And the superpower is occasionally, like now, in a kind of transition. With just two moves, in just two consecutive days, America managed to transform its global exceptionalism, which it prides itself as a virtue, into a major local flaw. It divided fiercely in a way that serious countries do not allow themselves, as if an internal cold war was going on.
We are talking about two decisions of the Supreme Court, which deliberately measure the scope of freedom. In short: one is allowed to freely carry weapons in public places, and the other has canceled women's freedom to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
It is difficult to imagine a more paradoxical coincidence - flaunting pistols and rifles in the middle of frequent massacres, and still parallel to the amputation of the right to abortion in the middle of a justified scale, demands to increase the rights of women in deciding both their own and the fate of the nation.
Such cases, and especially their simultaneity, are unimaginable in many other institutions, including those that America shaped, convincing them that it should be their model.
Analysts in Foreign Affairs predict that the world will not follow the superpower in either of the two arenas mentioned. Even on the eve of the G7 summit, the irony that the welcome slogan Dž. Biden "America is returning" (to world affairs from which the ego and ethnocentrism of D. Trump kept them away) expressed in the remark that from within the USA is returning - backwards, to the past, challenging the achievements that adorned it.
By overturning the constitutional right to abortion, the Supreme Court has executed an abortion on American democracy - the harshest criticism heard from the ranks of disillusioned supporters of the expansion of human rights. In their opinion, it is even a double mistake because at the same time the prestige of the only superpower in the world was damaged, which was indirectly confirmed by the statements of the leaders of France, Britain, Canada, Germany, the UN, WHO.
The concern, however, is more pronounced inside America than outside it. The catastrophists ordered. They warn that it is like the Titanic from which the fatal Santa is not visible or that there is not just one nation in it but two - identified as maximally antagonized Republicans and Democrats by party commitment.
Individuals suspect that within the division into three powers, the judicial power is showing increasing power, whose decisions lead to the change of the national being, more and more often exceeding the usual scope of the executive and legislative powers. This "sudocracy" is, as a rule, in favor of the now opposition Republicans, who selected and appointed the majority (6 out of 9) of the members of that body, in which they all enjoy a lifetime mandate.
Democratic parliamentarian Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims that lifetime mandates have not deterred everyone from partisanship. She requested that the process for the removal (impeachment) of two judges be started because they swore in front of the congressmen that they would respect the right to abortion, only to now vote for its abolition.
Since each of the 50 federal states will regulate abortion according to its own program, it is assumed that there will be mass emigration of pregnant women who want an abortion to areas where it is legal. Chicago law professor Aziz Haq warns that states that do not allow abortion and consider it a criminal act could allow an armed confrontation with "fugitives" who "delinquently" go to an obstetrician in another state.
American democracy is in great trouble and cannot survive in its current form if the Constitution is manipulated in order to establish the rule of the minority - New York historian Simon Schama assesses in the Guardian. Chroniclers also criticize the rule of the minority, citing research according to which 61% of Americans are in favor of maintaining the right to abortion, so that the Supreme Court's decision is contrary to the will of the people and that it may cause wider social unrest than the current one.
Although these events seem like big news, they are not quite so. Every time before the elections, and they are held already in November for almost the entire composition of the Congress, weapons and abortion turn out to be mandatory topics for winning over voters.
But this time, they coincide dramatically, they build on other challenges that create the impression that America is no longer a sufficiently stable country. This impression is reinforced by the investigation into Trump's possible instigation of protesters to invade Congress (January 6, 2021) in order to effect the annulment of his election defeat, and who is still bright and dressed in the Republican Party and flirts that he will run for president again.
It even reached a duel between the holders of executive and judicial power. President Biden strongly criticized both of the aforementioned decisions of the Supreme Court. He only managed to muster a bipartisan majority for a slight increase in the control of the acquisition of his personal arsenal, but he faces extraordinary trials on the status of abortion, as the anti-abortion lobby has now demonstrated an effectiveness similar to the chronically successful gun lobby.
If the opposition takes over at least one of the two houses of Congress in the elections, it would lead to a dual government that would further polarize America and slow down its external effectiveness. And it would also be a rare phenomenon of losing power in a state body in competition over the right of women to make independent decisions about their bodies. Which, admittedly, would confirm America's already proverbial tendency to show itself as a superpower in the occasional overthrow of its own, and not only global, order.
Bonus video:
