Our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do

[Ocelot II]

2. We were bamboozled by the incessant claims of American exceptionalism.

When we older folks were kids in the '50s and '60s we were taught about Manifest Destiny, the notion that we were entitled to take the Natives' land for our own as white European settlers moved westward. We heard about the "savages" who tried to fight off the nice white settlers who just wanted the land they were entitled to. We still hear both Dem and GOP politicians constantly talk about how this is the best, strongest, most free, etc. country in the world (except for Trump, who says it's a terrible place but for all the wrong reasons). But it isn't. We are just people, not special, no better than the people of any other country - and, as it turns out, just as susceptible to the lies of a demagogue as were the citizens of Germany in the 1930s. And we conveniently forget that we became a great and prosperous nation because white Europeans stole the labor of captured and enslaved people from Africa and stole the land of the people who already lived here.

And so, believing as an article of faith that we are an exceptional nation full of good, honorable and noble people, it was a terrible shock when half of our fellow citizens were suckered into believing Trump's lies and being persuaded that he would "fix" everything for them. And by fixing he meant, among other things, getting rid of the immigrants who were stealing and raping and murdering and getting government welfare. He meant making sure women didn't have agency over their own reproductive choices. He meant keeping trans people from playing on sports teams or using the "wrong" bathroom. He identified enough groups of Untermenschen, to use the Nazis' term, to give the disgruntled and bigoted and angry folks among us plenty of other people to feel superior to.

And this election, in which about half of the voters told us that they approve of how Trump others people, shows us once and for all that we are not a special nation. We, as a nation, are no less hateful and degraded and stupid than the people of any other nation. I don't want to hear any more bullshit about American exceptionalism. I don't want to hear one more politician announce that "This is not what we are." Because it's exactly what we are.