American Exceptionalism

Geez, What Are You Smoking, And Where Can I Get Some?

It is my intention to discuss a number of items under this heading, the number of which I do not know.

However, I'm pretty certain that there will be widely cast subjects both old and new, hence this may again become one of my haphazard series.  Hopefully there will be at least some decent articles coming out of the series, but we'll just have to see.

In part I will be bringing in some of my previous articles on such topics on which I have before written if indeed my prognostications have been proven correct, or at least not proven wrong.  In some cases I will use portions of my own writing to expand upon a topic with a new slant.

In no case am I intending to use other people's ideas to support my own and then call the series my own writing.  I've hated this form of writing, and I really hate the research required for footnoting.  If I use quotes from other people, in some cases I will have the quoted source, but in others it is likely that everyone know who said what when, and I will leave that aspect up to some easily accomplished internet research.

I will include this prelude to each of my articles because I don't want to make everyone go back and find out what I was doing, as many blogs force you to do.  I will do the research on my own material and include it, as much of what I've written over the last 10 years is actually printed out because no blog site properly did backups and I didn't trust them.

So this is just the introduction to this series.  I've written a series before, and unfortunately I never got back to some of the topics I had desired to talk about, so these won't be numbered.  They'll just be super titles.
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After watching Meet the Press today with Newt Gingrich on Meet the Candidate segment, I have major questions.

Not only questions about Newt's ability to be the President, but his concern for American Exceptionalism as if it is something pre-ordained by some higher power.

The question doesn't become whether there is such a thing as American Exceptionalism, but rather whether the term is so biased as to ignore that other nations in the world have, in fact, helped to build the world we have.

What is American Exceptionalism?  And if such a thing is possible, just where do you point to in history to explain the continued concept?

I highly doubt the concept, other than those of the Greatest Generation who ended up giving both life and limb to support Western Civilization against Nazi aggression, but rising to the call isn't the defining event.

No, American Exceptionalism comes from some type of hubris exhibited by the Bush administration in it's exuberance to go beyond the protection of the people to determining who was good or bad.  The concept of pre-emptive attacks comes down to a number of different methods, not just dumping troops and military hardware into a country.  But is this what American Exceptionalism is supposed to be?

First off, I'd have to say that there is no such thing as American Exceptionalism other than the name.  For some reason we become the end all and be all of the entire world by such a declaration.

But one has to question just what such a declaration involves. 

Honestly I believe the term is a sham, a method to make American voters think there are certain circumstances which put us above the level of any other country when we should recognize that we are simply one nation amongst a number of other nations.

The concept of American Exceptionalism is a negative to the perception of America in other countries, and ultimately makes us more likely to have problems in the perception of our country as a whole.

But this is nothing new.  I've written about this some 8 years ago and nothing has changed.  We have a high opinion of ourselves yet we have people representing us who have no idea of what their job is.
They didn't get elected to do the job as they saw it, but to do the job as the electorate saw it.  And there is plenty of fault to go around, none of it exemplifying American Exceptionalism.

The presumption of the elected to do their jobs the way they see fit became apparent during the Easter break when Paul Ryan's own constituency found major faults with his budget proposal which eliminated Medicare over the next 10 years.

The Republicans created such a fervor over the Affordable Health Care Act by declaring that $500 Billion in waste management was a cut to the program, yet two years later come up with a method to kill Medicare in the same time frame.

Is American Exceptionalism only available to the other countries of the world, based upon a concept of pre-emptive military action?

We are far behind the rest of the world in multiple avenues, and there cannot be such a concept as American Exceptionalism when we are so far behind the curve that we don't even educate our children well enough to get out of High School with a knowledge of how the world works.

If America is exceptional in any aspect it is in failure over the last 30 years to protect the people that made this country.  We have 47 million people without health insurance.  We have some 30 million either without jobs or with inadequate jobs, or even multiple jobs.

I remember a George W. Bush town hall meeting where he praised a woman for holding three jobs to make ends meet.  Her story was the sad point, his response was the really sorry point of misunderstanding her plight.

Eight years of vastly inappropriate administrative direction, political invasions, and policies which were politically established rules for government service will end up costing us 25 more years of questioning government.  So how can we say that we have some type of Exceptionalism that can withstand the test of time?

Either you are really good at what you do, or you are not.  But even those whom aren't really good at what they do might actually come up with an idea.  Does this equate to some level of being better than any other societies?

I find it a non-starter as a question.  Just as everyone can somehow come up with a good idea, the end appraisal shouldn't be that the person is infallible.

We take too much stock in the fact that we have many ideas, but we don't seem to be proactively working on those ideas.

We have become the country amongst other countries, and in doing so we have lost some of our stature amongst the countries of the world, but we have become a more greatly appreciated country by the obviousness of losing our American Exceptionalism.

This means that all of these politicians who desire to present America as the great savior of the world are lying to the American public.

We have our good days and our bad days, just like any other country in the world.

There is no one on the entire planet that thinks whatever America does in the world is absolutely OK with them.  And this defines us regardless of whether Americans understand the scope of the problem or not.

There is no American Exceptionalism.  It is a lie, a manner to distort one's support for their country, and misdirection in just how much politics play a part in the uninformed.  Find a product and support it whether it exists or not, and most of America will accept the product whether it does the job or not.

We're talking about the utilization of advertising to promote a concept that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world, yet Americans feel that somehow we are Exceptional.  No, we are not.  We won't be exceptional until we wake up and determine for ourselves what we consider to be exceptional.

Audy Murphy was exceptional.  Newt Gingrich isn't.  Audy probably understood what was necessary to be exceptional, although never would have touted it, whilst Newt thinks he is exceptional and could make America exceptional again. 

He's wrong.

I'm not saying that America can't again become exceptional, I'm just saying let's stop naming ourselves and work towards those of the world calling us such.

We're missing all the important points.  Politics play too much of a part in all of our endeavors and we, the American people, continually lose.

Politics take the fact out of facts.  By defining America as something it hasn't been since WWII, we define ourselves as impossible to beat.  Yet we can be defeated by our own misconception of just who we are.

So I'm not willing to allow Newt Gingrich to define whom I am by suggesting that I subscribe to his ideas of a non-existent society.

I don't care how well he can devise plans for returning to power, his plans do not include the American people, but the return of an non-existent American Exceptionalism, obviously based upon his own appraisal of himself.

Comments

[Eric Green]

Novus Ordo Seclorum. It's on the back of the dollar bill, on the Seal of the United States. This is what the term "American Exceptionalism" refers to. You're too clever by half. Do a little research and then write about it.

Keep up the good work.

[Roger W. Norman]

Four years of Latin, Mr. Green, but I'll accept that something which most likely came from Virgil applies to American Exceptionalism.

Just not today's America.

Roger W. Norman