SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Hillary Clinton spoke on American exceptionalism last week at the American Legion's annual convention in Cincinnati. (Photo: AP)
The Scuffle Over 'American Exceptionalism'
Before the American Legion, Hillary Clinton sought to paint herself as the real patriot running for President by invoking “American exceptionalism,” a phrase that has caused much trouble and that Donald Trump disdains
Sep 05, 2016
Hillary Clinton gave a speech last week in which American exceptionalism was a major theme. She obviously chose that theme partly because it would appeal to her specific audience (an American Legion convention) and partly because it would enable her to criticize Donald Trump, who has said he doesn't like the term "American exceptionalism" because people in other countries don't like to hear it and feel insulted by it.
Trump is right about that, although in many other respects he shows he doesn't have qualms about insulting people in other countries, including Mexico, the country he briefly visited on Wednesday and has described as a nation of rapists and drug dealers.
America is indeed exceptional in some obvious respects, and there is nothing wrong with Americans reminding themselves of that, as long as they do not stick the concept in the face of non-Americans. It is some of the corollaries that tend to flow in an unthinking fashion from the concept of American exceptionalism that have caused problems. Several such tendencies in American exceptionalist thinking have contributed to bad policy.
One particular common corollary of the notion of exceptionalism that Clinton emphasized in her speech was that of indispensability.
"We are the indispensable nation," she said. "So no matter how hard it gets, no matter how great the challenge, America must lead."
As with exceptionalism itself, it certainly is true that the United States is, or at least has been, indispensable in some respects. An example would be the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and of U.S. government debt as an instrument in international finance.
The problems come from the tendency -- which is implicit in much of the wording of Clinton's speech -- to consider the United States and U.S. leadership as indispensable in addressing all significant problems abroad. But not all problems abroad are U.S. problems, not all such problems are solvable, what solutions there are do not all come from the United States, and in some problems U.S. involvement or leadership is instead counterproductive.
A related and common tendency is to invoke the physical metaphor of a vacuum. "When America fails to lead," said Clinton, "we leave a vacuum that either causes chaos or other countries or networks rush in to fill the void."
The vacuum metaphor has several problems when applied to foreign policy. It understates or overlooks altogether whatever was present before any outsiders rushed in. It incorrectly assumes a zero-sum or mutual exclusion relationship between the supposedly indispensable superpower and any other players who may be involved.
Clinton talked about values and about how American exceptionalism includes the idea of "America's unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress, a champion for freedom and opportunity."
The overlooked question in this kind of rhetoric concerns the conditions in which other nations are, or are not, receptive to the freedom and opportunity being championed. Herewith is an inherent internal tension in American exceptionalist thinking. The more exceptional are the conditions in which American values arose, the less transferable are those values to others. And that is a problem with the corollaries about indispensability and American leadership in addressing problems hither and yon.
Clinton did invoke Abraham Lincoln's concept of the last best hope of Earth and Ronald Reagan's image of a shining city on a hill. The idea of making the American republic the best, and the best example, it can possibly be -- so that even a Donald Trump can't wreck it -- is a better way to implement ideas of exceptionalism than to act like an indispensable vacuum-filler.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Consortium News
Paul Pillar
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency's top analysts. He quit his job over the Iraq war and is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies.
Hillary Clinton gave a speech last week in which American exceptionalism was a major theme. She obviously chose that theme partly because it would appeal to her specific audience (an American Legion convention) and partly because it would enable her to criticize Donald Trump, who has said he doesn't like the term "American exceptionalism" because people in other countries don't like to hear it and feel insulted by it.
Trump is right about that, although in many other respects he shows he doesn't have qualms about insulting people in other countries, including Mexico, the country he briefly visited on Wednesday and has described as a nation of rapists and drug dealers.
America is indeed exceptional in some obvious respects, and there is nothing wrong with Americans reminding themselves of that, as long as they do not stick the concept in the face of non-Americans. It is some of the corollaries that tend to flow in an unthinking fashion from the concept of American exceptionalism that have caused problems. Several such tendencies in American exceptionalist thinking have contributed to bad policy.
One particular common corollary of the notion of exceptionalism that Clinton emphasized in her speech was that of indispensability.
"We are the indispensable nation," she said. "So no matter how hard it gets, no matter how great the challenge, America must lead."
As with exceptionalism itself, it certainly is true that the United States is, or at least has been, indispensable in some respects. An example would be the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and of U.S. government debt as an instrument in international finance.
The problems come from the tendency -- which is implicit in much of the wording of Clinton's speech -- to consider the United States and U.S. leadership as indispensable in addressing all significant problems abroad. But not all problems abroad are U.S. problems, not all such problems are solvable, what solutions there are do not all come from the United States, and in some problems U.S. involvement or leadership is instead counterproductive.
A related and common tendency is to invoke the physical metaphor of a vacuum. "When America fails to lead," said Clinton, "we leave a vacuum that either causes chaos or other countries or networks rush in to fill the void."
The vacuum metaphor has several problems when applied to foreign policy. It understates or overlooks altogether whatever was present before any outsiders rushed in. It incorrectly assumes a zero-sum or mutual exclusion relationship between the supposedly indispensable superpower and any other players who may be involved.
Clinton talked about values and about how American exceptionalism includes the idea of "America's unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress, a champion for freedom and opportunity."
The overlooked question in this kind of rhetoric concerns the conditions in which other nations are, or are not, receptive to the freedom and opportunity being championed. Herewith is an inherent internal tension in American exceptionalist thinking. The more exceptional are the conditions in which American values arose, the less transferable are those values to others. And that is a problem with the corollaries about indispensability and American leadership in addressing problems hither and yon.
Clinton did invoke Abraham Lincoln's concept of the last best hope of Earth and Ronald Reagan's image of a shining city on a hill. The idea of making the American republic the best, and the best example, it can possibly be -- so that even a Donald Trump can't wreck it -- is a better way to implement ideas of exceptionalism than to act like an indispensable vacuum-filler.
Paul Pillar
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency's top analysts. He quit his job over the Iraq war and is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies.
Hillary Clinton gave a speech last week in which American exceptionalism was a major theme. She obviously chose that theme partly because it would appeal to her specific audience (an American Legion convention) and partly because it would enable her to criticize Donald Trump, who has said he doesn't like the term "American exceptionalism" because people in other countries don't like to hear it and feel insulted by it.
Trump is right about that, although in many other respects he shows he doesn't have qualms about insulting people in other countries, including Mexico, the country he briefly visited on Wednesday and has described as a nation of rapists and drug dealers.
America is indeed exceptional in some obvious respects, and there is nothing wrong with Americans reminding themselves of that, as long as they do not stick the concept in the face of non-Americans. It is some of the corollaries that tend to flow in an unthinking fashion from the concept of American exceptionalism that have caused problems. Several such tendencies in American exceptionalist thinking have contributed to bad policy.
One particular common corollary of the notion of exceptionalism that Clinton emphasized in her speech was that of indispensability.
"We are the indispensable nation," she said. "So no matter how hard it gets, no matter how great the challenge, America must lead."
As with exceptionalism itself, it certainly is true that the United States is, or at least has been, indispensable in some respects. An example would be the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and of U.S. government debt as an instrument in international finance.
The problems come from the tendency -- which is implicit in much of the wording of Clinton's speech -- to consider the United States and U.S. leadership as indispensable in addressing all significant problems abroad. But not all problems abroad are U.S. problems, not all such problems are solvable, what solutions there are do not all come from the United States, and in some problems U.S. involvement or leadership is instead counterproductive.
A related and common tendency is to invoke the physical metaphor of a vacuum. "When America fails to lead," said Clinton, "we leave a vacuum that either causes chaos or other countries or networks rush in to fill the void."
The vacuum metaphor has several problems when applied to foreign policy. It understates or overlooks altogether whatever was present before any outsiders rushed in. It incorrectly assumes a zero-sum or mutual exclusion relationship between the supposedly indispensable superpower and any other players who may be involved.
Clinton talked about values and about how American exceptionalism includes the idea of "America's unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress, a champion for freedom and opportunity."
The overlooked question in this kind of rhetoric concerns the conditions in which other nations are, or are not, receptive to the freedom and opportunity being championed. Herewith is an inherent internal tension in American exceptionalist thinking. The more exceptional are the conditions in which American values arose, the less transferable are those values to others. And that is a problem with the corollaries about indispensability and American leadership in addressing problems hither and yon.
Clinton did invoke Abraham Lincoln's concept of the last best hope of Earth and Ronald Reagan's image of a shining city on a hill. The idea of making the American republic the best, and the best example, it can possibly be -- so that even a Donald Trump can't wreck it -- is a better way to implement ideas of exceptionalism than to act like an indispensable vacuum-filler.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.