Now’s the time for some of that ‘American Exceptionalism’

Photo credit: Joe Maniscalco for Public Square Amplified

New York, NY - If you’re of a certain age and grew up around here, you probably remember a time when you could look back at people in Germany during World War II and innocently wonder how the heck they could have allowed fascism to overtake their country. Sadly, those naive days are long gone for all of us—because everyone in America now knows exactly how it happens. 

It’s no longer unfathomable. We all see fascism taking hold right before our eyes. 

That horrific realization helped return a multitude of protestors to the streets nationwide on April 19, all determined to stop a particularly repellent repeat of world history—this time, in cities and towns where they live. 

New Jersey florist Prudence Rodriguez marched among the tens of thousands who turned out for Saturday’s “Hands Off Migrants” march in New York City. It was just one of roughly 1,200 similar demonstrations against the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants and working class families being replicated across the country this past weekend. 

Those demonstrations followed closely on the heels of prior street actions which drew more than five million people nationwide just a couple of weeks earlier on April 5. 

Photo credits: Joe Maniscalco for Public Square Amplified

“At some point, we were all immigrants or came from immigrants and what we are doing now is an atrocity,” Rodriguez told Public Square as the growing demonstration paused for traffic safety at Madison Avenue, near East 42nd Street. 

A police officer, knowing that the procession would soon pass Trump Tower, wanted to keep things moving and yelled at the crowd, “You got 35,000 people behind you, keep going.” 

“Just disappearing people without expiation, no due process—is criminal,” Rodriguez continued. “I married into a family of immigrants. I’m lucky that they’re here because that’s how I got my husband.”

Many marchers carried photographs of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Rümeysa Öztürk, Lucas Sielaff, and others abducted off the streets by ICE. 

Another thing you might remember growing up around here is the idea of “American exceptionalism.” It was the notion that the United States of America was somehow a special place where the ills and totalitarianism that plagued other nations around the globe just didn’t apply. 

A lot of people—many of the same people who used to puzzle over Germany and how its inhabitants could let a gang of brown-shirted nutcases take over—absorbed the idea of “American exceptionalism.” At least on some level. After all, we believed in “freedom” and “democracy.” 

It was only a myth, of course. Freedom-loving people populate the globe and Americans are not magically immune to the evils that threaten anyone else. 

But, Americans alive in the first quarter of the 21st century have an opportunity to be exceptional in the face of rising fascism in the places they live. They can do what too many people back in Germany, Bosnia, and other places around the world where jackbooted fascists took hold, failed to do. 

They can reject the fascists and throw them out of power and keep making America better than it’s been. It’s definitely not too late. None of the tens and thousands of marchers who denounced Trump and his racist policies in our area this weekend appeared to be throwing in the towel. On the contrary, it looked like they were just getting started.

Photo credit: Joe Maniscalco for Public Square Amplified

One of those marchers on 5th Avenue held a sign thanking Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen for visiting union apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, still illegally imprisoned in El Salvador’s Center for Confinement of Terrorism [CECOT]. But another carried a homemade placard  aimed at elected officials saying, “Get A Spine: Stand Up For Your Constituents.”  

“Do you think the Democrats are doing enough to oppose Trump’s illegal deportations?” Public Square Amplified asked Rodriguez as the march drew closer to Trump Tower. 

“No, not at all,” she said. “I feel like we’re always trying to be on the side of being right and nice and not speaking up. Not that we have to be like the opposing side—just be tougher. We need to be tougher and show that we’re not afraid to play dirty, too.”

Can Democrats actually be tougher? Very doubtful. If those in office are failing, it truly is up to all of us to be “exceptional” in this moment and reject the naked fascism we now see all around us.

The views expressed in this article express those of the writer alone and not necessarily those of Public Square Amplified.