post-exceptionalism

[Oleg Smirnov]

http://tinyurl.com/y6uk4dll

.. But there is a more fundamental level on which Trump stokes such angst: he
departs from the traditional American exceptionalism script. The one which
holds that America's motives are always democracy-loving and pure, its spy
agencies are infallible, and its moral superiority goes without saying. Trump
evidently believes none of these things, and as such is not so much a
duly-elected head of state, but a saboteur whom the political and media class
can never countenance.

Trump has a reputation as an expositor of boisterous nationalism, and he is.
But in crucial ways, the nationalist vigour he embodies is not necessarily one
in the same with the "exceptional nation" mythos which has animated the self-
conception of the American political class for decades. For his detractors in
the think tanks and the elite media institutions, this is heresy.

Prior to launching his presidential campaign, Trump opined at length on why he
"never liked" the concept of American exceptionalism, and observed that by
invoking it constantly as presidents often do, "you're insulting the world."
Trump instead emphasises a sort of crude transactionalism, which while always
ladled with superficially patriotic bluster, represents a depreciation of
exceptionalism's currency. In the exceptionalist mythos, America is not simply
a hegemon but a moral exemplar- a shining city on a hill. Trump, in his
unguarded moments, betrays an essential skepticism of this mythology. ..

...

Проблема с этим elite sense в том, что практическое воплощение мессианской
гегемонии требует больших средств в ущерб внутреннему обустройству, и вдобавок
в этой ["левой"] мессианскской похоти много delusion, деньги на ветер.

Т.e. просто перестало хватать денег.