‘I Feel Sorry for Americans’: A Baffled World Watches the U.S.

[Rotadom]

From Myanmar to Canada, people are asking: How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? And why won’t the president commit to a peaceful transition of power?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/world/asia/trump-united-states.html

BANGKOK — Myanmar is a poor country struggling with open ethnic warfare and a coronavirus outbreak that could overload its broken hospitals. That hasn’t stopped its politicians from commiserating with a country they think has lost its way.

“I feel sorry for Americans,” said U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar. “But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”

The same sentiment prevails in Canada, one of the most developed countries. Two out of three Canadians live within about 60 miles of the American border.

“Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, an industrial city on the border with Michigan, where locals used to venture for lunch.

Amid the pandemic and in the run-up to the presidential election, much of the world is watching the United States with a mix of shock, chagrin and, most of all, bafflement.

I remember someone here the other day that "the rest of the world fears Trump!"

Yeah, I wonder why.

How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? And after nearly four years during which President Trump has praised authoritarian leaders and obscenely dismissed some other countries as insignificant and crime-ridden, is the United States in danger of exhibiting some of the same traits he has disparaged?

“The U.S.A. is a first-world country but it is acting like a third-world country,” said U Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst in Myanmar.

Adding to the sense of bewilderment, Mr. Trump has refused to embrace an indispensable principle of democracy, dodging questions about whether he will commit to a peaceful transition of power after the November election should he lose.

His demurral, combined with his frequent attacks on the balloting process, earned a rebuke from Republicans, including Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power,” Mr. Romney wrote on Twitter. “Without that, there is Belarus.”

 

[jaF0]

He doesn't feel the need to answer because he sees no chance of losing. And he might be right.

 

[FescueFan]

Felled by a virus? LMFAO!!!!!


And because it's driving (D)'s totally fucking insane.

 

[Wrong Element]

I'd feel sorry for us if we weren't getting exactly what we asked for.

 

[bhurry]

Felled by a virus? LMFAO!!!!!


And because it's driving (D)'s totally fucking insane.

very short trip

 

[Fuzzy1975]

Get out and Vote this time!!!

When a Democratic country votes you get the Government you deserve.

 

[YDB95]

How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? Easy: a social norm that encourages people to always refuse to do what anyone in any semblance of authority even mildly suggests we ought to do, simply because they can. Anti-conformity is really no different from conformity.

 

[WillJ8787]

From Myanmar to Canada, people are asking: How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? And why won’t the president commit to a peaceful transition of power?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/world/asia/trump-united-states.html



I remember someone here the other day that "the rest of the world fears Trump!"

Yeah, I wonder why.

I would suggest three books, the first two lay the groundwork of this truly American phenomenon that gets its start with the founding of the country and George Washington's Presidency.

Richard Hofstadter's....anti-intellectualism in American Life
Susan Jacoby's...the Age of American UnReason
Vance's.... Hillbilly Effigy

I wish that a third book existed after Jacoby that would include the rise of technology and smart phones and social media.