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I’m proud of Germany for its national humility (which is not a national guilt or an unhealthy focus on the past). Germany is the only country in history to nationalize shame in a way that also makes clear that Germans today need not hang their heads. They only need to remember never again. No country has ever threaded the humanity needle better.

America, my country? We refuse to offer truth and reconciliation to descendants of slaves or to descendants of the people who lived in America before we decided it was manifest destiny that we take it over. I’ll never understand why we refuse a one-time reckoning.

When I read that Germany was going to bypass its debt ceiling to re-militarize and support Ukraine, I had a brief moment of chills, given the current arc of the German revanchist party. I got over it. Merz is on the right track & Germans are ready to lead again.

When the US reaches our fascist end game, perhaps Germany will be there to show us how to rebuild. I fear no one will be there, but I like the symmetry of German help.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be long gone. Better to leave too early than to risk it.

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