Globally, Americans tend to be stereotyped for their many red, white and blue trademarks: shiny skyscrapers, greasy cheeseburgers, patriotic cowboys and Hollywood. Usually, such stereotypes aren’t created as a means to insult or ridicule their culture, it is just an expression of people’s love for labeling. Just as we have a tendency to think of all Scandinavians as frost-bitten characters from Frozen and French people as glued to their baguettes, the word American brings about certain images.
However, there is one other stereotype of the land of the eagles that Americans may or may not entirely enjoy being subjected to: their belief in their own national supremacy. Those who belong to the “may not enjoy” group are probably those who didn’t jump at the prospect of pledging their allegiance to the flag in school or tear up to the image of a beautiful southern woman in an American-inspired bikini at the 4th of July celebration.
I myself have met many of the opposite kind; many who wholeheartedly believe that the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth, the land of the free and the home of the brave. I am not saying there is something necessarily wrong with loyalty for your land. If you can feel pride for your homeland and gratitude for all it has given you, that may very well be an admirable example of an admirable quality of yours. However, there is a fine line between having run-of-the-mill pride for your country and being outright nationalist.
As history has time and time again told us, nationalism has a ugly tendency to blind its believers to the faults of their nations. And when people go blind, the ugly starts to get a real grip of the country because there is no one, or at least not enough people, who can see the beast of authoritarianism sink its claws deep into the Constitution and rip it to shreds.
I fear that too many Americans may have been pushed over the edge, free-falling straight into the sea of nationalism, and are now unable to see the end of democracy looming on the horizon. It has happened before, in other parts of the world. Bad individuals who have taken advantage of a people desperate for a leader with “strong hands” and a persuasive voice; a person “of the people”. Eventually, these persons become leaders and gradually push the limits of their power to perverse extents.
Through the course of time, a resistance to this abuse of power builds, and lives are lost as the uncertain future of the country unfolds. Sometimes, the will and freedom of the people triumph. Other times, mere glimpses of democracy shine through, only to be enveloped by decades of political and humanitarian darkness.
This rise of authoritarian leaders is a constant risk of democracy that the public must always be on the lookout for in order for their freedom, and rights, to prevail. But when recent American 2024 presidential election polls show that Donald Trump, a man who has consistently and clearly stated his dictatorial intentions, may once again become the most powerful man in one of the world's most powerful countries, I wonder, are Americans really correct in believing they are from the greatest nation on earth?
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