"A shining city on a hill," Ronald Reagan called America (by way of the Puritan authoritarian John Winthrop). "We are great because we are good," Hillary Clinton said during the campaign (via Tocqueville). Michelle Obama, earlier this year: "This right now is the greatest country on Earth."
You may have heard of "mansplaining," which is when a dude patronizingly explains something to a woman, often concerning a subject about which she knows more than he does (like rape culture, workplace discrimination, etc.). Other spinoff portmanteaus mocking pompous people of privilege include whitesplaining (white person explains racism to black person), straightsplaining, Millennialsplaining, and even (during the primaries) Bernie-splaining.
May the victory of Donald Trump mark the long overdue death of Ameri-splaining — when American leaders like Clinton and Barack Obama (and not a few ordinary citizens) pretentiously declaim our nation's supposed exceptionalism to people in countries that do a better job than we do.
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