U.S. is falling behind its peers

Americans’ belief in American exceptionalism is declining — and that could be a good thing. National narcissism has rendered us complacent, even impotent, in the face of multiple crises.

On our biggest societal problems, the United States seems to have given up. Not because we can’t do better but because many political leaders, particularly Republicans, apparently don’t think we need to. Their faith that America is already living Its best life means there’s no need to learn from peer countries, or even gauge our relative performance. Consider:

Most of the developed world has managed to get COVID-19’s spread under control. Places that have successfully mitigated the spread have enabled more citizens to safely return to their pre-COVID-19 lifestyles.

Meanwhile the bodies pile up in the United States. New confirmed cases are again surging, especially across Sun Belt states. And political leaders seem to have no plan for beating back the pandemic. Instead, they declare the virus vanquished, even as it claims more lives.

“There is no second wave coming,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow announced Monday, almost exactly four months and 118,000 deaths after he infamously declared the virus “contained” and “pretty close to airtight.” Vice President Mike Pence made a similar declaration: “Whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a success.”

How did a country once known for our get-up-and-go come to shrug off mass death, particularly when other countries’ records suggest many deaths here were preventable?

Faith in American exceptionalism has curdled into resigned acceptance. We got so accustomed to resting on our laurels that we fell asleep.

The United States entered this pandemic, after all, with President Donald Trump boasting about an October study that ranked the United States the world’s best-prepared country to handle an epidemic. Trump does not seem to have updated his assessment of our response.

This is of a piece with our supine responses to other national challenges. Much as they gave up on coronavirus containment, U.S. political leaders previously gave up on solving our epidemic of gun violence. And on our high numbers of police-perpetrated killings. Also our high rates of child poverty, uninsurance and carbon emissions.

On these and other metrics, the United States fares worse than most other industrialized countries. Yet Republican politicians treat these crises as imaginary or unsolvable. Because America is the world’s richest superpower, a city on a hill, our policy choices apparently must already be the best possible ones.

When political leaders do acknowledge that we’re not measuring up to peers, they excuse the failing as a trade-off necessary to pursue some other, ideal. America can’t protect schoolchildren as other countries do, because we must prioritize unfettered access to firearms. America can’t save its grandparents from COVID-19 because the Dow takes precedence. America can’t guarantee everyone health care, because [something something] liberty.

But there may be a ray of hope: Recent crises — involving health, the economy and police brutality — seem to have caused more Americans to question their country’s track record.

So suggests the COVID-19 Social Change Survey, a daily survey run by Northwestern University social scientists. Surveyers ask whether the United States is better, worse or about the same as other nations across about a dozen topics. On nearly every metric, the share of Americans rating the United States as “better” than other countries has declined since the pandemic began. Other questions from this survey and polling by Gallup, show declines in broader measures of national pride and confidence in U.S. institutions.

These declines can be constructive if they spur the public and elected officials to create conditions that would inspire more patriotism and trust.

Such an outcome is possible, says Beth Redbird, a Northwestern sociology professor and who leads the survey. “In times of great crisis, we can realize our institutions are not working for us,” she says. “Maybe we decide it’s time to change institutions we’ve taken for granted.”

Maybe a more realistic assessment of our flaws — a crack in the national narcissism — will motivate change, at least if politicians ever catch up with their constituents.