American Exceptionalism
Time now for another Cousin B philosophical rant!
Let’s talk about ‘exceptionalism’. Specifically, the American brand.
So, first, let’s look at the word.
Exceptional- ex·cep·tion·al
adjective
unusual; not typical: crimes of exceptional callousness and cruelty.
• unusually good; outstanding: a pepper offering exceptional flavor and juiciness.
• (of a child) mentally/physically disabled so as to require special schooling: helping parents of exceptional children.
I’m not sure about that last one. I’ve heard of both disabled and advanced kids referred to as ‘exceptional’.
Now, we have to do a little bit of pretzel wording here. While we use the word all of these ways, its political use is a bit trickier. Meaning #2- unusually good; outstanding, with a splash of #1- not typical. So, in essence, in our political context, exceptional means being both better and exclusive.
Throughout history, people have considered some kind of exceptionalism as inherent to being. People often believe they were born exceptional- unusually good-, by their place of birth, by their family history or reputation, by their parent’s sheer wealth. Their intellect. Even their faith. The tendency is to rationalize that one is inherently superior to others. Monarchs, dictators, especially so.
Even in the Bible, we see it, with Moses leading the ‘chosen people’ out of bondage. You don’t get much more exceptional than God choosing you as His favorite. It was critical unifying factor, galvanizing the Hebrews.
And so, we have that inherent American Exceptionalism driving conservative ideology these days. A sincere belief that Americans (well, white male Americans, smh) are better than everybody else because they’re Americans. It’s the cornerstone of anti-immigrant and anti-minority practices. It’s also a common buzzword for white supremacists.
It’s a self-perpetuating paradigm. ‘I’m better because I’m me’. Trump lives by it.
But, there is a more common usage of ‘exceptional’- unusually good behavior. By action. By skill. By duty. By ideals. By integrity. One can be exceptional merely by doing the right things for the right reason. One can be exceptional for acting with care, and quality, and genuine concern.
Exceptional is as exceptional does.
It’s no more or less than showing up to work and doing your job well for its own sake.
During World War II, the world was facing autocratic dictators, disingenuously lying to their own people while massacring others. Every kind of evil at once. American GIs came in and instantly established themselves as sincere, fair and trustworthy allies. They joined with British, Canadian and Russian forces to ultimately vanquish Germany in Europe (twice) and the Japanese in the South Pacific.
The United States continued to rise to this occasion after the wars, leading nations around the world to unite against further threats from fascism, and then communism. They led the way in demonstrating high integrity global relations, morality in conflict and fairness toward their enemies. (I know. ’Nam. We’ll talk…)
Now, you can debate the details, you can bring up mistakes, horrible political and military agendas from over the years, you can point out the ruthless profiteering of US businesses around the globe, exploiting third world nations for cheap labor, you can even complain about the arms trade making war a money-making proposition and this isn’t really helping, is it?.
All of these and more would be accurate and relevant critiques worth discussion.
But.
We did establish a global reputation as straight-shooting’ fair dealin’ good guys who always help and always beat the bad guy. Militarily, we were those heroes in two world wars, and in the ensuing Cold War. But, it wasn’t a declaration of exception, it was a standard of behavior that we carried into battle, into global diplomacy, even into domestic policy.
We weren’t trying to be exceptional. We were just applying our own Constitution and heritage to our involvement in the wars, and in world affairs. We were just trying not to be assholes like the Axis. It’s a fairly low bar, so we more than cleared it.
It’s what made the US a world leader- a role we embraced and carried well for most of our post-WWII history. We weren’t born that way because we’re American- we earned it by being good world citizens.
This is the only American Exceptionalism that exists or matters.
Our ability and reputation for living up to our laws and our ideals. Literally, the whole world is watching us, looking for that high spirit that won WWII, that formed NATO. They simply expect us to live up to our own standards.
When we do, the world is inspired. When we don’t, people worry and malevolent forces start to rise again.
It’s happening again. As conservatives increasingly embrace autocracy while leaning on inherent exceptionalism, authoritarian regimes are growing around the globe under the same false flag.
Willful damage in the name of ‘we’re better than you’.
This mindset is morally, politically and existentially dangerous. It’s always led to violence and horrible crimes.
We have (ahem) ‘exceptional’ corruption out loud by one side, accompanied by galling projection of it onto the other side. Weaponizing the government to investigate the other side for weaponizing the government. Ignoring publicly revealed crimes on their side while accusing the other side of nonexistent crimes. Stoking the base with outrageous lies and obfuscations, angering them more with every new horror story.
And a certain number will fall for it. You can fool some of the people all of the time and that’s usually enough.
And they sometimes act on that anger.
It’s safe to say that all of the people that stormed the Capitol on Jan 6th felt that they were Exceptional Americans. They were justified in attacking Congress because their leader had told them to ’stop the steal’. They saw themselves as patriots, fighting for truth, albeit, truth as Trump and Fox News had told them, which is to say, pure fiction.
For much of US political history, ‘both siderism’ worked, because the parties went back and forth, and members on both sides were found to be up to snuff or not. But, since Reagan in the 80s, expanding in the 90s, and going exponential under Trump, MAGA supremacist American Exceptionalism has been amplified by Republicans through grievance politics to cultivate a volatile right-leaning voter base that supports racism, gender bias, xenophobia and their political manipulation of the courts, voting districts and justice department.
Meanwhile, in the face of all of this shocking lawless behavior and hypocrisy by Republicans, Democrats have seemingly tried to stand by the law and the Constitution- the ideals we were formed on. But, it almost sounds sycophantic to laud them so, to give them such credit without finding equal fault.
This is what we’re accustomed to- any fault by one is offset by a fault of the other. Both sides are ‘doing it’.
But, the objective truth is, with the Republicans behaving so obviously crooked that the Bowery Boys could bust them, Democrats don’t need to be up to any kind of shenanigans. All they have to do is keep pointing out the law, precedents, the countless videos of Republicans lying or just plain making shit up and the nonsensical bills they pass in the House.
I mean, immigrants eating pets? Abortion after birth? Illegal immigrants voting? The Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act? The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act? Renaming Dulles airport to ‘Trump’?
I mean, that’s some uber-level gaslighting shit right there. (Pun intended.)
That same ‘both sides’ crap that deters us from lionizing Democrats also keeps us from admitting Republican transgressions. Nationally, our press and pundits pretend that Republicans are okay because Democrats are just as bad.
(This is why I warn people not to buy mescaline from roadside stands.)
But, Democrats are really just trying to embrace American Exceptionalism as it originally was- a call to integrity. They reinforce their bills and their statements with facts, they admit mistakes, they take down their own offenders, they listen and include Republican demands in their bills when they actually apply. (Obamacare included 160 Republican amendments, and they all voted against it anyway.)
Hate them if you want, but current Democrats are acting on the up and up. No, they all haven’t always been, and who knows if they all will or won’t be in the future, but, for now, they are.
And, here’s the thing- it’s not some kind of noble and lofty goal. In fact, it’s the opposite- a base level, an even lower bar than during WWII- especially for a Congressperson, to read and follow the law and the Constitution, and to not be shitty to anyone.
It’s even the easier way to go. Following the law is much easier than finding ways to break it without getting caught.
Republicans, though, are milking the inherent American Exceptionalism mantra to stoke voter loyalty through grievance. That’s why everything they propose is a cultural issue or a partisan accusation. It’s working well enough to keep them in a modicum of power, but they’re trying to legislate a permanent majority, and these culture wars keep their base voting for them out of rage against the ‘other’.
MAGA voters don’t care that their leaders are subverting the Constitution or suppressing the vote or even abusing their power and making dough on the side. As long as their side is in control, these self-superior voters will be happy, because those ‘others’ will be kept down. ‘We’re taking our country back’.
They don’t care that Trump extorted Ukraine. That he lied about the election and planned an insurrection. That he ordered fake electors sent to NARA. That he took hundreds of classified White House documents to his resort in Florida after office. That he ran two lobby/spy outlets, one at his hotel down the street from the White House, and the other at the same resort in Florida. That he gave an army base to Russia when he pulled us out of Syria. That he gave Russian diplomats top secret info in the Oval Office in his first months there. (That’s just some highlights. Listing them all could take days.)
Nothing Trump visibly did wrong means anything to Republicans, because his doing it ‘owned the libs’. And as his myriad legal cases unfold, Trump is telling his people to get ready to fight for him. Painting himself as both savior and victim, he fills his remarks with Stochastic Terrorism, fear mongering and invented grievances.
That is not ‘American Exceptionalism’ as defined by the generation that earned it.
That is the bullshit we defeated in 1945 to gain that reputation.
Nobody, Democrat or Republican, from the 1932-1980 era would have put up with anything Trump has done. They would have adhered to the integrity that made Americans exceptional to the world, as they did when Nixon was caught. Republicans then told Nixon he had crossed the line and they couldn’t save him. No Republican has said anything near that to Trump, whose impeachment offenses alone almost make Nixon look like a jaywalker by comparison.
Today’s Republicans are not those WWII-era good guys.
They are rapidly becoming visibly fascist, sowing divisiveness and discord to gain control though chaos.
That is patently un-American.
We can’t dismiss our best behavior, just because we don’t always meet it. We can’t remove it as an ideal, a goal, a standard to be reached. American GIs were the ‘good guys’. We have to be the ‘good guys’, in every case. We have to reform everywhere we find abuse or malfeasance, because that’s what ‘good guys’ do. We have to hold crooks to the law and have compassion for those damaged or caught up in something, because the ‘good guy’ would do that.
It’s like, remember that time where Superman was shitty and mean to people?
You don’t.
He wasn’t.
Okay, there was that one time when he was kind of an asshole for a while but it was the red kryptonite that did it and he got better.
But, no, we’re not Superman, and you don’t have to be Superman to practice the original brand of American Exceptionalism. Just don’t be shitty. Do things right for the reason they need to be done.
So, at least for now, I suggest we side with the Dems until the GOP can be purged of this autocratic corruption.
Just a thought. Let’s try to be Exceptional Americans.
C.2024 Cousin B
