President Obama has been having a very rough go of it lately.
He has been having problems with Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, for some time now. Of course, tensions always existed between the two. Obama, among others, had long criticized Putin and Russia for a paltry human rights record, with some justification. But Putin then reversed this and put the United States on the spot when the opportunity presented itself, as it did with Edward Snowden. Suddenly, the emphasis was on American secret intelligence, as well as the American spying controversy. This was compounded even further when some European nations, later in the summer, began to criticize the US for spying on them, as well. And, of course, the most recent controversy involving Obama and Putin, with the Syrian chemical weapons. Putin rather upstaged the President while writing a letter in the New York Times Op/Ed page to Americans, harshly criticizing Obama for encouraging Americans to see themselves as exceptional.
Now, another country is putting pressure on the United States for it's spying. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced just yesterday that she was holding off on a planned visit to the United States, as a protest measure against the NSA and American spying on that country.
Anyone who keeps up with this blog regularly must surely know how I feel about it. Again, since Americans have been encouraged to indeed see themselves as "exceptional", they then feel entitled to do whatever the hell they want around the world. And, not surprisingly, the rest of the world is beginning to react - and make no mistake, reacting to American actions in these cases is exactly what is going on. Putin is hardly my favorite world leader in history, but his letter made more than a few valid points, particularly about the unreasonable approach that America tends to take in foreign relations, as well as the dangers of a people seeing themselves as exceptional. With Europe and many other countries in South America protesting American actions (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela have done so), Brazil's recent rebuke serves as yet more piling on in the avalanche of criticism that the US is receiving. And let us make no mistake about it, as well: neocons within the United States appear gleeful, but were considerably less so when one of their own, George W. Bush, was being roundly criticized for similar American actions during his tenure. They are not opposed to these actions in general, just when a black Democratic president occupying the White House is getting flack for it. That is just political posturing and gamesmanship, not real criticism based on values, in most cases. Since the Republicans and the Democrats are, essentially, two different wings of the same party, and mostly agree with one another on almost every major point, it can hardly be reasonably accepted that Republicans, if they had power in the White House, would be doing anything differently. If anything, Republicans tend to be bigger fans of "American exceptionalism" then even Democrats tend to be.
Here's the thing with American exceptionalism: whether or not Americans acknowledge it or not, this is most certainly a political doctrine (and it could be called, rather, indoctrination). Just because a majority, perhaps even a vast majority, of Americans accept it without question or even a passing doubt, does not make it otherwise. It is the presumption of superiority, which always relies on myth. It is yet another -ism, even if many people would not make the connection with a more clearly defined and conventional political doctrine. But there are clearly presumptions and beliefs that come into play, and then actions taken in the name of these beliefs follow. Since so many Americans not only accept it, but embrace it, we have a foreign policy that has come to reflect this prejudice - and let us now be clear that American exceptionalism, or Americentrism, or whatever else you want to label it, is nothing more than another prejudice. It is increasingly getting us into trouble, no matter who occupies the White House at the moment.
I don't think at this point that it really is just President Bush or President Obama, though. What Americans really need to understand is that the whole system is broken, and that is largely due to the whole mainstream American though being broken, for that matter. Collectively, as a nation, we do not take anything and anyone else into consideration, and this is clearly reflected in our policies. Is it any wonder, then, that people around the world, including world leaders, start to view Americans with increased suspicion and trepidation.
You reap what you sow, right?
Here's the article, with further information:
"For Obama, Brazil decision compounds rough stretch" by Julie Pace of the Associated Press, September 18, 2013:
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-brazil-decision-compounds-rough-stretch-071223076--politics.html
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