We’re So Exceptionally Blue

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We’re So Exceptionally Blue

It occurred to me that every US state that I have had ever lived in — Ohio, Hawaii, Virgina, Pennsylvania — went blue and voted for Barack Obama in this election.

I am pleased and proud of that unimportant fact.

Original image courtesy of Huffington Post

But I also lived a large and pleasant chunk of my life in Japan.

While, obviously, citizens of Japan cannot vote in the United States election, if they could, I’m confident in saying, even without any polling data to back me up, that the country of Japan would be just as blue as the majority of the United States is, because of their overwhelming support and admiration for President Barack Obama.

Many of my more conservative friends scoff at the fact that President Obama’s international appeal is so strong and argue that what the international community think about America’s leaders should have nothing to do with who should be leading America.

They’re probably right.

But they seem to go even further when they imply, and sometimes state outright, that this international appeal of his somehow proves that he is less American, which, to me, translates as calling him un-American, because of it.

I cannot even come close to understanding this sort of irrational rationale.

Especially when many of these conservatives are so intent — intent to such an extremity that it becomes obvious they suffer from some serious Freudian insecurities — on reminding everyone just how exceptional American is.

I agree the US is exceptional, but the labeling of it as being so is for others outside of the US to apply, not those of us in the US.

It’s conceited and unbecoming.

Still, if we all were to agree that the US is an exceptional place, it would have to be partly because the United States provides trusting and exceptional leadership to the world.

Agreed world?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Regardless what the world thinks, I’m quite sure my conservative friends agree that the US does provide such exceptional leadership, just as I’m also quite sure that these same friends project, or try to project — as do those drivers of really big trucks try to project the size of their trucks upon the size of their own, um, stature — the United States’s exceptional stature upon their own, perhaps less than exceptional, perhaps highly insecure, stature.

Nothing wrong with that, really.

I’m sure I’ve been guilty of doing the same sort of projecting upon my own less than exceptional stature on many more than just one occasions. It’s hard not to do since I’m proud to be an American and proud, most of the time, of the leadership America does provide to the world.

But if we are going to assume the responsibilities that come with being a world leader, then doesn’t it make sense that we out to, at least, consider the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of those of whom we’re professing to lead?

The rest of the world may not have the ability to vote in our US election, rightly so, but that doesn’t mean they are not going to be interested in, concerned with, impacted by the consequences of our election.

Of course they are, and at least we should acknowledge their input and reactions to our decisions.