You gotta love your world leaders

First I would like to agree with President Putin that it takes effort for any nation to call themselves exceptional or to become exceptional. And to label yourself as exceptionalism the expectation of who you are would be hard to meet. And I would like to thank him for creating this worldwide discussion of American exceptionalism. And for this post I don't want to stand up and say we deserve the label or not, but I would like to discuss it in general and then answer Mr. Putin as to why he thinks he can lead a charge against us on this topic.

There are many critics of the notion of American exceptionalism and even in the current American press there are critics. A broad discussion on whether the United States should be able to claim such a title is beneficial to us and to the world. Does it make us exceptional just because this discussion is going on? No. President Putin is right, in the respect that a nation must show the world how it is exceptional. Calling oneself such does not necessarily mean you have proven this to be a fact. Now in America we are very ethnocentric and see ourselves this way. And for most of us we have a general idea as to why, but I think there are many of us that don't understand what American exceptionalism truly is and how the concept developed. So this discussion helps many of us to better understand what President Obama was trying to say last week. Is President Obama right though?


There are many articles and history on American exceptionalism. Most of the articles you find now are on the discussion created by President Putin. I pulled up a couple of articles to get a better idea written before now to see if I can get a more scholarly idea of what is American exceptionalism. Two I found helpful, but for lay people somewhat difficult reading are: "American Exceptionalism A Double Edge Sword" by Seymour Martin Lipset and some articles and papers by Professor Ian Tyrrell of New South Wales. His articles are a bit easier to read, yet give a fair background of the subject. Of course there are many out there since this topic or concept has been around for most of the history of the United States. And if you read enough you will run across the exceptionalism of other countries or at least discussions of how other countries might fit into this discussion currently and historically.

Some general ideas to follow about American exceptionalism are the notion of our constitution, our creation of our liberties, the fact we started a whole new way to govern, and then the growth of our country. Alone our history stands out as something phenomenal and meteoric in our ascension into world power and eventually becoming the only remaining so called super power. This alone does not define the concept. There is more to being part of something called American exceptionalism. This is dis-illustrated in an article recently published by Bloomberg titled: "Putin was right about American Exceptionalism" This article uses the premise of we are not at the top of a wide variety of surveys that they say can define or they relate to defining what is an exceptional country. I feel strongly this article is a travesty to the subject. The idea of being exceptional is going to derive from intangible concepts and actions along with tangible facts. Deciding that one country is not exceptional because they are not at the top of a series of surveys is a gross injustice to the whole idea of exceptionalism.

I would like to use an example that I haven't seen used in the recent discussion, but I think has been used in general discussions about some of the reasons we might be worthy of the label American exceptionalism. The American Civil War represents one of the worst times in our country's history, but one of the most cathartic moments in world history. We fought a four year war over the concept of slavery. Slavery has been practiced throughout the world for thousands of years, but never in the history of man did a nation state bring this injustice to such a climax. This was not because of facts or laws, this was because people realized people are people. Granted not everyone then or now and there are still deep divisions among a minority of our country over this war and their own bigotry, but overall people decided something had to be done to right a wrong. This to say the least was an exceptional moment in time. Yet only one moment.

And throughout history there are more examples people might reference to add to this discussion, but unfortunately our history is not all positive. Do you add the sum of the positives and negatives to determine the answer? And what about other countries, at times or in general can other countries by considered worthy of an exceptionalism label. And make note there is a difference in the idea of being exceptional and being labeled as exceptionalism. For an interesting discussion on the concept of American(ism) see Mr. Lipset's article. And this "ism" is different from American exceptionalism, but is used as a reference to the whole.

And there is what others think.I read an article from Al Jazeera English publication. (always good to get an idea from someone you know isn't going to agree with you)And I was somewhat impressed with their efforts to make it unbiased or create an open argument. This article discussed the idea of other countries being up to the concept of exceptionalism, but overall they seemed to be picking at straws. One example was the Soviet Union and their reasoning for them was somewhat generic. The article was definitely not in agreement of America being unique to the world or to the world's history. And to this I disagree. It is our short history at the very least that makes us unique, giving rise to the idea of; are we doing something beyond historical comparisons.

America was conceived under a notion of religious freedom (one of our self basis for exceptionalism) with a large background of Christianity yet calling oneself exceptional goes against Christian teaching. This is one of President Obama's mistakes. To be truly exceptional your actions, not your words define you. A great nation, but humble is more in line of being called exceptional than touting your achievements to justify your actions. And even sometimes not taking action is a decision that can add to how you are viewed.

So are we worthy of still being able to use the term American exceptionalism? I don't know.This is more of a judgment of history not of man. A nation's actions can be a strong argument to prove this idea, but it is not the government's actions, but the people's actions. I would suggest our recent history does not lend itself to the notion, but our people seem to be laying dormant to what is our potential. Recent examples are: anger against our own government for spying, our anger towards an unresponsive Congress, (yet we don't do anything about it) and our ability to elect a Black man President based on his efforts while our issues over race are still unresolved. This shows that our people are still aware that we are able to accomplish much. Yet we have no right to label ourselves American exceptionalism, again this is for history to judge what we do as a people. And interesting enough about this argument and all the critics around the world please make note, we are,maybe somewhat disproportional to certain backgrounds, but still a collection of the people of the whole world. Maybe in some way that is an integral part of our whole being exceptional.

Now President Putin I do have a concern over your comments about American exceptionalism. You attack the concept and maybe for the world someone does need to make us live up to that notion on a more consistent basis. There are times when we excel and hopefully the world can see we work towards doing what is right, even with our faults. If you want to criticize us, also offer something better. What has Russia done that separates itself on the world stage that you can criticize us? You hide behind your inability to raise Russia to a super power status by trying to bring us down. How are you raising up the Russian people? If you want the world to view Russia has a new power show us through your leadership what it means to be exceptional. I know some of the American foreign policy experts will "vomit"* when they hear this, but maybe we should let you put boots on the ground in Syria as a peace keeping force. The civil war in Syria is becoming very convoluted. Are there now three sides as some argue? Can you put your troops in Syria, but treat all sides equal while they dismantle the government's chemical weapons and let the world watch you openly? Are you ready to be a legitimate player in a dicey situation? Can we observe you like the rest of the world observes us? What say you President Putin?

I hope it is more than words.

Is there a case for American Exceptionalism? The jury will always be out on that one, because it is an ongoing judgment. Leadership from the people, humble with your words, strong justice with your actions are just some of the ways that can be judged, but not all. Others' perception of what you are doing and have done will be the biggest judge. We, as Americans, will always have a strong opinion of ourselves. It seems to be in our nature. Going back to the Lipset article, there is an ideological argument to be made on what is American exceptionalism, but as mentioned the jury will always be out.


* On a side note and I forget his name, but the Congressional representative that said he about vomited when he read President Putin's comments is not a good reflection on how our leadership should address this situation. As an amateur writer, maybe I can use simple concepts to describe my distaste in this situation, but a leader in a country such as ours should choose his words carefully on the world stage. At the very least he could have said he was nauseated by President Putin's remarks.


Let us all prayer for a world where respect for each other becomes the ordinary not the exception. This will make us all exceptional. Have a great weekend.