And greedy leaders use it as an opportunity for genocide.

Ohferpetessake, other countries, even states like NY & CT, have weathered this storm due to good leadership!
All we need do is get rid of OrangeIdiot & his ilk!
November cannot come soon enough!

Well, yes, but it was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. Had American political, legal, electoral and financial institutions been healthy, and US Democracy real rather than the sham which it really is, then we wouldn't be reading articles like this. It seems everything in our age occurs in real time and before our eyes, including the decline of empires. I fear for the future however, with the US increasingly joining the alliance of authoritarianism in the world. Even if Biden wins I doubt his capacity, or his party's, to reverse the tide, and the forces of authoritarianism behind Trumpism will reinvent, regroup and plot. American exceptionalism seems to have evolved into the American tragedy.

Primarily because of our leadership

American exceptionalism may have existed in distinct historical moments, but it never could have existed indefinitely. That is a silly myth at best and militaristic nationalism at dangerous worst. Who are (we) Americans to define/determine for the world what is exceptional? What do exceptionalists know for scientific fact about themselves? Rather than being scientific, exceptionalists probably rate everything/everyone as either perfect or less than perfect, which sets up an unreal dualism. It would be good for this nation to mature beyond the notion that America/Americans are superior in anything and everything to other nations. How arrogant and conceited !

I genuinely hope that it is marking the end of American dominance in the world, and creating conditions which require mutual understandings, cooperation, and shared responsibility. That would be a better world.