Do You Believe That America is Exceptional? I Do.

[Tom Rinaldo]

Last edited Wed Dec 9, 2015, 10:51 AM - Edit history (1)

What Makes America "Exceptional"? A Mirror for Our Better Angels - Do you recognize ourselves in it?

I am proud to be American when our enemies hate us for the qualities that make us great.

I am proud that Americans believe that all people are created equal and that women have the same rights as do men for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud that Americans believe in the right to freely assemble, and to go where we wish to, when we want to, and to be with who we choose unfettered by intrusive government restrictions. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud that Americans believe in freedom of religion; that no one should be discriminated against or penalized because of their religious beliefs or lack of same. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud that our nation was founded with the belief that on these shores those who fled from religious persecution would find safe haven and a fresh start at rebuilding their lives. It was something that America stood for in the world. One could say that made America exceptional.

I am proud that America is predominantly a nation of immigrants. Not because there were times during our history when indigenous peoples were displaced or worse by newer arrivals. Unfortunately war and conquest are historic threads in the tapestry of virtually all humanity. That part is not exceptional. I am proud of America's vibrant tradition of inclusiveness, tolerance and co-existence that time and time again has risen up when most needed, to strengthen the ties that do bind us despite our many differences: E Pluribus Unum, “One Out of Many”. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud of America's pioneering spirit. Our openness to new places, new people, and new experiences. Our willingness to stretch our horizons beyond the familiar and the oft illusionary sense of security that conformity and zealous caution brings is characteristic of our nature. We are known for being willing to take risks to achieve what we believe in. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud that we know our Union is imperfect, and have vowed to strive to make it more perfect rather than just say it is good enough. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud when I see America's brave and generous spirit, one that has encouraged many a man and woman to found or join with a not for profit organization dedicated to reducing human misery both here and around the world. Others were called to enlist in our Armed Forces out of a conviction that it was their duty to defend those who faced violent oppression, even genocide in this world. They did so out of a sense of common humanity, not for personal treasure. It is something that America still stands for in parts of the world. One could say that spirit makes many Americans exceptional.

I am proud when it is our impulse to offer hospitality to a stranger because they are a stranger, not despite them being one. I am proud that it is written on our most famous and cherished national monument "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." It is something that America stands for in the world.

One could say that all of these things make America exceptional, if in fact all of it remains true.

[immoderate]

1. As exceptional as anybody else!

--imm

[upaloopa]

2. If America = Americans them I don't think

we are exceptional.

We have a lot of ideals but we don't live up to them

[octoberlib]

3. We're as exceptional as any other western democracy. We exceed in some areas and fall short in a

number of other areas.

[redwitch]

4. I agree with much of what you say.

But it is so incredibly painful for me to be an American these days. We squander our greatness with war and intolerance and greed that we should have put so far behind us by now. We have righted past wrongs only to stumble back and squander yet more. The best of America needs to stand apart and condemn the worst of America. We need to be who we were meant to be and who the world needs us to be. We need to condemn those of us like Trump and the haters and fearmongers and we don't do it loudly enough or often enough. And obviously we need to stop voting for selfish, grasping, greedy bastards or we will never get back on our true path.

When someone says they are proud to be an American I always say I am lucky to be an American. My being an American is an accident of birth. A very lucky accident especially since I am white. Not all of my fellow Americans are treated with the same respect or afforded the same opportunities as me. And I am particularly saddened that the beautiful proud lady that stands in NY Harbor is being shamed and mocked.

[mountain grammy]

32. Well said. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but...

while it's true that "we" espouse these principles of freedom and equality and charity, "we" often do not follow through. We are not hated for what we are, but for what we too often do: wage war, exploit third-world poverty, impose our will and our ways on other cultures, and generally behave like imperialists who think they ought to own the world.

The founding documents said all men are created equal, but the only men who actually get to be treated that way have historically been, and still are, white straight male Christians. If you are something other than this you might not get that equal treatment. Ask guys like Freddy Gray about that. Oh, wait; you can't because he's dead. Where were his equal rights?

The constitutional right to assemble is honored more in the breach than in the observance. Ask the Occupy folks. And remember the "Free Speech" zones the cops set up during the party conventions?

Freedom of religion? "We" talk a good show, but ask American Muslims how that's really working out.

Pioneering spirit? Being a pioneer works just great if there's plenty of land available; all you have to do is kill or displace the people who already own it. That safe haven for the people fleeing religious persecution in England worked out only because the "pilgrims" were able to take and settle on Native people's land.

Unless we start putting those inspiring words to work, we are not exceptional. We are like everybody else in the world - no better, no worse. The United States became wealthy and powerful in the 18th and 19th centuries by seizing Native lands and exploiting slave labor, not because we were somehow better or more noble. We have a lot to atone for and we have never lived up to the potential envisioned by those founding documents.

American exceptionalism is bullshit, and the sooner we figure that out the better off we will be. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Squinch]

8. I agree with you completely. If we want to be exceptional, we need to stop bullshitting ourselves.

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. MLK Jr brilliantly used professed Christian values to shame those who advocated & allowed oppression

It was a very effective aspect of his non violent movement for social change. I wrote more about my motive for this OP below

[PufPuf23]

6. Ironic that post 9-11 we of the USA have come to

hate ourselves for our freedoms (that are in decline; economically, legally, and socially).

Our military is a blight upon the world. Other militaries are also blights but our military is exceptional and unique in size and reach.

I support the exceptional gains in identity politics but these gains are tender if we decline in freedom and economic justice.

I am exceptionally sad to see so much fear, hate, and selfishness.

Our media and political classes are exceptional messes regards to serving the People and exceptional in propaganda of deceit.

I still believe in the goodness of most people in America and in American ideals.

[LanternWaste]

7. An imaginary border prioritizes the imaginary division of people

An imaginary border prioritizes the imaginary division of people and less important people. Yet for some biased reason, the myopic only apply that to religion.

[hifiguy]

9. Few polities have so brazenly and willfully refused to live up

to, or even try to live up to, the noble words of their founding documents. I will grant you that.

[seabeckind]

10. Once upon a time.

Not so much these days.

Picks up around 4:15.


"America is not the greatest country in the world anymore"

Ain't done nothin lately but run around trying to pretend the current crop had anything to do with making it great.

Went to the moon long ago and now we have to hitch a ride to get to orbit.

[Photographer]

12. Thank you. I was about to hunt this down.

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. Actually I wrote this with non DU'es in mind...

For the record, for one thing, I do not consider being exceptional to be a zero sum game, as in if one nation has a claim to be exceptional than other nations can't have valid claims to be so also. Nations sometimes have different different reasons to be exceptional. I do realize that the common usage for America being exceptional is a jingoistic expression - but I chose to turn that around here. I refuse to cede pride in our best traditions to the right wing in America.

I left to go to work for a spell immediately after posting this OP. While out I toyed with the thought of putting this on my Facebook page when I returned under the header: "A Mirror for Our Better Angels - Can you recognize ourselves in it?"

I believe in the power of appealing to people's so to speak "better angels". That was my intent here and I hope I can manage to share this outside of only left of center circles.

[tkmorris]

35. The root word is "exception". It's kinda by definition a zero sum game

Just sayin'.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. How do you propose that we confront xenophobia effectively outside of our own ranks? n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. I don't disagre with your main point

But inspiration can move a person's psyche. It often does and it is a tool foolish to totally ignore. Trump can't be changed nor most of his hard core backers. Others can still be touched though who currently are mostly driven by their fears alone.

[craigmatic]

16. No lucky is the word. America developed as a new country on a new continent back in the 1600's.

We really don't contribute anything to the world except the military, technology, entertainment, and banking.

[lunatica]

17. Being an American is just as good as being a Mexican, Peruvian, Vietnamese or South African

Arguing that we're so special only makes us enemies. And well deserved ones at that. Americans need to get off their high horse really!

[Tom Rinaldo]

20. I was playing with a concept here of how to reach some on "the other side".

I intentionally chose language that might reach some who see the world differently than I, who profess pride in being an American. I was trying to write something that could be shared with people who identify as much more conservative than I do. We are in dangerous times - fears can not be allowed now to go unchallenged. As I alluded to in a different reply, there are aspects of the culture of essentially all nations that are exceptional and worthy of pride. It would be helpful if more "patriotic Americans" identified more with "American" values like these IMO.

[hobbit709]

21. Exceptional what I'm not sure of.

[CharlotteVale]

22. No. I don't.

[sibelian]

23. I think it used to be. I think it could be again.

I think it's kind of decided a lot of the Dream is too much like hard work.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. "The world is my country and my religion is to do good.” Thomas Paine

"Patriotism is passion of fools and the most foolish of passions." Friedrich Nietsche

[LuvNewcastle]

25. We're an exceptional mess right now.

[Yorktown]

26. The text is self contradictory

I am proud that Americans believe that all people are created equal and that women have the same rights as do men for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is something that America stands for in the world. One could say that makes America exceptional.

I am proud that Americans believe in freedom of religion

What do you do when one religion negates gender equality?

Qur'an (4:34) - "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them."

Qur'an (2:228) - "and the men are a degree above them"

I suppose this will be alerted upon, but I am simply stating a fact about an ideology, Islam, which does not recognize that "women have the same rights as do men". And it is naive to imagine newcomers will shed their beliefs at the drop of a hat. Especially after 3 decades of Saudi radicalization in the 'Muslim' world.

And if it can make any righteous alerter feel better, I dislike all religions.

'god' is not great.

[hunter]

27. I was born here in the U.S.A., but in hindsight I should have left when I was young and debt free.

My wife and I have been hammered hard by medical debt, and college expenses for our kids.

The medical problems are the kind of shit that falls out of the sky and can land on anyone.

We thought that's what insurance was for, but my wife ended up bitten hard by COBRA plans and eventually became uninsurable.

Obamacare has made things a little better, but I don't think the U.S.A. is a first world nation.

We are the top dog banana republic of the banana republics with an overly expensive military armed with nukes, and the world experts of propaganda, advertising, and consumerism.

Too many of us are ignorant racist assholes who have no idea what the world is like beyond U.S.A. borders.

Fuck that shit.

If things ever get too hot here, I'm leaving, just as my ancestors fled for the Americas when things got to hot for them in Europe.

My very last immigrant ancestor was an imported bride from Scandinavia to the brand new Salt Lake City. She didn't like sharing a husband so she ran off with a guy she could have to herself, and they established a homestead far enough away that nobody would bother them with religion or politics.

My immigrant ancestors were all like that; Irish Catholics in trouble with the Crown, pacifists, religious heretics, impressed sailors, the sorts who jumped off the boat and ran like hell.

The U.S.A. just isn't all that great. I know people who have left. If things continue as they are, the purpose of our boarder controls will shift from keeping undesirable people out to keeping dissatisfied people in.

[olddots]

36. I agree with Hunter

We are exceptionally naive .

[mwrguy]

28. Exceptionally greedy, arrogant, and ignorant

[Person 2713]

29. No I have traveled too many places to know it really isn't

[Logical]

30. Nope, no rah rah shit for me. I am realistic. Nt

[Tom Rinaldo]

31. We mostly talk to ourseles here. This is out on Facebook now

I appreciate the responses given above and largely agree with most everything written - I explained how I was using the term "exceptional" already in posts I made earlier, but I understand people's problems/differences with it.

I used to work as a specialized antique dealer in Early American material. Many of my old customers and colleagues in that field are Conservatives, but we for the most part had mutual respect and a shared love for the roots of this nation. They remain Facebook friends today. I posted this on my Facebook page mostly for them, though a number of my leftist political friends and a larger circle of family have been responding positively to it - and sharing it where plenty of Republicans will find it.

This is the very slightly edited version - cleared of some typos and given a new subject line above the rest of the text, the one I used on Facebook. Feel free to share it if you want, if you think it helpful to do so. The closing line: "One could say that all of these things make America exceptional, if in fact all of it remains true", gives all of us an out from taking part in any exercise in rah rah blind patriotism.

We don't always live these values, obviously. One could even say that we seldom do. But they can still be held up to counter xenophobic hate. If just a little of this gets through to a few people who are now knee jerk reacting to terrorist attacks out of fear alone, it is worth the effort.

[BooScout]

33. No I don't...

Having lived abroad for ten years now, I think America is no better than many other countries. All countries have their good points and bad points. I don't think America is exceptional about quite a few things.

[Spider Jerusalem]

34. Nope

And compared to most developed countries, there's not a single thing on that list that makes the US particularly "exceptional". Equality before the law and equality of men and women? See almost every country in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.

Freedom of assembly, etcetera? See: every other liberal democracy, again.

Safe haven for those fleeing religious persecution? Yeah, the USA, hardly unique there (ask all the Puritans who went to Holland. Or the French Huguenots who ended up in Britain and the Low Countries.)

Nation of immigrants? Like Australia and New Zealand and Canada and Brazil and lots of other places.

Honestly the most "exceptional" thing about the USA, compared to most other countries, is the tendency of too many Americans to treat being an American like some sort of weird cultish quasi-religion.

[Orsino]

37. We were exceptionally lucky to share a nation possessed of incredible resources...

...for our billionaires to go absolutely apeshit with. Nowadays they find it more profitable to mine us directly, but we still get to call it freedom!