While Steve Rogers has seemingly done everything in his power to withhold the ideals of Captain America and be the truest symbol for everything that is good and just not only in the United States, but around the world as well, his earliest involvement with the Avengers proves that he actually doesn’t stand for the best version of American values and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to call himself Captain America at all.
Steve Rogers aka Captain America became the star-spangled Super Soldier after he volunteered for an experimental treatment that promised to make him America’s perfect soldier against the Nazis during World War II. While Steve’s initial physicality wasn’t ideal for a strapping soldier, his spirit more than made up for what his body lacked, and the Super Soldier Serum would quickly fix that particular issue anyway. Basically, Steve’s heart was pure and his mind was strong, making him the ideal candidate for the Super Soldier Program despite his less than imposing physique–though once he joined the Avengers as Captain America, Steve seemingly lost that wide-eyed love of the American dream and actually exhibited just a smidge of totalitarianism.
In Avengers #31 by Stan Lee and Don Heck, the Avengers are preparing for a rescue mission as they discover the location of Hank Pym aka Goliath who had previously left for South America in pursuit of a scientist who he thought could help him fix an issue with his powers. However, Pym’s mission wasn’t as simple as paying a fellow scientist a visit, as the man he was looking for was kidnapped by a death cult of sorts, and Goliath took it upon himself to rescue him. Though when Goliath found himself in trouble, the Avengers were suited and ready to fight by his side, at least, most of them were.
Hawkeye was still reeling from being abandoned by his one true love, Black Widow, and was initially reluctant to join the team on their mission and openly resentful of Captain America giving him orders especially when he was feeling so down. To make him feel better, Wasp told Hawkeye that she, too, had issues with authority after she helped form the Avengers, which is why the original team let the leadership role be a revolving title so that everyone learned to share the command.
When the original Avengers left the team and found their replacements, they left Captain America in charge as he was the only one with the proper experience, plus he needed to train the newcomers who were insanely inexperienced in the ways of professional superheroism. However, as time went on, the new Avengers became seasoned heroes and deserved the chance to sit in the captain’s chair on a few of the missions–but Captain America consistently refused to relinquish his title.
This created some serious discord between the team members, with tensions especially high between Hawkeye and Captain America, which were internal problems within the team that could have been quickly resolved if Captain America had just used the original Avengers’ methods of leadership, but he was apparently just too comfortable as the unchallenged leader.
The irony of a superhero named Captain America literally being responsible for stripping the Avengers of its democracy is hilariously fitting, though it completely goes against everything Captain America is supposed to stand for–meaning that Steve Rogers shouldn’t be Captain America at all, and his time on the Avengers proves it.