Dear John,

As we all witness our incompetent president flounder, leading the worst coronavirus response in the industrialized world and using violent authoritarianism to crush nationwide protests for Black lives, the hard truth about this country has come into focus: 

America is not exceptional. But we are the exception:

With the death toll surpassing 120,000, we account for the most COVID-19 deaths in the world.

American police kill over 1,000 people every year.

We're the only one out of 22 advanced nations that doesn't give all workers some form of paid sick leave.

We're the only industrialized nation without guaranteed, universal healthcare.

We have the largest prison population on Earth.

We have the largest CEO-to-worker pay gap.

We spend more on the military than the next seven nations combined.

Our latest video debunks the myth of American exceptionalism.

2020 has laid bare the problems at the core of our broken system — problems that have been plaguing America long before Trump came along:
 
Centuries of systemic racism, decades of America’s failure to provide its people the basic support they need, decades of putting corporations’ bottom lines ahead of workers’ paychecks, and decades of letting the rich and powerful pull the strings as the rest of us barely get by.
 
Now that we understand the truth about American exceptionalism, we can work together to remedy our past, and create a country where the American people can not only survive, but thrive.

In it for the long haul,
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
 

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