Perhaps it is because I am old, or perhaps it is because most of my teachers were from the Greatest Generation, or perhaps, it was because my parents grew up during the Great Depression, but being American used to come with a set of values. Don’t get me wrong, that isn’t a judgment call, some of those values felt a little weird, but they were pretty concrete and I got them from every adult I met as I was growing up.
American Exceptionalism was the footstone of those values, and because Americans were exceptional, there were things we did and didn’t do. The first thing we didn’t do was trust or allow other countries to judge or rule on our behavior. If we felt an American did something wrong, then it was Americans who would hold that person accountable. It didn’t matter who the American was, communist, capitalist, hippy, redneck, if you were an American, Americans were going to hold you accountable.
The notion that any American would go to a foreign power to ask for help in investigating the malfeasance of another American would have met with derision and scorn. Oh yes, if another country had information to share, we’d look at it, but what mattered was what we found out. Furthermore, the idea that you wouldn’t trust an American institution, run by Americans, to investigate, would have gotten you labeled as very unAmerican.
What Donald Trump, and his cohort, are saying, is that we don’t trust America and we don’t trust Americans to carry out an investigation. Now, we all know what they are really saying is that we know that the Americans in the FBI and the CIA, while they have problems, won’t out and out lie for us. But I don’t care about the motivation here, the notion that I’d go to three of the most corrupt pseudo democracies, or to any other country in the world to get answers about a fellow American, even if it were Donald Trump, goes against everything it means to be American.
The second thing that Americans didn’t do was place any human being above the law. Yep, from day one, those with power and money have managed, sporadically, to put themselves above the law. But the notion that everyone is corrupt and therefore you should forgive “our” corruptness, would have been met with scorn by my teachers and parents. They knew that some folks got away with things, but they were less concerned with what those people did than with their own morality and values, and you can bet that they would have felt holding those who escaped justice accountable, no matter who’s side they were on.
Currently, Trump’s Administration and his lawyers are literally arguing that he is, and should be, above the law. Beyond the intent of the founding fathers, the American bread and butter of my youth was that we are all equal, that we should all be accountable, and that no one was above the law. Kings were above the law, not Americans.
The third thing that Americans believed in was equity. There was a recognition that in Europe, some folks had been above the law, and that others were onerously punished under the law. In America, it was important to make the “punishment fit the crime.” I recognize that Hunter Biden took advantage, he did, and I recognize that Trump’s children have too. The people I grew up with would have called a pox on both their houses, but they also would have understood degree and context.
There is a current story on DK, about a young African American who missed his jury duty being thrown in jail. The judge gave him an onerous sentence, out of proportion to his crime, and in comparison to sentences given to white offenders. My teachers would have laughed at the notion that someone would have purposefully had different rules for one group vs another. And yes, that did happen back then, but it was beneath the radar. When the Americans I grew up with found out about such things, they demanded redress. They didn’t curse the other side and say, “Yeah, but you did;” they wanted it fixed. Those Americans would not have thought the internet would serve as a place to protect those whom we preferred, but rather, as a place to hold everyone equal and accountable.
I liked the vision of Americans I grew up with. Yep, there was a lot hidden, but the attittude wasn’t the ends justify the means, or if my side does it, it’s okay because your side did it too (true or not). The attitude was if you got caught, you needed to pay the price. That we needed to be honest about the truth and stick to it, even when it hurt. That you needed to accept punishment if you broke the rules and be humble and ask forgiveness. Today, we revel in the notion of, “they did it so it’s okay if I do it.” I long for a return to the notion that folks held themselves morally responsible and where we viewed those who didn’t as being flawwed. Where we believed that what our neigbors did was none of our business and where we kept our religion to ourselves. Where if you lived within the rules of the country, I didn’t get to judge you or try to force you to take on my morals and positions. I long for a day when every American will look at a person like Trump and speak up against his behaviors. I long for a day when saying, “I’m an American,” means something valuable and hasn’t been tarnished in the name of power and greed.