Three strong signs that America is unmaking itself

Once upon a time, there was such a thing as American Exceptionalism. That’s the faith, first mentioned by Alexis de Tocqueville about two centuries ago, that America’s position among democratic nations was “quite exceptional” and therefore it had a “Manifest Destiny” to grow from sea to shining sea.Since the beginning, the core requirement and highest embodiment of that Exceptionalism and Destiny has been the Rugged Individual “self-reliant, independent, and fiercely committed to personal freedom and self-rule”, going “where others had not gone before, even when it required an inordinate amount of bravery” and always finding new opportunities behind some ever-expanding Frontier. A full human being, who could make it anywhere all by him or herself, thanks only to self-confidence, self-reliance, and an irrepressible love for fairness and personal freedom that would never tolerate robber barons of any kind.In the last few years, however, I have noticed that America really seems hell-bent…