1. I believe Wednesday’s events will happen again in some form. American exceptionalism takes on two forms. In places like Manhattan, SF, & especially the halls of Congress, American exceptionalism *was* a self-evident truth that is observable. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2020/10/05/watching-american-exceptionalism-die-in-my-cleveland-hometown/

2. These cultural bubbles are in fact exceptional and until Trump those who lived within them felt it only stood to reason that they must be a reflection of the country rather than an exception. This is why so much anti-Trumpism was expressed as shock.

3. For the rest of the country, American exceptionalism is an accepted orthodoxy — a form of faith — without need of proof even though its church is crumbling. This is the America that Biden’s statement addressed on Wednesday.

4. Social media made it increasingly difficult for the idea of American exceptionalism to remain detached from the lived experiences of Americans. Outside of a handful of politicians & columnists, most Americans realize American exceptionalism is dead.

5. The divisions are found in how to heal & move forward. Mobility across states & attachment to ideas over places now defines the US professional class pejoratively referred to as “coastal elites.”

6. Racism & White supremacy explains a lot. But the division between those living lives defined by a local or regional identity & those living transient ones defined by a more abstract sense of US identity helps inform how the country could be so divided.

7. Eg., COVID sent thousands of young Americans back “home” from far away US cities where they worked. But for those living local lives, the proposition that it was impracticable to vote in person down the street was outlandish & fueled conspiracies. Other examples exist.

8. Reactions to BLM & racism also reveal this division even though White supremacy plays a huge role:

9. Washington focused on how this week’s events make us look like a banana republic or how our foreign enemies will pounce on our weakness because looking in the mirror is too painful. It is classic deflection.

10. Wednesday is difficult for Washington to accept as an institution because it undermines a convoluted sense of American exceptionalism. But that loss is already felt by most Americans and the only way to heal it is for Washington is to refocus its gaze onto America.