I don’t know what my country is anymore.
I still know some of the people, intelligent folks who’ve resisted the quixotic temptations offered by competing brands of simplistic political rhetoric, but I no longer recognize my government.
I’m sure the myth I swallowed during my youthful indoctrination of American Exceptionalism was verging towards complete rot by the time I hit kindergarten, but I bought the fable and believed it with all of my heart for most of my life.
America was the citizen’s country, a democratic republic which enshrined the rule of law, safeguarded people’s civil liberties with a venerated Bill of Rights. An open system that held political representatives accountable to their constituents, overseen by an impartial judiciary sworn to protect even the lowliest among us from governmental aggression or abuse.
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