USA: America is losing its exceptionalism (OpEd)
HRWF (23.02.2026) – Promoting human rights in authoritarian, former Soviet and Balkan societies beginning in the early 1990s, many of my colleagues longed to live in what they called a “normal” society, one where life was free and secure, not dominated by ruthless rulers. They admired the United States as an ally, and a model society where, despite its problems, the power of authorities was kept in check by laws, and by respect for citizens and their innate rights and freedoms.
Given the ominous global drift toward unfreedom, what my colleagues termed “normal” has become increasingly rare. And today, even actions of the United States government resemble those of undemocratic and corrupt regimes we chastised in international forums.
The Federal Government has unleashed heavily armed security forces who are violently arresting suspected illegal immigrants and incarcerating them in substandard conditions, also at times apparently randomly detaining American citizens. (Remember, the Secretary of Homeland Security claimed in a 2025 Congressional hearing that habeas corpus “is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.”) Federal officials have claimed citizens cannot exercise their Second Amendment gun rights anywhere near demonstrations against these events. Federal agents have been accused of trying to intimidate elected officials. The government has promoted videos of the arrests to defend its policy of arresting criminal illegals, but the videos also instill fear of opposing the policy among law-abiding citizens.
Such high-visibility deployments of police or security, and televised raids, resemble the use of OMON forces to deter dissent in Russia, highly publicized arrests under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, and Egypt’s “counter-terrorism” crack-downs that target government critics.
A year ago, at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance harshly criticized European governments for hate speech laws that limit freedom of speech. Yet the Department of Homeland Security has issued subpoenas to tech companies, demanding the identities of citizens who have criticized immigration enforcement techniques. Of course, prosecution of government critics for blog posts, social media remarks, and even jokes, based on putative national security grounds, is common in Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Iran, among many others. In the United Kingdom, historically a champion of free speech, many thousands are prosecuted each year for speech crimes.
America’s Department and Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which have historically been largely insulated from partisan politics by traditional norms, have been weaponized to prosecute and harass political opponents by leaders from both parties. This is typical all too common where the rule of law is not respected. In Russia, opposition figures have faced a range of trumped-up charges, according to findings by the European Court of Human Rights. Politicized convictions under former President Lula in Brazil have been overturned. Zimbabwe has selectively charged regime opponents citing law-and-order concerns.
For human rights defenders, cultivating a “cult of personality” like President Trump is doing is associated with human rights violations by such figures as Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan, who named himself Turkmenbashi. Trump is dissolving the line between national interests and the financial interests of his family. Foreign governments have allegedly patronized his businesses in order to gain favor and concessions, violating the Emolument clauses of the Constitution. Trump family members have pursued trademarks and branding deals, mixing governmental advisory responsibilities and private enterprise. During President Biden’s presidential and vice-presidential terms, family members also pursued lucrative business deals, some with adversaries. People around the world, who have not been blessed with constitutional rights and self-government informed by ethical and religious traditions, are familiar with such abuses of power. And while they have not been absent from American history, they are a departure from the norm.
The United States arguably retains its exceptionalism, with a Bill of Rights based on natural rights, the general maintenance of judicial independence, and efforts at legislative oversight. But we are learning, hopefully not too late, that what has made our system a North Star for many abroad seeking freedom and justice is underlying respect for liberal principles and processes, and a political culture nurtured by civic and moral education. As those have atrophied, America is beginning to look like many other societies.
(*) Aaron Rhodes is the author of “Human Rights Without Illusions: Escaping the Moral Trap of Universalism.” Previously, he served as executive director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and as president of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe.
