This diary starts with the United States Tennis Association. Yes, you read that right. A few weeks ago, they accidentally played Germany’s Nazi-era anthem before a U.S.-Germany match and, as you might expect, the German players were horrified.
The German team member Andrea Petkovic was disturbed by Saturday’s performance, saying on the German federation’s website: “It was the worst experience that has ever happened to me – horrifying and shocking.”
She added, according to Bild: “This is the year 2017 – that something like this happens in America, it can’t happen. It’s embarrassing and speaks of ignorance.”
Why so much horror over a song? Well, the first verse of Germany’s anthem in its original form is the following:
A male soloist at the match on the Hawaiian island of Maui sang the verse beginning with the lines “Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles, uber alles in der Welt”, which translates as “Germany, Germany, above all, above all in the world”.
After two horrible World Wars, Germans are understandably no longer comfortable with labeling their country the “greatest country in the world.” And, really, no other Western highly-developed liberal country calls itself the “greatest country in the world” or the “greatest country on Earth” or believes that God blesses their country before all other countries. (I know, I know — but if there’s only one God and she or he or it is being asked to bless America, it logically follows that God is blessing the United States before other countries, as has been pointed out in film.) Could you ever imagine the president of the European Commission declaring, “God Bless the European Union”?
This is because nationalism — like many other -isms, including racism and sexism and fascism — is a really bad thing. It leads to bloodshed, xenophobia, wars, chaos.
And, well, sorry to break it everyone, calling your country “the greatest nation on Earth”— even in the “uniquely American” way that many folks here might argue Democrats do it — is about as nationalistic as you can get.
So why do U.S. politicians — even members of the so-called “center-left” Democratic Party, which would reject nationalism in any other liberal Western country -- say this very thing about our country’s place in the world? Why do they unapologetically and without irony declare that we live the “greatest country on Earth”?
Hillary Clinton does it:
Michelle Obama does it:
And, of course, Barack Obama said the same thing many times.
And, I get it — Democrats think it’s a political liability not to engage with the concept of “American exceptionalism” and publicly declare our nation to be better than every other nation on the planet, despite, of course, many statistics suggesting otherwise.
The problem is that this nationalistic rhetoric is not uttered in isolation — it’s articulated by public figures representing every single person in this nation. And nationalism — as the formerly war-hungry countries of the European Union that have rejected it can tell you — is a really dangerous thing. This is why the German tennis players got so pissed when their anthem was screwed up at the match.
Whether we want to admit it or not, progressives using this extreme nationalistic language — “greatest country on Earth”— do create openings for extremists, people like Donald J. Trump and Steve Bannon, to push things even further.
What we’re witnessing now — the horrific Trump regime with its “America First” policy — is an avowedly nationalist government, unlike any the U.S. has ever seen before.
And Democrats are right to attack an “America First” policy platform as morally and practically abhorrent. I join them in doing so.
Having said that, Democrats who attack “America First” also need to reflect upon their own rhetoric in the past — “America is the greatest country on Earth” is no different than saying “America First”— and, now that extreme nationalism has occupied the White House, reflect on if their own usage of this nationalistic rhetoric is helpful or hurtful when it comes to healing our broken politics and broken nation.
There are many “great” countries on this “great” planet that we share — the United States of America is just one of many. I know Democrats understand this point, but they need to make sure their public rhetoric reflects this understanding moving forward. It’s pretty simple.