Is this what makes us great?

Stephen Marche in The Atlantic has disquieting thoughts about "Canada's Terrible New Freedom" [paywalled, sorry].

The United States is declining into authoritarianism and threatening Canada’s sovereignty. How can Canada ensure that its political, military, and economic institutions survive?

The threat is not abstract, and is already manifesting itself in more than words.

... Canada is increasing its defense spending and re-arming with Europe, not America. Trump didn’t give us much choice. In March, he announced the next generation of American fighter jets, which Canada has long purchased, by noting that he would sell an inferior version to other countries: “We like to tone them down about 10 percent, which probably makes sense because someday maybe they’re not our allies, right?” The idea that the American military would turn against Canada once seemed absurd. But the absurd has become almost predictable at this point. If the U.S. Marines are coming for American citizens, surely they could come for Canada too.

I always took a measure of pride in knowing that, whatever reservations our international friends might have about our pop culture, our customs, or our arrogance, they recognized that our hearts ultimately were in the right place.

I can no longer take such pride. The heart of the United States now is brutal, selfish, suspicious, and spiteful — which is to say, it's the spitting image of our domestic Dear Leader's.

If you're a citizen of the U.S., does our national change of heart fill you with pride? Do you think that change of heart has made our country great?

Then you have taken Trump's warped values into your own heart. I'm sorry for that because ultimately, they will leave you as embittered, as spiteful, as spiritually empty, and as unloved as he is. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I wouldn't even wish it on Trump, but it's too late for him. I hope it's not too late for you.

Current U.S. foreign policy reflects and embodies our domestic Dear Leader's pathologies. (So does the country's domestic policy, for that matter.) I'm deeply ashamed of that. None of the United States' traditional allies deserves the chaos and malice aforethought emanating from Washington, D.C. these days. Certainly Canada, of all places, has merited and continues to merit our steadfast friendship.

I hope I live long enough to see that friendship, and many others, reestablished. Until then, great is one thing we won't be.