American-Exceptionalism-10.5x10-PRINT-10.5 DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 5
In
the history of mankind, there is only one nation
founded by revolutionaries on the principle that God
bestowed rights to individuals, and that these
God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness are of His making, not by government. That
nation is America.
In 2009, former president Barrack Obama had it
wrong when he said, “I believe in American
exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe
in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in
Greek exceptionalism.” It was a sad statement from
the leader of the free world as it is disloyal to the core
principle of the country, never mind America’s role in history.
There is no other nation formed and fought for based
on the belief that its citizens are free-born and
endowed with the birthright of freedom. This is the
essence of American exceptionalism and that which
sets this nation apart from all others in the history of
world nations.
American exceptionalism is not the idea of
nationalism, nor is it isolationism, nor is it captured
by any other ism or ideologies. American
exceptionalism embraces our liberty to pursue our
individual lives on our terms – the American dream.
American exceptionalism is not just the notion of
liberty either; rather, it derives from the American
people – their spirit, their powerful history of
self-reliance, their Judeo-Christian tenets, their
respect for the dignity of life and intrinsic value of
others, and their belief that government serves the
governed and not the other way around.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness--That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed…,” states the
Declaration of Independence, the very document this
nation was founded upon.
It’s not of politics but of the people. American
exceptionalism is not a policy or puffery. To say that
America is “better than” another nation is not what
makes this country exceptional. In its purest form, it
is the ideal condition – that individuals are free to
decide their fate…in essence, free to be. That is not
boasting or bullying.
There is nothing esoteric about American
exceptionalism, and it should not be construed as
such. On the contrary, it is up to each citizen to
understand the historical significance, learn from it,
share it, and bring it to life in the practical sense by
protecting American traditions, legends, symbols, and
innovations. Each of these unique features constitutes
the allowance of creativity of free-born people to
greatness, and the blending of possibilities brought
alive from the past to the present, with the promise of
what the future might hold—one nation, under God’s
grace, blessed by freedom.
Americans should grab onto American
exceptionalism and hold on tight. It is ours to
cherish, fight for, and pass along to the next
generation. If not, the very core of this nation—to be
free, to determine our own fate, to prosper as a result
of one’s own hard work, to fail and get back up, to
have order based on the consent of the governed and
not tyrannical overlords, and so much more—will be
lost to the ages. And if American exceptionalism is
gone, there is nowhere else to go.
As President Ronald Reagan said in 1984, “If we ever
forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we
will be a nation gone under.”
5
