The past days have been days of chaos and insanity. And yet somehow, I am happy.
I am happy because the chain of events begun the past year that culminated in this most recent political outrage has dealt a seemingly decisive blow to the facade of American exceptionalism.
For too long this country has fancied itself the white knight of international politics, interfering in the affairs of other nations without pause in the name of the protection of democracy. The Capitol Hill riots have finally broken this veneer. The fact stands that were this any other country, American “peacekeepers” would have rushed into action to facilitate the smooth transition of power and maintain the integrity of the democratic process. And now here we are, proving to the world that we are by no means the angels of democracy that we claimed to be, proving that we, in all our arrogance, are not above the abuses we rush to correct, the abuses for which we condemn others.
The American image is now gone. This is not a land of Edenic democracy. This is a land of fear, of walking the line between toxic political correctness and equally toxic political expression. And for this country to take it upon itself to impose this paradigm upon those looking for freedom, be it in Venezuela, Ukraine, or any number of other countries throughout the past decade alone is a naive overestimation of our own greatness. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Elise E. Schlecht, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA
