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By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Is this what American exceptionalism looks like?

May 29, 2020 | 10:49 AM

YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD OF THE TERM ‘American exceptionalism’, but there’s no doubt you’ve experienced the concept before.

It’s the idea that the United States, due to its unique origin story and the set of ideals on which it is founded, is somehow in a pre-ordained position to be the world’s lone superpower.

American exceptionalism imbues the U.S. with moral authority to spread its own brand of capitalism and fetishized freedom to the rest of the world.

That moral authority, such as it ever was, has been eroded in recent years.

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The United States has been completely ineffectual in its response to a rash of mass shootings, including in churches and schools.

It has botched its response to COVID-19, prioritizing a day at the beach over the health and life of its most vulnerable citizens. More than 100,000 Americans have died of the virus, representing nearly one-third of the total global death toll.

And the U.S. has clearly failed to deal with its historical racism.

The latest egregious incident involved the killing of an unarmed black man suspected of passing counterfeit currency in Minneapolis.

As George Floyd cried out for his mother, for his children, for his life, an officer kept his knee pressed on Lloyd’s neck until Floyd was dead.

And then the riots and looting, bred out of anger and frustration that, despite the nation’s high ideals, nothing has changed. Black people are still dying for being black.

Lawmakers may have made efforts to eradicate racism from the nation’s laws, but when those enforcing the laws ignore those efforts, they’re meaningless.

If the point wasn’t adequately made after George Floyd’s death, the chaser was the arrest of CNN’s Omar Jimenez as he reported on the protests. A white reporter at the scene was not arrested.

Leadership in the face of this crisis? The President of the United States says when the looting starts, the shooting starts — and is clearly more upset that Twitter is fact-checking him than he is at the signs the nation he leads is falling apart.

As much as the so-called leader of the free world is not helping matters, his nation may have been on the verge of being torn apart even before his arrival.

Here in Canada, we certainly have our own deep-seeded racial and regional tensions that we shouldn’t gloss over.

But a nation that so cavalierly disregards the lives of its own citizens no longer has the moral authority to call itself exceptional on the world stage.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.