I agree it was worded a bit harshly but on the other hand, that dream I had honestly is gone. So it's not hyperbolic, just maybe not worded perfectly I admit.
Some people may understand my initial comment as bashing against the USA. I want to clearly state that I didn't mean that at all. The last sentence was to express that I'm sad to see such things happen and I'll be the first to cheer if the USA can restore what it used to be and I believe it has everything it takes to achieve that.
I share much of your sentiment, possibly for different reasons. I keep hoping for that moment when the country that I thought was going to be the example of how to run a country will find its bearing again and stop the madness.
The potential of the United States is to influence the world from the moral high ground, the last decade have undone the 20 years of building up that image prior to that.
And it will take at least another 20 years (if not more) to fix that.
About 5 years ago I had an opportunity to move to the US, another year ago a fairly well known company wanted to hire me. In both cases I said 'no thanks', in large part due to how the United States has behaved in the recent past.
The potential for greatness is there, but just like with any project execution matters.
There is one sense in which the US has noticably regressed. Back In The Day we wrote on the Statue of Liberty "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Then in the had a big panic about foreign terrorists in the early 1920s[1], which ended up with the US cutting back on immigration by more than an order of magnitude. The recent panic about foreign terrorism certainly isn't helping, either.
I think the best sentiment is that we should go back to how things used to be in areas where we've regressed (immigration, human rights, limits on the power of government, etc.) but stay where we are in areas where we've progressed (racial integration, voting rights, overall prosperity, cleaner industry, etc.).
I think the point is, ethical progress (be it through abolition of slavery or greater tolerance of difference) should lead to a greater positive effect on the status quo.
If other forms of social, economic and political injustice take the place of previous abominations, the net result is a state which appears disinterested in positively affecting its ethical standing on the world stage.
The sentence was a bit tongue in cheek, something that seems to have completely escaped those piling on with their indignant downvotes, as a way of exercising their frustration with the poor state of US immigration policy. "There, downvoted! Now I've done my part to make the world a better place!".
The US has had problems going back to when it was founded, and slaves - black people, mostly - were counted as 3/5ths of a human being. That's a sight worse than the stupid airport scanners, or many other modern stupidities in my book. There are plenty of other things to dislike about the place, too, that are not recent.
But plenty of things to like, and every other country has plenty of negatives too, if you look closely.
I disagree with plenty of things in the US, but I'm not so fond of sweeping statements.
Fair enough. The reasons why it rubbed me a bit are (1) I know you're an American living abroad, so at least you've seen both sides of the fence, and (2) I used to think much like the OP and today I won't even go to the USA for business any more. They've managed to eradicate a good part of my respect for the country as a whole as well, and one of the main issues is the way new arrivals are treated by immigration.
How the government treats people that are at its mercy is a pretty good indicator for the state of affairs, and in this respect the USA is not looking too good, to put it mildly.
Slavery was appalling, but nobody was advocating 3/5 as an actual statement about their metaphysical humanity. It was a purely political compromise on the total influence and taxation of the south vs. the north, because they couldn't agree on x + 1/2 y or x + 3/4 y. The proper number for congressional representation should have been zero, not because slaves weren't people but because they weren't permitted to vote.
That's his feeling, it is whatever he writes.
Whether it is full of hyperbole or not is not knowable, he'd have to admit to that himself or you'd have to scan his brain.