CDZ American Exceptionalism

[Liminal]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

 

[TNHarley]

American exceptionalism is a thing of the past; if not one of the leading causes of the bullshit we have today.
"we can get less rich so that other countries can be less poor because we are AMERICA" Now look.
Our constitution is exceptional. However, people get called extreme and nut jobs when they support it..

 

[Liminal]

American exceptionalism is a thing of the past; if not one of the leading causes of the bullshit we have today.
"we can get less rich so that other countries can be less poor because we are AMERICA" Now look.
Our constitution is exceptional. However, people get called extreme and nut jobs when they support it..

I wonder if the founding fathers thought money equals free speech?

 

[TNHarley]

American exceptionalism is a thing of the past; if not one of the leading causes of the bullshit we have today.
"we can get less rich so that other countries can be less poor because we are AMERICA" Now look.
Our constitution is exceptional. However, people get called extreme and nut jobs when they support it..

I wonder if the founding fathers thought money equals free speech?

IDC what those political advocates said; Corporations are NOT people.

 

[Liminal]

American exceptionalism is a thing of the past; if not one of the leading causes of the bullshit we have today.
"we can get less rich so that other countries can be less poor because we are AMERICA" Now look.
Our constitution is exceptional. However, people get called extreme and nut jobs when they support it..

I wonder if the founding fathers thought money equals free speech?

IDC what those political advocates said; Corporations are NOT people.

By political advocates you mean the Supreme Court.

 

[TNHarley]

American exceptionalism is a thing of the past; if not one of the leading causes of the bullshit we have today.
"we can get less rich so that other countries can be less poor because we are AMERICA" Now look.
Our constitution is exceptional. However, people get called extreme and nut jobs when they support it..

I wonder if the founding fathers thought money equals free speech?

IDC what those political advocates said; Corporations are NOT people.

By political advocates you mean the Supreme Court.

indeed

 

[oldsoul]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

When the sole basis of analysis is on social issues, from a socialistic veiw, then no, we are not exceptional. However, if you look at it in more broad terms, yes, we are exceptional. Tell me, where else in history has a nation come from being colonial to being THE superpower in less than 200 years. Take WWII, was it our superior military that won the war? Not really, it helped though(no offence to the brave men and women who fought). Was it our superior technology? Other than the A-bomb, no. Was it because we had more "boots on the ground"? Um, no, Russia, if I remember correctly had far more. Was it our industrial/economic might? Um, how could you argue against that? We out producted ALL other countries, Allies and Axis, combined. If you have a superior tank, but can only feild one to my three, I will win. Period, end of story. Our exceptionalism comes from the FACT that we are (or rather where), the envy of the world. At no other time in history has one nation been the "gold standard" by which all others are judged in such a short amount of time. If you want to know what "American Exceptionalism" is, ask yourself, "Why do so many people, from so many parts of the world, and so many walks of life, want to come here, and be like us?" There enlies the answer. Don't like it, too bad, it's the reality. The sooner the America haters realize and accept this the better off the entire world will be.

 

[320 Years of History]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? ...

• http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/uploads/documents/ceaser.pdf

 

[Fishlore]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

American Exceptionalism has a long and winding history. The idea first came to American with the Pilgrims in 1620. Those folks believed they were doing "God's errand in the wilderness," that the utopian community of Plimoth Plantation would serve as a model for England as the insufficiently reformed Church of England was swept aside and radical Protestantism swept over all of Europe. Obviously, it didn't work out that way.

The Constitutional period didn't see much use of the AE concept as its religious overtones were incompatible with the new Enlightenment vision of republican government.

The term came back into favor in the 1840s as westward expansion led to the war with Mexico and the new slogan Manifest Destiny again revived the idea that America was a sort of Protestant counterpart to the Chosen People in the Promised Land. The term continued to connote a moral and political superiority tied to Protestant Christianity and individual liberty (except for slaves, of course).

The final resurrection of the term AE came as part of the ruling class counter attack of the growing strength of the union movement and Progressive governmental reforms. Europe might need, or at least deserve, the argument went, labor strikes even socialist revolutions like the Paris Commune, but America was different. Our huge available resources of land and opportunity meant that the evils of European capitalism were not to be found on our shores. Marx and Engels might have all their theories but they didn't apply here. We are the great exception, the unique blend of tradition and opportunity that makes any union or government intervention in private lives or the nation's economy not only unnecessary, but destructive and un-American.

There are still a few people (e.g. Rand Paul) who believe this last use of American Exceptionalism. It covers everything from Social Security to Gun Control.

 

[ScienceRocks]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

We're exceptional compared to the rest of the world because of many reasons
-Our colleges
-Education
-Science
-Innovation
-Ability to form a business and be successful at it
-We have a stable government

 

[TNHarley]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

We're exceptional compared to the rest of the world because of many reasons
-Our colleges
-Education


-Ability to form a business and be successful at it
-We have a stable government

Colleges are high as ****. Doesn't your statist ass scream that?
Our education is low as ****. Doesn't your statist ass scream that?
We have a HUGE govt that regulates businesses to shit. Hence, why full-time jobs are slowly becoming a rarity
Our govt is stable depending on your standards and level of statism. In a constitutional republic, stability would mean the majority are happy, we have laws we FOLLOW and the minority doesn't go around fuckin everything up.

 

[oldsoul]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

Why is it that liberals and progressives beleive these are problems the government should "solve"?

• Is our health care better or worse with the ACA?
• Last I checked, even before ACA, one could get basic medical care ANY time one chose, you would just have to pay for it (in most cases). Why is THAT so bad?
• What would happen if there where common sense Tort reform that freed doctors to do what they where trained to do, instead of looking over their collective shoulder at their lawyers?
• We have the best medical care available anywhere in the world. Why do liberals NEVER talk about that?
• Our education system is run, primarily, by liberals. Is is better or worse because of this?
• How many of the "forty million" living in poverty, do so because they lack the desire/skills to EARN more?
• We may have the "lowest economic mobility rate", but why is that? What role does ever increasing welfare pay-outs play in this?

These questions and more are the ones I would like liberals and progressives to answer. Until then, I will hold to my beleif that:

1. These United States of America, are the greatest Union of States ever brought together under one flag.
2. Liberals and progressives hate the idea of a truely free society.
3. The American left wants to regress to a time where the FEW have ALL the power, and the rest of us are SERFS.

 

[Elvis Obama]

American Exceptionalism is a meaningless rhetorical phrase. It's much less specific than Manifest Destiny, which was a similar "ringing phrase" we invented to help justify what we wanted to do, but which we knew was morally tainted.

There are exceptional qualities to the US. We are the cradle of modern democracy. That's our central claim to fame, and with it came concepts of freedom and individualism that had never been achieved for so many before. We married that freedom to capitalism and a great wealth of natural resources and we achieved dominance in all aspects of life.

Now? We're lagging. We invented modern democracy, and now we're lagging behind other countries. American Exceptionalism is a silly phrase that people who don't like global trends can use to warm themselves.

 

[Fishlore]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

We're exceptional compared to the rest of the world because of many reasons
-Our colleges
-Education
-Science
-Innovation
-Ability to form a business and be successful at it
-We have a stable government

Alas we are no longer as exception in many of these areas as once we were. Our colleges are under critical review for cost and effectiveness. Access to higher education is severly limited by cost, putting us way behind the EU, Australia etc. We are preeminent in science as judged by things like the Nobel Prize but our lead is shrinking and, when our population and wealth are taken into account, not very impressive. When it comes to patents for technology etc. we are merely good, not great. I don't know what numbers you have for our business success. Nine out of new small business fail in two years. Our consumer commerce is increasingly dominated by giant corporations. Even more to the point upward economic mobility in the USA is now lower than in the EU. We have a stable goverment but one which the rest of the world sees as a fake democracy run but corporate oligarchs. Nobody says they want a government like ours any more. We are exceptionally big. We are exceptionally rich. But we are no longer much looked up to.

 

[2aguy]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

No, we are exceptional because we created a country based on a philosophy that the government serves at the will of the people, not the other way around. We were also founded on the idea of individual liberty, and protecting the individual from the government.

Those problems you point out....come from abandoning our founding principals and reverting back to the belief that the government is better at running our lives than we are. The more you give the government to do, the more screwed up those things are, and you end up with the complaints that you have.

Healthcare, education, economic mobility....are all more under government control than ever before and they are more screwed up than ever before.....

 

[Liminal]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

No, we are exceptional because we created a country based on a philosophy that the government serves at the will of the people, not the other way around. We were also founded on the idea of individual liberty, and protecting the individual from the government.

Those problems you point out....come from abandoning our founding principals and reverting back to the belief that the government is better at running our lives than we are. The more you give the government to do, the more screwed up those things are, and you end up with the complaints that you have.

Healthcare, education, economic mobility....are all more under government control than ever before and they are more screwed up than ever before.....

Unfortunately neither government nor private enterprise have any real solutions for this country's problems.

 

[2aguy]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

No, we are exceptional because we created a country based on a philosophy that the government serves at the will of the people, not the other way around. We were also founded on the idea of individual liberty, and protecting the individual from the government.

Those problems you point out....come from abandoning our founding principals and reverting back to the belief that the government is better at running our lives than we are. The more you give the government to do, the more screwed up those things are, and you end up with the complaints that you have.

Healthcare, education, economic mobility....are all more under government control than ever before and they are more screwed up than ever before.....

Unfortunately neither government nor private enterprise have any real solutions for this country's problems.

Yes....they do. Get government back to where it doesn't control so much, allow people to keep what they earn and create freely......and we will be back on the right road.

 

[Liminal]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

No, we are exceptional because we created a country based on a philosophy that the government serves at the will of the people, not the other way around. We were also founded on the idea of individual liberty, and protecting the individual from the government.

Those problems you point out....come from abandoning our founding principals and reverting back to the belief that the government is better at running our lives than we are. The more you give the government to do, the more screwed up those things are, and you end up with the complaints that you have.

Healthcare, education, economic mobility....are all more under government control than ever before and they are more screwed up than ever before.....

Unfortunately neither government nor private enterprise have any real solutions for this country's problems.

Yes....they do. Get government back to where it doesn't control so much, allow people to keep what they earn and create freely......and we will be back on the right road.

More vague concepts that don't address specific problems.

 

[OldUSAFSniper]

We USED to be exceptional. Since Barry and the rise in the handout generation? Not so much. I'm afraid that it will get much worse.

We used to explore space and NASA actually put men on the moon. We explored the oceans, the Trieste went to the bottom of the Marianas trench. We developed the most technologically advanced things such as the transistor, the silicone chip, and the computer. We used to rank near the top in math and science. Have you ever seen a test that students in the 40's and 50's used to take in high school? 90% of the people on this forum couldn't get 50% of those questions. 90% of the people on this forum couldn't pass a citizenship test. We actually studied history, not made it up because we were 'uncomfortable' with what we discovered and we tried to learn from it. There are people who actually, with a straight face, try to argue based upon the contents of ONE LETTER that Jefferson was a 'deist' and detested religion in government.

The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the writings of Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and others are exceptional and while we followed them, we were too. We no longer care about those things. Instead of pushing our children to push the boundaries of science, we have put into place the demand to listen to them whine about 'safe spaces.' Instead of demanding that they contribute to society we have been brain washed to believe that no matter what they do, we should provide for them.

We were exceptional. We had people like John Kennedy, Douglas McArthur, Adali Stevenson, George Washington Carver, Robert Lewis Stephenson, Neil Armstrong and so many that I can't even name them all. Now we have Al Sharpton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. And let's not forget the Kardashians.

May God help us. And may those who put their lives and their fortunes on the line for the birth of this nation forgive us.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

American exceptionalism. What is it? How is it defined? Is it just another meaningless rhetorical phrase? I don't think so. In fact I think American exceptionalism is evident from all the things our society doesn't do. We are exceptional because we don't provide medical care as a basic human right, we are exceptional because a college education incurs massive personal debt, we are exceptional because we are the richest nation on earth with over forty million people living in poverty and the lowest economic mobility rate in the industrialized world......we are certainly exceptional.

No, we are exceptional because we created a country based on a philosophy that the government serves at the will of the people, not the other way around. We were also founded on the idea of individual liberty, and protecting the individual from the government.

Those problems you point out....come from abandoning our founding principals and reverting back to the belief that the government is better at running our lives than we are. The more you give the government to do, the more screwed up those things are, and you end up with the complaints that you have.

Healthcare, education, economic mobility....are all more under government control than ever before and they are more screwed up than ever before.....

Unfortunately neither government nor private enterprise have any real solutions for this country's problems.

What problems are those and why do you think they are problems ?