For those who have been following the op-ed columns and political magazines over the past few months—both left and right—some startling revelations have emerged that appear to be shaking the foundations of our self-righteousness.  We have begun to realize that the only people who think Americans are “exceptional” are Americans.  Nobody else does.  It is finally sinking in that we were not ordained by God to create the entire world in our image and we can’t tell every other nation on earth what to do and expect them to comply. We have been “spearheading” the Israeli-Palestinian “peace talks” since I had a 32-inch waist and we all know how successful they have been.   The confrontation with Putin is really somewhat ludicrous.  Our position seems to be that if we invade sovereign countries, overthrow their governments, arm rebels, create chaos and mayhem  in “our national interest,” that’s okay, but if Russia does it, we “condemn” such actions and sternly warn there will be “grave consequences” for doing acts we have already done. Then our rusting Republicans, lead by their doddery-old-man-in-chief John McCain, predictably insist the president is not doing enough.  Enough what?  First there’s not a whole lot more sanctions and stern warnings he can do and only McCain seems to want us to get into another war.  Secondly, European business interests heavily involved in Russian trade are not exactly supporting those economic “sanctions” whoever proposes them.  Now if trying to accept that we do not rule the world weren’t trauma enough, we have to face the destruction of some of our cherished national myths here at home.  On April 22, 2013, I posted on my blog: “If any of you still believe we live in a democracy, I have bad news for you. All of us were taught since grade school that in a democracy our elected government is supposed to uphold the will of the people.  This no longer applies to the United States.”  Admittedly, this did not have much of an impact since nobody listens to me.  But, just recently, a new study by Princeton researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page concluded that America has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.  They write, "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."  In other words, what the voting American citizen wants does not matter, what the wealthy and powerful elite want does.  Unless you are really stupid you already knew this but now we have a serious research paper to prove those of us who are not stupid were right all along.  Perhaps the cruelest cut of all is the realization that good old American unfettered, profits-over-everything capitalism is causing more worldwide harm than good.  French economist Thomas Piketty’s new book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has just caused an uproar.  If you are a liberal, you think it will scare conservatives to death because it basically says the wealthy are getting wealthier not by doing any thing to earn money but because of the money-generating assets they hold.  So we are regressing into a society where great wealth comes from inheritance and not from actually doing or producing anything.  Conservatives, on the other hand, are going hysterical over Piketty’s idea of world taxation on the wealthy and perhaps having to admit that the American myth that great wealth is earned by anyone willing to work hard enough is phony. Of course, predictably the conservatives are calling Piketty a “Marxist” hoping there are enough Americans old enough to know what they mean by that.  But there are also some voices on the right that think capitalism is no longer doing its job. Arthur C. Brooks, president of the right wing American Enterprise Institute, wrote an op-last week stating: “But while free enterprise keeps expanding globally, its success may be faltering in the United States. According to research from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, men in their 30s in 2004 were earning 12 percent less in real terms than their fathers’ generation at the same point in their lives.”  In other words, the rich keep getting richer and free-enterprise capitalism is not doing much for anyone else.  Brooks also concludes, “The solution does not lie in the dubious “fair share” class-baiting of politicians. We need to combine an effective, reliable safety net for the poor with a hard look at modern barriers to upward mobility. That means attacking cronyism that protects the well-connected. It means lifting poor children out of ineffective schools that leave them unable to compete. It entails pruning back outmoded licensing laws that restrain low-income entrepreneurs. And it means creating real solutions — not just proposing market distortions — for people who cannot find jobs that pay enough to support their families.”  By the way, I repeat this is from a right-wing commentator. So listen up Americans, you are not exceptional, you do not live in a democracy and free market capitalism is screwing you.