Americans like to believe they are exceptional — a pioneer nation born in revolution, animated by liberty, individual freedom, and committed to the democratic separation of powers. In the spring of 2022, at a refugee camp on the Polish-Ukrainian border, I began to suspect that this belief, while powerful, may no longer describe us as accurately as we assume. I was at the Medyka crossing for only two weeks, but the experience changed me forever. Decades earlier, I had been a Soviet Studies majo