Not one American life can be put at risk. That seems to be the new standard when it comes to America helping others.
I recently had someone tell me that he wouldn’t risk one American life to save 10,000 Syrians. And he’s not alone. Many Americans feel this way. In fact, almost 63 million of them voted for and elected Donald Trump, when his major platform was fear of others and helping no one.
America first, we hear, just like they said on the precipice of our entry into World War II: Let’s worry about ourselves first. Once we’re in, let’s close the door to others.
These people apparently want to change the words on the Statue of Liberty to read, “You can send people, but only so long as it is literally absolutely impossible that they may ever do anything wrong. Also: we prefer they not have problems, not need anything and not be brown.”
Have we become a nation of cowards? Are there really so many people out there so petrified by the prospect of terrorism that they’ll allow it to stop us from being a charitable and good nation?
{mosads}Before the Holocaust, perhaps we could’ve saved millions of Jews if we had simply allowed them into the country. But we left them to die in the gas chambers and burn in the ovens.
We seem to love to brag about how great we are in this country. We even have a name for our jingoism: American Exceptionalism.
But lately American Exceptionalism seems to mean, “Except you, except you and except you.” If you’re poor and Mexican, we don’t want you. If you’re escaping gang violence in Honduras, we don’t want you. If you’re from Haiti, if you’re Muslim or if you’re a child fleeing a genocidal war in Syria, we don’t want you. Go elsewhere.
That’s the new American Exceptionalism: We need not actually do anything in order to be great. We need not help anyone, put ourselves at risk or show the merest modicum of morality. We want to “Make America Great Again” by excluding those who yearn to breathe free, by sitting on the sidelines while despots commit atrocities.
America has done some terrible things in its history: slavery, the Native American genocide, Japanese internment camps, denying women the right to vote, the Chinese Exclusion Act, segregation. But we’ve also done some great things, such as the 13th Amendment, feeding Europe after World War I, fighting the Nazis and giving safe haven to Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro.
Somehow, though, we’ve now become a nation of “Me, me, me!” What are you going to do for me? Don’t ask me to pay more, even if I’m wealthy. And don’t ask me to sacrifice anything.
Americans have turned President Kennedy’s “ask not” sentiment on its head so that it simply means, literally, ask not, because the answer will be no.
For all of our tough talk, when it comes to actually doing something, we seem pretty content to limit our involvement to liking videos or joining Facebook groups. “I’ll support a cause,” we seem to say, “so long as I don’t actually have to do anything.”
And so Syrian children die. And so Sudanese children die. All while we install an isolationist president who managed to convince naive Americans that we’re somehow at our best when we do the least.
Rosenfeld is an educator and historian who has done work for Scribner, Macmillan and Newsweek and contributes frequently to The Hill.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.