American Exceptionalism

The BBQ Pit
1

America is a great country, and right now, with its economy far outperforming its peers since the Obama term, we’re arguably as close to American hegemony as we’ve been since the baby boom.

But “American Exceptionalism” is such BS for the following reasons, and it has just become a crutch, particularly, but not only, by those on the right.

It’s a statement of faith
When the shit really hits the fan you get jingoist sayings like “The worst day in America is better than the best day anywhere else”. What does that even mean? What sampling of the population are we considering, and what metrics?

Let alone all the stuff about America being specially blessed by God. Why the hell would God even care about nation states, let alone have a special favorite one?
And, frankly, do you really think God’s special favorite country is the one that started with a genocide, chattel slavery and standing atop a mountain of bison skulls?

It’s an excuse
One of the main times it is invoked is when people point out healthcare, gun control, or mass transit policies that work well in other countries. And yes, of course, there may be sound reasons why some of these policies may be difficult, perhaps completely unworkable, in the US; that’s a fine discussion to have.
But “We’re such a great, fantastic, number-one-ist country, that we can’t do something that many countries around the world can do” is not a good argument.

It’s a statement of ignorance
Recently, in the speaker debacle, a Republican said that the situation was a mess, but it’s still the best political system in the world. Is he basing that on a detailed analysis of different political systems around the world? Because, nah, bro.

2

Forgive me. This is ‘canned’ (ie, already written and saved), but …

“American Exceptionalism” is the fundamental belief that we’re better than every other nation, in every other way.

But we’re not. We’re not, and no end of objective, quantitative information bears out that fact.

Some people’s insecurities won’t allow them to see when there’s a better way of doing something.

Those people tend to revel in pointing to worst practices – who does something worse than the US. And why not? It allows those people to be complacent and smug.

But those same people won’t ever look at best practices – who’s doing something better than we are – and then try to emulate it?

For the “American Exceptionalism” crowd who think America is great, to whatever degree it is great, it got that way in spite of them, not because of them.

“American Exceptionalism” is a clear impediment to progress.

3

And …

We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow.

― Al Franken

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Other countries make mistakes also. This is the birthplace of freedom and wherever freedom exists in this world now it’s due to the exceptionalism of the United States.

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/s /s /s /s /s /s /s /s /s /s

I’ve got plenty of these things, TriPolar. Help yourself.

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I will be the first nitpicker to note that this is not in fact how the term originated or what it was intended to mean.

As originally coined, it wasn’t about the US being exceptional in the sense of being great and awesome. Its argument was that the US was so powerful and rich, and advantaged by various geographical and historical factors, that the “usual rules” of political systems did not apply — the US should be considered an exception, and that it is now a unique, not-before-seen actor on the world stage.

Of course, over time, this technical definition faded to the academic background in favor of the mainstream understanding of the phrase. That, evidently, is how the concept will be debated in this thread. Which is fine, as long as it’s understood.

Just trying to head off a potential semantic hijack.

7

One more (if it’s not obvious, this is a bit of a hot-button issue for me):

OR:

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE SAAME THING

8

Very useful addition.

But – yeah: it’s become a hyperpartisan snarl word cum cudgel used to cement tribalism and generate liberal tears.

I think in many ways religion and nationalism are the two scourges of humanity.

–Deepak Chopra

It’s become … the apotheosis of the nationalism of which – I would submit – Chopra spoke.

9

In what way? Because your English aristocracy fought a war with the English aristocrats back home over who should pay for the war with France?

LOL no

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In domestic politics, yes, it has that function.

In international politics, it is employed to serve a slightly different aim: because the US is unique, it is imbued with special purpose, a mission to spread its gospel, and therefore it cannot be held accountable the same way. Essentially, the exceptionalism of the US justifies itself.

I find both of these positions to be destructive and poisonous.

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Right. No-one is special.

What? The US started with enslaving millions and kept this going well into the 19th century. Then took another century to give full civil rights.

It’s true that much of the Western world relies upon American muscle, directly or indirectly. But probably in a hypothetical world without the US, other democracies would invest more in their militaries, so it’s just the deal that has been struck, rather than something everyone else is powerless on.

Anyway, I am not going to argue that the US doesn’t have the world’s best military…pitting American Exceptionalism doesn’t mean I don’t think there are ways that the US is objectively the best at some things.

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[Sorry. I should have been more contemplative and written a single post]

Trump has also weaponized it. He capitalized on the addictive nature of American Exceptionalism, and then cut off the supply to the addicts.

By … calling ours a failing country, a nation in decline, and a passel of other things. He put the addicts into painful, cold-turkey withdrawal, and they are experiencing The Worst of It.

Which makes Trump just a wee bit worse than most demagogues who capitalize on this facet of AE (American Exceptionalism).

Is there even precedent for this specific manipulative use OF AE/Nationalism/Jingoism/Patriotism/??

[rhetorical question. Probably a hijack. As you were]

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Sure you won’t have one of those sarcasm tags, TriPolar? They’re free!

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Nearly every up-and-coming authoritarian follows this playbook. Trigger nostalgia for past greatness, warn of threats to current stability, forecast failure and doom if not corrected, proclaim self as savior. It’s Dictatorship 101.

“Make America Great Again” is just the pure distilled heroin-shot-to-the-brain-stem version of it.

15

I don’t seem to hear a whole lot of people talk about American Exceptionalism these days. Where are you guys hearing about this?

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You’re right, actually I forgot about this.
It’s quite weird that Trump rallies contain this sorrowful hymn about how the US is a nation in decline, being laughed at, yet MAGA politicians and supporters will be the first to invoke the “Better than the best day anywhere else” nonsense.

I guess the picture that they want to paint is of a scary, dangerous, Hobbesian world, where America is the only shining light, but it’s almost declining to being as bad as everywhere else.

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I think I’d be hard pressed to support it, but my feeling was that he masterfully morphed from Cheerleader For America into Dictator 101 mode.

But maybe you’re right. Maybe he only ever did ‘threaten’ the innate tribalism of His Base by telling them all that was holy, and that was being taken away from them.

By – of course – Them.

18

Maybe you put your finger on it. Maybe the choir (Republicans) are singing the nationalism praises, loudly and incessantly, and leaving their putative party leader to yank away the football and threaten the stygian consequences of losing all that is sacred to us.

Maybe it’s a bit less about one person’s manipulation than a rather elegantly choreographed work of pure evil, replete with a large cast and budget.

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Aw, hell. One more … because it does bear on all of this :wink:

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you: [Donald Trump/Ron DeSantis] is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, …

– “The American President”

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Did you ever read the parts of the Bible where a prophet is trying to convince the people to change their evil ways? The spiel is always the same: God wants to make you guys awesome; remember how great things used to be? But you’re all acting crazy! Here’s a long list of your failings, maybe we’ll poetically call Jerusalem a whore, spice it up. Now, shape up and return to your former glory, or be destroyed by foreigners.

This is a pretty old technique.