John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

The Presidential inauguration is complete. It is no secret that this president requires unquestioned loyalty and perceives himself as the president who will be a winner. In his inaugural speech he presented himself as the one who will make America in his own image: great “like never before.” It is a grandiose idea. He said he is the one to make it possible for America to “reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world.” He will make it happen. It is his destiny. It is the Manifest Destiny of the United States.

In his speech, our president asserts that his destiny included being saved by God from assassination so that he could be the one to save America. He projects the belief in his own destiny onto the country. He argues that it is the destiny of the country to continue expanding its territory and its influence on the nations of the world. This expansion is what makes America great. President Trump said in his speech that “our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on earth.”

“The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation. We will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars,” he added.

The flaw in Manifest Destiny is its effect on others. The story of the expansion of our nation across “a vast continent” ignores the plight of Native Americans who were pushed off their land. Knowing the whole story of our nation’s history can be a guide for our country’s relationships with the rest of the world. It can be an incentive to reconsider the goal of greatness through expansion. Our president could find greatness by pointing toward a new purpose for our nation that is cognizant of the rights and the dignity of all human beings.

In fact, ours might not have to be a new purpose. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are already ensconced in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Our country’s greatness may not always be “winning” at the expense of others. Our greatness may be to set an example of success that honors the freedom and dignity of all people. Our purpose as a democratic society may be to take seriously the mandate to “form a more perfect union.”

This might mean seeking ways to incorporate the contributions of all citizens into the life of the nation. It might mean giving up on seeking a strongman to make our decisions and do our work for us. It might mean committing to a better democracy.

An effective democracy does not impose societal norms upon people who are different. Democracy is a dialogue of ideas and actions that encourage freedom and justice for all people. Democracy is wounded when laws and rules of exclusion condemn some people. For example, America and the LGBTQ+ community lose as the result of the President’s declaration that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” President Trump’s other declarations — including his order to “carry out the largest deportation of migrant ‘criminals’ in history” and his commitment to “ending asylum” — may be a win for autocracy but they are a blow to democracy.

It is important during the coming four-year presidential term to depend upon the strengths of democracy: freedom, dignity, care for the tired and for the poor, equal justice for all people and humility. Community efforts to advocate for these strengths is a win and greatly surpass any vision of expansionist Manifest Destiny.

May the days of depending upon a single strongman and seeking to win at the expense of others be limited. Uplifting others is a win, a win for all of us, a true win that may inspire “the awe and admiration of the entire world.”