I was 17 when I moved to the US. I remember the big skies, the many flags, the easy confidence of a nation always on the right side of history -- all alien concepts to a German teen.
America told a story of hope. But today that story is in trouble: 1/6 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/world/europe/coronavirus-american-exceptionalism.html?smid=tw-share

America, which liberated the Europe of my grandparents from fascism 75 years ago, has been a global leader for the past 75 years. Now it is leading in a different way: 842,000 Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and 46,784 have died, more than anywhere else 2/6

There is a striking irony here: Germany and South Korea, both products of enlightened American leadership, have become shining examples of best practice in the pandemic. Their erstwhile patron is failing not just the world, but many of its own people. 3/6

The pandemic has a way of exposing the strength and weakness of every society. It has shown the power of an authoritarian China in imposing a harsh lockdown. It has highlighted the power of public trust in institutions in northern democracies like Germany 4/6

In America it has exposed the twin weakness of erratic leadership that is disdainful of science and deep structural dysfunctionalities like a weak public healthcare system and social safety net. 5/6

“America was prepared for another 9/11 and instead a virus came,” Dominique Moisi of the Institut Montaigne told me. “It raises the question: Has America become the wrong kind of power with the wrong kind of priorities?” 6/6