American Exceptionalism isn’t or shouldn’t be the idea that because we are American, we are better. It is that, in America, we have left the door open to the opportunity to be exceptional, to be better, no matter what that means to any individual.
What is exceptional, or was, is the palette. The American canvas on which you could – if you chose to do the work – create your own exceptional experience despite the risk or danger. Freedom offers great opportunity but requires taking on risks. Nothing is guaranteed, but it is a unique opportunity to find your sense of accomplishment, even in failure—on the path to your exceptionalism. You do the work, follow a few rules, and we’ll do our best to stay out of your way.
To suggest we’ve wandered away from that is an understatement. What was once a destination to find one’s place with whatever skills you had or could accumulate on your own is an opportunity to line up, for lack of a better term, to get free sh!t. The discontent on both sides of the equation has replaced the promise of that blank palette. The caravans of people herded here for a better life – the ones who are not here to make mischief – will find ghetto life as bitches on the federal teat less than inspiring. The people paying for it even less so.
New York Mayor Adams finds himself on the side of “less so.” While being investigated for receiving alleged foreign campaign contributions (which I’ve suggested is a result of all his bitching about the Migrant Crisis™), Adams has announced significant cuts to the New York City budget to offset these unanticipated costs. “It” is straining local resources. He has recommended a hiring freeze on police. He is cutting one billion from public education. Child care, food assistance, closing libraries on Sunday, and limiting access to other public spaces are also options. But it won’t be enough.
The progressive caucus and plenty of Democrats blame Adams, shouting, “How dare you?” Eric Adams blames the federal government.
“No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C., today’s budget will be only the beginning,” he said.
They are all to blame.
Decades of virtue signaling about the need to openly embrace illegal border jumpers without regard to the actual cost are chickens that have come home to roost. A crisis over which Mr. Adams could have cared less while it was thousands of miles away on some Red State border. But Eric Adams voted for this. That progressive caucus and all of those Democrats chose this. Many New Yorkers whose lives have been impacted by the masses or the consequences that brought them will pay the price in lost services and higher taxes—and in return, get a more crowded, dirty, and dangerous city.
They eschewed the law and did the crime but have no interest in doing the time. But this is progressive policy, and the sh!t sandwich you ordered is only getting bigger. Without a course change, perhaps a change in how you vote, this is your new reality, and it does not go away if you stay on this course.
It sounds dismal and tragic, and it is, but it is the storm you summoned. Lightning, you called down upon yourselves. But it is not one without hope. This is still America. For a sliver of the sum Mayor Adams claims he needs to cut, you could stick them on a plane and send them home. It would be a one-time expense, even if it were more than a few pieces of silver (though I suspect you’d save a lot more not paying local hotels to house them).
Screen them, vet them, and unless they are a tremendous value add, offshore them the way you do climate emissions.
And don’t be afraid to say something like, we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. If the Federal government cannot be bothered to enforce them, we must because the people who did it properly have rights, too, and we are obligated to protect them.
It’ll hurt at first. The Marxist press you pretend is unbiased news might take a few bites out of your ass. But you might get to keep your Library Sunday, your not-quite-so-poorly policed streets, the food assistance, and open public spaces, but not if you keep voting for Democrats or until you force Democrats to change their priorities or be more honest about the price they make you pay.
You can blame someone else, but you voted for this. Quit your bitching and own it. Then, do something different. And wouldn’t that be exceptional?
Apologies for any typos – most of them (I believe) have been corrected post-publication.