disgusting fact that we have a larger proportion of our people locked up than any other country on earth. Our nearest rival is Russia.
There’s also the gulf between rich and poor which has grown in recent decades as opposed to shrinking – that’s not my idea of a shining city on a hill. There’s the shambolic health care non-system; there’s rising homelessness; there’s high infant and maternal mortality; there’s an inadequate social safety net; there’s entrenched poverty and neglect; there’s racism and police violence; there are far too many guns and too many outbursts of violence; money is allowed to decide elections.
All that doesn’t add up to a shining city on a hill, I’m sorry. Putin stinks, the Russian oligarchy stinks, but that doesn’t make us a shining city.
I always ask myself: Is there any way we can atone for our original sins, slavery and the genocide of the native peoples? The whole nation was built on bones, and I don’t know how we can make it okay.
Can we start over?
Can we start with Cascadia?
Ben – Find a few people of color who are poor (it won’t be hard) and pay reparations to them. Every single month. A small thing. But it is a way to atone, sort of.
The ideals count for something… Those People masquerading as “Real Americans” certainly don’t believe in our ideals.
Maybe if you compare the United States to other great powers that actually exist or have existed, rather than ones that don’t and never have, it might not seem so uniquely awful.
Excuse me?
I didn’t say it was uniquely awful. I said it’s not uniquely good, and I cited reasons. Many of my reasons are in fact comparative; it’s not self-evident that we have to have a huge percentage of the population in prison because we’re a “great power” (i.e. we have a massive military).
I’m not saying it’s uniquely awful. I’d much rather live here than for instance in any majority-Muslim country…but then I have a number of kinds of privilege here, so I’m immune from some of the faults that make the US less than a shining city on a hill. It’s easy for me to prefer to live here; it’s not so easy for everyone.
Well, that ‘shining city’ line is a deliberate evocation of Reagan. And so much of our current dumpster fire can be traced straight back to him, and his cabal.
Ophelia, all the problems you mention are real, and should be addressed. One day they might be, and perhaps even be ameliorated to some extent or other.
But in the meantime, the rule of law in the United States may very well come crashing down within the next three years. If that happens, some other great power will be more than happy to proclaim itself the example for the world to follow. The city on the hill. And the world will follow. And I can guarantee you that power won’t be Sweden or Canada.
And Reagan was invoking John Winthorp, who also meant it in a religio-political theocratic way.
Jib
Do you seriously think I need to be told that? Do you seriously think I’m not already aware of it? When I post about it multiple times every day? When I find what Trump is doing to this country so horrifying that I can barely pay attention to anything else? Do you really honestly think I needed to have that explained to me?
Poke all the holes you want in the myth of American exceptionalism. But it’s a myth the world cannot do without.
Ooh, where did the goal posts go? You moved them so far I can’t find them.
I didn’t say anything about exceptionalism. I know the US is exceptional in some ways. Not all of them are good ways, but some are. But it has terrible, needless, damaging flaws that other comparable countries do not have, faults of a kind that make it absurd to call us a city on a hill. The huge prison population rules that right out, all by itself.
Now, if you actually have something substantive to say, then say it, but don’t just snipe. It’s rude.
Good grief, Jib – quite apart from your breathtakingly rude condescension towards Ophelia, do you really have no idea how… lowly your country’s reputation is viewed by those of us fortunate to live elsewhere?
That myth was sold to the inhabitants of the USA as a means to stop them uprising against the myriad injustices perpetrated on them; if you are indoctrinated from an early age to believe that you live in the best of all possible states and that all other countries are much, much worse, you are far less likely to think of moving, let alone rebelling. The fact is that most other people are astonished that USAians can put up with such a horrible system and still consider themselves superior. Nearly everyone else laughs at the ridiculousness of the myth when the USA isn’t paying attention. The USA is just like the heavily-armed sociopath in the family; it isn’t safe to laugh in his face.
Fear isn’t respect.
A country wwithout universal health insurance and with epidemic gun violence and a prison on every corner – how is that a shining city on a hill??