A salient feature of American "exceptionalism" is the belief that the United States can never be ordinary. If it is not the best, then it must be the worst. If it is not destined to dominate the world forever, then it is doomed to decline and decay.
This kind of thinking explains why much of the commentary in the United States about the recent "shut-down" of the US Government, and also about the impending default on the national debt (due on October 17), has started at hysterical and quickly geared up to apocalyptic. We Americans have lost the mandate of Heaven, and it will soon be raining frogs and blood.
So everybody take your tranquilliser of choice (mine's a double scotch), and let's consider what is actually going on here. The United States is the world's oldest democratic country, with an 18th century constitution that is bound to be an awkward fit for 21st century politics. But that hasn't stopped the United States from becoming the world's biggest economy and its greatest power. Has something gone fundamentally wrong?
The problem lies in Congress, specifically in the House of Representatives, where the Republican majority is refusing to pass the budget, and threatening not to raise the official debt ceiling either, unless President Barack Obama postpones the implementation of his bill extending medical care to all Americans.
The Affordable Care Act was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by Obama almost four years ago. Last year it passed scrutiny by the Supreme Court, and was subsequently welcomed by a majority of the voters in the presidential election, so Obama is understandably refusing to yield to blackmail. But the House Republicans seem mysteriously unworried by the fact that the public blames them for the impending train wreck. Why?