“These values my grandparents taught me, they haven’t gone anywhere,” said President Barack Obama in outlining American exceptionalism in 2016. It was one of the great speeches of his presidency, and worth recalling now, in these dark days, as the strongest case ever made for progressive patriotism.

“That’s why our military can look the way it does, every shade of humanity, forged into common service,” he said. “That’s why anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.”

This is the country, Obama said in another speech, “where you can write your own destiny.” He certainly could not have said that had he landed here, in chains, in 1619.

But 1619 was not predestination, as some would have it. It was followed by the emancipation of 1863, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Obama’s own election in 2008. None of it purged the original sin of enslavement, but it showed that the American people, more often than not, write their destiny for the better.

Today, there is no external enemy to unite us — not the British Crown, Nazi Germany or a Communist Soviet Union. For much of the world, and more than half of the United States, Trump is the uniter — the repellent-in-chief. As we saw again this week in Europe, the president is a laughingstock, mocked for his buffoonery, ignorance and bluster. In just a few days abroad, he made 21 false statements, a microcosm of his presidency.

At home, he wages war on American institutions: the military, the courts, Congress, the press, respect for truth, the Constitution itself. But he also faces certain impeachment, because what he did warrants no other choice. Though he most likely won’t be removed, a majority of Americans say he has committed an impeachable offense. He will be forever remembered for the gross violations of his oath.

We should be loud and proud with this to the rest of the world: L’état, c’est moi is nowhere in the founding documents. That’s another story America can yet tell.

Timothy Egan (@nytegan) is a contributing opinion writer who covers the environment, the American West and politics. He is a winner of the National Book Award and author of “A Pilgrimage to Eternity.”

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