American Exceptionalism
Morgan Slaughter
October 31, 2017
Govt 329
"But the biggest problem with being fed lies about how great we are, is that
people won’t be prepared for how evil this government has already been and
therefore can be again". (1.)
America was and still is a great idea, but I wouldn't call it exceptional. The
idea of a country with a completely different kind of government than ever
before was an exceptional thought, but other things about America were
and still are deeply flawed. There's more to "exceptionalism" than how
you govern. Fifty-five people signed the Declaration of Independence, a
document which clearly states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with
certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
Pursuit of Happiness. 49% of these people were also slave owners. These
are people who believe that God created everyone for a reason. Which
means they either think God put these people on earth so that other men
could purchase them, or they were hypocrites who didn't really have
America's best interest at heart. Neither of which are "exceptional".
In theory, America is the most free countries there is. America is
supposed to afford everyone the same opportunities to succeed in life. But
that's not actually the case. We like to think our country is superior to
others because of all the opportunities that our country allows for,
however, it's not as easy to access these opportunities as one would hope.
It's much harder to succeed in America as a person of color, or a woman,
or a person of a faith other than Christianity, despite the fact that America
is not a Christian Nation. Once again, despite the Declaration of
Independence declaring that "all men are created equal", women were
held back for centuries by not being allowed to vote, drive, or own
property. To this very day women are still having to fight for our rights to
control our own bodies, something that should be an obvious right. This is
not exceptional, either.
"A long line of Europeans- most famously Alexis de Tocqueville, but also widely
read observers such as Harriet Martineau, Frances Trollope, and Charles Dickens,
plus thousands of other lesser-known visitors- wrote books, letters, and journals
describing the Americans to their fellow countrymen. They often had the tone of
zoologist writing about a hitherto unknown species. For whatever else these
observers might say about the United States, they all agreed on one thing: the
United States was quite unlike their own or any other nation. It was exceptional".
(2.)
But is America really a nation like no other? We seem to have the same
issues as a lot of other countries. We even seem to be behind the curve on
some things, such as healthcare, equal pay, and
women’s rights. As of the first quarter of 2017, 11.3% of adults in America
did not have health insurance. Currently 58 countries have universal
healthcare with 90% health insurance coverage. Universal healthcare is
publicly funded through taxation. Basically, America is not exceptional
because we are greedy.
"The U.S., with $63.5 trillion in total private wealth- holds the largest amount of
any country in the world. But that wealth is unevenly distributed, and nowhere is
that more evident than in the U.S., which also has the largest wealth inequality
gap of 55 countries studied according to the report". (3 )
In the beginning, we were new and exciting and yes, we were exceptional in
starting a new government run by the people. This was something no one
had ever done before. Now, we come off to other countries,
as bullies and arrogant Americans. We are a country built on immigrants,
we have always opened our doors to help others, but now they want to
close our doors, build walls to keep immigrants out and even expel the
ones already here and even those that have been here for many years and
work for our government. This is not my idea of "making America great
again". This is taking two steps back.
"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in
British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism". (4.)
1. Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism
By Aron Ra
Pitchstone Publishing
11-02-2016
2. American Exceptionalism-An Experiment in History
by Charles Murray
Rowan & Littlefield Publishing 2013
3. America Is The Richest, and Most Unequal Country
by Erik Sherman
9-30-2015
4. Barack Hussein Obama…..Speech at the United States Military Academy 2014.
