American Exceptionalism

By Jeremy Nicoll

What is American Exceptionalism? Just a phrase to support American jingoism? A nationalistic banner
used to rally political forces? A slogan for patriotic holidays?

No, American Exceptionalism is an assertion that the Great American Experiment, embarked upon by
foresightful men over two hundred years ago, has succeeded, and succeeded in a way that has changed
the world and the course of history since the first days of its instigation. That grand experiment, that a
people could be ruled by the people, in a federal representative government. This experiment was
bounded by the lawlessness of mob rule on one side, and the tyranny of administrative rule at the hands
of a small cadre who decided for the people on the other. This experiment was conceived as a radical
plan for a new way of ruling, one that supported freedom of people by curbing the freedom of
government; by making government the servant of the people.

This experiment was not the first, and was not even the last in recent history. Those of the past were
mostly lost in erudite studies of scholars, but the more recent are still a bright stain on the collective
conscience of humanity, with blood strewn from Europe across Asia (where its last vestiges still oppress
and control) even to pockets in Central and South America. Everywhere these other experiments touch,
individual freedom disappears, speech is curbed, religion is suppressed, and hope wanes as a distant
memory in the lackluster eyes of its unfortunate recipients. What started out as a chance for change for
muddled masses quickly becomes more of the same, or more of the worst of humanity. What was billed
as the chained dragon of Communism soon breaks free from its masters and begins his razing process of
destruction across the land. Though the grievances that launch these experiments are real, the
catastrophic effects of hiring these bullies to clean up the neighborhood should sober even the most
enthusiastic of supporters. From China to the Soviet Union, or if these seem too stable or forgotten;
from North Korea to Venezuela, from Cambodia to Zimbabwe, the effects are real, testable, and
devastating.

So what of this exceptionalism? What is it that makes America exceptional? It is not the only country
that has chosen a combination of capitalism and republicanism (or some other form of democracy). But
those other countries that have adopted it, to the degree to which they apply the American formula,
succeed as a country and as a people. America, then, is the standard, and in this way, exceptional. These
two pillars; freedom of the market, and freedom of people, launch a whole host of other freedoms that
create a supporting network; anchor-posts of institutions, traditions, layered laws, and constitutional
rights that taken together as an organic whole, preserve one another. Other governments have created
different traditions, and their implementation of the process can take them to different places, but their
institutions are analogs if they are to survive this interlocking web of freedoms.

So its exceptionalism does not lie in its culture (though deep down at the roots of its freedom are Judeo-
Christian values that made the mindset even one worth considering). One of the reasons for the
continued propagation of the American dream is its expansion to newer cultures and segments of
society, who reach up from their abased state to claim these inalienable rights for themselves and their
people.