The political left doesn't like seeing America as an exceptional nation. This would imply that European socialism and nanny-statism would be difficult if not outright impossible to attain in the United States. Progressives, after all, want progressively bigger government to assert progressively more control on the population, economy, and social fabric of the nation state. What else does a progressive agenda desire? Those advocating for "progress" believe a perfect utopia can be achieved through a powerful central government using the right policies and programs.
President Obama has demonstrated his rejection of American exceptionalism unlike any president in history when he stated: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Meaning no one is exceptional if everyone is exceptional. If everyone is a winner in a race, then no one is actually a winner because winning becomes meaningless.
Jonah Goldberg points out:
Ultimately, it's not that liberals don't believe in American exceptionalism so much as they believe it is holding America back, which might explain why they're lashing out at the people who want to keep it exceptional. But that too is nothing new. "The Coolidge myth has been created by amazingly skillful propaganda," editorialized The Nation in 1924 about the unfathomable popularity of Calvin Coolidge. "The American people dearly love to be fooled.
So what makes America exceptional? Certainly it's revolutionary origins and unyielding commitment to individual rights, democracy, a republican system, and the rule of law. Moreover it's always been an example of what freedom and capitalism should be to the oppressed and un-free throughout the world. The same can't be said of Germany, Italy, Greece, or Saudi Arabia.
Thus if America ceases to be exceptional, the world will be a far worse off place than if America continues to be exceptional, unique, and the shining city on a hill that its founders dreamed of.
President Obama has demonstrated his rejection of American exceptionalism unlike any president in history when he stated: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Meaning no one is exceptional if everyone is exceptional. If everyone is a winner in a race, then no one is actually a winner because winning becomes meaningless.
Jonah Goldberg points out:
Ultimately, it's not that liberals don't believe in American exceptionalism so much as they believe it is holding America back, which might explain why they're lashing out at the people who want to keep it exceptional. But that too is nothing new. "The Coolidge myth has been created by amazingly skillful propaganda," editorialized The Nation in 1924 about the unfathomable popularity of Calvin Coolidge. "The American people dearly love to be fooled.
So what makes America exceptional? Certainly it's revolutionary origins and unyielding commitment to individual rights, democracy, a republican system, and the rule of law. Moreover it's always been an example of what freedom and capitalism should be to the oppressed and un-free throughout the world. The same can't be said of Germany, Italy, Greece, or Saudi Arabia.
Thus if America ceases to be exceptional, the world will be a far worse off place than if America continues to be exceptional, unique, and the shining city on a hill that its founders dreamed of.
1 comments:
"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Meaning no one is exceptional if everyone is exceptional.
The Obama quote doesn't mean everyone (or no one) is exceptional in Obama's eyes.
He said--at least in what's quoted above--that the citizens of each country often think that their country is the best.
I think he's right. Do you think the British (or French or Greeks, or Canadians) spend their time saying: "You know what our problem is? We aren't America" or "We are just like every other country on the planet, the only one that's distinct in an important way is the United States"?
As dangerous as it is to generalize about entire countries, I doubt it. That quote (about the Brits thinking they are exceptional, etc) should be considered banal-sky-is-blue-dog-bites-man stuff.
-Anon1152
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