Earned in a lifetime, gone in a day
There’s this Tamil saying that has stuck with me since childhood — it takes a lifetime to earn a good name, but it takes a day to lose it.
I think this for me sums up how much of the world sees USA now. Once it seemed like it held a beacon of democracy; now all I see are flickering embers. As long as this administration is in power, I’m not sure how America will get anything more than grudging compliance from countries that depend on it.