Donald Trump debases what it means to be an American

I’m guessing it was hard, or beyond that, for most Americans to watch or read of the deliberations in Davos, Switzerland. Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, reminded the world that leaders can be thoughtful, articulate, intelligent, honest, democratic and humane. The Davos assemblage, in response, broke into an unaccustomed standing ovation. Donald Trump stayed true to character. He told Carney, “Canada lives because of the United States; remember that Mark the next time you make your statements”. The Pulitzer Prize winning conservative historian, Anne Applebaum, noted that “it’s not only that (Trump) is not acting like a president, he is not acting like an adult”. Before the entire globe, the notion of American exceptionalism received an irrefutable interment.

Carney explained that “every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” Faced with this logic, he added, “there is a tendency for countries to go along, to hope that compliance will buy safety. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating.” This “is not sovereignty; it is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination” Canada, he announced, was signing off – “taking the sign out of the window”.

Trump’s remarks, and his behavior, remind that we are a different country. At least for now. For some two and a half centuries, we have announced ourselves as – and often striven to be – a beacon of democracy. Maybe even the beacon of democracy. We have, assuredly, stumbled. Our path forward has been slow, and bloody, and riven by hypocrisy. But, as Lincoln put it, egalitarian democracy is “the standard maxim for a free society, familiar to all, constantly looked to, labored for.” It has driven our politics, nationally and internationally.

Now that’s not so. Not under Trump. Not under North Carolina Republicans who aid his efforts, while mastering their own war against democracy here at home. So if we aren’t that, if America is no longer defined by democracy, by striving to meet the bold promises of the Declaration of Independence, what are we as a people? The question pushes its way to the surface. What are we now to be?

Trump and his minions have explained that, internationally, we are a predatory behemoth. As Stephen Miller puts it, “the real world is governed by strength, by force, by power.” Who is going to stop us? Other nations should understand they exist at our sufferance. As Trump puts it, “we can do it the easy way or the hard way.” Democracy and the rule of law are naïve, old school.

And what about domestically? What does it mean to be an American at home? If our defining marker is no longer ‘liberty to all’, as Lincoln would put it, what is it to become? Is it liberty, full membership, first class citizenship, only for those who are White and of European ancestry? Is it only White Christian nationalists that we’re after? If we are ditching the American promise, what is the new end game? Shouldn’t we know? Can’t it be announced? Can’t our Republican leaders, here and in Washington, publish the plan? Or is it necessary only to reveal it later, when it has come to pass? If it is so marvelous, why not tell us now? 

Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.