You cannot find America on a balance sheet. Our worth is not measured in tons of steel, bushels of grain, or barrels of oil. The real America is an idea, an ideal — a thing without borders. Born in opposition to tyranny, we stood up to the world’s most powerful military armed with little more than the notion a people should be free to determine their own destiny. Our values are forged in the ability to speak truth to power, stand up for the oppressed, and honor our alliances.
By that standard Volodymyr Zelensky is more American than Donald Trump.
On February 28, Trump and Vice President JD Vance ambushed Zelensky during an oval office meeting. Perhaps it was performative, staged for Russian state media (who happened to be in the room). It’s hard not to think Trump was doing the Kremlin’s bidding. Struggling with his English, Zelensky defended his country against the American administration’s verbal aggression. Much like Benjamin Franklin’s 1774 denigration before King George’s Privy Council, President Zelensky demonstrated strength and resolve. Determined to not let anyone rape Ukraine — not the Russians and their brazen land grab, and not the Americans looking to swipe the county’s rare earth mineral wealth — Zelensky stood strong. He would not humiliate his people. He would not kiss the ring.
What Volodymyr Zelensky wants is what was promised to Ukraine in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in which Ukraine agreed to hand over its nuclear arsenal (at that time it was the third largest in the world) for security guarantees. Both Russia and the U.S. signed the memorandum. Russia has since blatantly violated the agreement with its 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the United States is welching on its obligation.
Europe now knows America can no longer be trusted. Through this administration’s greed and narcissism we have forgotten when we were attacked on September 11, 2001, it was the Europeans who stood by us — fighting and dying alongside us in Afghanistan. Our allies did not ask to be compensated for their lost blood and treasure. To the Europeans the NATO treaty means something — an attack on one is an attack on all.
Franklin Roosevelt spoke directly to the American soul when he declared support for our allies by explaining when your neighbor’s house is on fire you don’t quibble over the price of your garden hose. What happened to the American soul? We used to be the bastion of the free world, a shining city on a hill. Now we’re a nation of hucksters, money grubbers and extortionists, rendering meaningless the ideals of life and liberty. Cooperation, friendship, and alliances have fallen victim to a twisted obsession for what Trump calls the deal. But how can we negotiate a deal if we’ve lost sight of all that has value.
READ: A president just disrespected America in the Oval Office. It wasn’t Zelensky
Our nation no longer recognizes what is true and what is right. Our once treasured national values are buried under the heavy silt of lies and petty grievance. Donald Trump took an oath to the Constitution and to the American people but has absolutely no idea what that means. Our president nominates incompetent cabinet secretaries based solely on their loyalty to him, he disparages the rule of law by pardoning the January 6th insurrectionists, he insults our allies, panders to our adversaries, lies about who started the war in Ukraine, and grants an unelected South African the power to decimate government agencies and steal sensitive information about ordinary American citizens. All while the Republican controlled House and Senate do nothing. Day has become night. Our national soul lives in darkness.
We need to remember why we’re here. Put yourself in the shoes of Ukraine’s warriors. Men and women who, for love of country, left their homes, taken up arms, and given their lives to hold off an onslaught of Russian and North Korean troops. Allow yourself to think about what kind of courage it takes to stand up for what is right — to defend democracy. Then maybe, just maybe you’ll feel like an American again.
