NYT Pick James NYC 6 hours ago America is, as Ms. Rice says, no longer a force for good. We have lost our honor.



We elected a POTUS whose character, morals and psychological instability make him unfit for public office and a danger to the world. He is openly disparaging about USA allies and personally rude to their leaders. He is openly friendly towards the leaders of countries responsible for suppression of free speech, mass oppression, torture and genocide. He encourages division on the grounds of religion. He denies his responsibilities to protect our planet. He has little or no interest in promoting democracy, free speech, human rights or the rule of law.



No, we are no longer good. Flag

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NYT Pick William A. Meyerson Louisiana 6 hours ago Ms. Rice hit the nail on the head very eloquently in her last two sentences: "Relinquishing the nation's moral authority in these difficult times will only embolden rivals and weaken ourselves. It will make a mockery of America first."



I do not think you could make this any clearer as to how out of touch with reality Trump and his staff are, while at the same time, writing the true state of affairs the United States is in nationally and (especially) globally.



Trump has shown an unmatched flair for giving countless reasons for more people to despise the United States the world over. As bad as we were viewed (globally) when Bush was in office, Trump puts him to shame in the categories of being a hater and eliciting haters.



Thank you so much. Flag

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NYT Pick Bongo NY Metro 6 hours ago Let's be clear, the disastrous blunders of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya totally disqualify the US as a "global force for good".



Blunder is too soft a term for undeclared wars that have ruined the lives of millions. Flag

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NYT Pick Entera Santa Barbara 5 hours ago The crumbling started in a big way with Reagan and his "government is the problem" and trickle down economics (note: key word in this approach is "trickle"), although Nixon got the ball rolling with his Southern Strategy -- turning the Solid South red after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. This administration is simply the logical extrapolation of disastrous policies we've undertaken for years. Over 600 known military bases in foreign countries -- what other country does that. Meanwhile our schools, infrastructure, healthcare, education, etc., in this nation continue to erode to shameful standards. The invasion of Iraq kicked the hornet's nest and we thought we could walk blithely away.



We are in a major "blowback" situation, on many fronts. The world is laughing at and crying about us, at the same time. Flag

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NYT Pick Al PA 5 hours ago While upon a first reading, Dr. Rice's editorial eloquently spaeks to the sad truth that many Americans know all too well. But perhaps the world needed to have the myth that America would always be a force for the global good shattered. In a democracy such as ours, there has always been lurking the possibility that a Donald Trump could be made President.



America might no longer be the "global force for good," nor the "shining light on the hill," which it once was; but that identity was both too important and too fragile to blindly rely on. Going forth, whatever good that this nation might contribute to our small blue planet will always be viewed with a recognition that such acts have a limited temporal quality, which might be the perspective which yields the most effective critical insights and produce the longest lasting positive outcomes for the rest of the world. Flag

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NYT Pick AE France 5 hours ago Even though I am a diehard Trump opponent, I find Ms Rice's hackneyed evocations of America's 'virtues' to be hollow and backdated. There would not be enough space on the comment page to reel off a litany of American malfeasance, both on the international and domestic fronts. The only difference between Trump and his predecessors is his perverted desire to enshrine chronic American disorders into official Policy, regardless of the consequences to either American citizens or foreigners overseas.



We cannot even say today that America possesses any soft power anymore. With the cataclysmic fall of Hollywood in the wake of the massive sexual abuse revelations, even America's 'dream machine' is destroyed. I don't hear anyone in France anymore speak of America or Americans with envy or desire. Flag

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NYT Pick Shaun Narine Fredericton 5 hours ago The Trump administration is the epitome of the worst in American politics. But it exists on a continuum, not in a state of its own. The George W. Bush administration was filled with neoconservatives and nationalists who dreamt of creating an American empire that would bully and blast its enemies out of existence. They made it clear that the US would do whatever it wanted to do because it had the power. Of course, they were proven wrong by subsequent events. The Trump people are just cruder, more ignorant manifestations of the same kind of thinking. Granted, their opposition to trade sets them apart. But their apparent ambition to make the US the global bully is distinctly reminiscent of Bush. Nikki Haley is threatening countries and "taking names" at the UN; that's not any different than what John Bolton did. Trump joins Bush in accelerating the US' inevitable decline on the world stage. One critical difference between this time and the Bush era is that China is now much more powerful and more than happy to step up and fill the vacuum left by American withdrawal and by the US pursuing aggressive, beggar-thy-neighbor policies that are sure to weaken its alliances and undermine its moral standing. Flag

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NYT Pick Bob Cleveland, OH 5 hours ago Trump's influence on the world stage could live on long after he leaves office. Right now, the USA is definitely not a force for good.



We no longer are (if we ever were) "honest brokers" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are likely now to go to the Chinese or the Russians for support.



NATO will likely depend less on us, and more on Germany.



Germany becomes, effectively, the beacon of hope for the Free World.



Race relations have slipped backward. As a Black guy, I fully expect the next step to be a return to states' rights as part of the slippery slide back to some form of legal discrimination that won't be as obvious as Jim Crow.



More obvious will be more, and likely legal, discrimination against non-Christians other than Jewish people. Just look at Trump's publicly allowing a prayer, broadcast on national TV, right before the Cabinet meeting. I'm Christian, but that kinda tells non-Christians where they are in the pecking order.



We now show others how to behave as a banana republic with the passage of a tax bill that helps those who need help the most, the least.



These are just a few examples that cause me to agree with Susan Rice, that my country has turned its back on me, on the world, and is no longer a force for good.



Hopefully, a change in the White House is coming in 2020, to someone not only willing to take charge, but also to do so responsibly and in a way that can make all Americans proud. Flag

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NYT Pick RG upstate NY 5 hours ago The historical record does not support the claim of American morality. The simple fact that Americans who are 5 percent of he world population consume 40-50 percent of the world's resources and generate comparble amounts of pollution. Our actions are more consistent with Trump's philosophy, sad to say. Flag

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NYT Pick A.M. Chicago 4 hours ago the entire premise of this— that America was ever a “moral authority” in foreign policy since WW2— is wrapped in an incredible amount of american exceptionalism and naïveté. we deposed at least a dozen democratically elected leaders in third world countries because they were leaning too far left for our liking. we assisted the rise of right-wing dictatorships across the globe to “stick it to the Reds!” and turned a blind eye when they massacred their own civilians with the weapons we gave them.



or we invaded with our own troops, and physically and socially destroyed whatever unfortunate country was currently a flash point in the Cold War. i doubt the Vietnamese peasants saw much of a “force for moral good” when we bombed craters into the countryside, burned the jungle to ash with napalm, and then laid waste to the entire ecosystem for decades to come with Agent Orange, and they certainly did not see any “moral good” when American soldiers massacred entire villages indiscriminately like at My Lai.



trump’s more nakedly evil, for sure. but we are a global bully and have been since 1945, and the only one left since 1990. Flag

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