As a European, I used to think, rather uncritically, that the US is fundamentally fairly good (not perfect but ultimately a good egg), yes some dirty business o

As a European, I used to think, rather uncritically, that the US is fundamentally fairly good (not perfect but ultimately a good egg), yes some dirty business on the "fringes" of the world or a long time ago (like say, Iraq or Cuba) but "we", the "Western world", are OK and buddies, and US's good behaviour towards us reflects their true nature. My new impression is that there's a nasty streak in the US that simply went against other people for a long time - Native Americans, African slaves, South America, Iran and the Middle East - and it was inevitably going to come out against Europe too at some point. At the end of the day, Trump can do what he does because the Congress accepts it, it accepts it because they are ideologically aligned, and a majority of American voters selected them. I'm not picking on the US here. Plenty of countries, maybe all, have a nasty streak or ten, it's human nature. But I though the US is actually somehow better, with its institutions, its painful lessons from the country's birth, yada yada. Actually maybe they're as bad as the rest of us, but just much more powerful.