If the whole world imitated us, we wouldn't be an exception anymore. What "American exceptionalism" originally meant was that we were different, an exception. For a lot of people now it seems to mean that we are exceptional in the sense of wonderful. We are a wonderful country, but that's not what the phrase refers to. Clearly we do have our own traditions, values and principles, but the idea of American exceptionalism is a complicated one and shouldn't become a political attack slogan.
It is much easier to pretend that the intrusive surveillance state unleashed in the wake of a national tragedy was done for the public’s own good, and not to usher in a new era of absolute control. It is much easier to assert deceitfully that the world has grown too complex and unwieldy to survive without a class of managerial technocrats ruling over everyone else.
Again, it's complicated and hard to sort out what was essential for national security twenty years ago and what went too far. Maybe consolidating elite power was what Bush and Cheney were after back then, but many people here didn't think so at the time.
But to be fair the rot had already set in when the Clintons were granted a load of FBI files on their political enemies without question. Hence the b witch is still not wearing orange like she deserves. And this Milley guy is still walking around free disgracing the Marine uniform after blatant traitorous actions. Lamp posts, indeed.