Exceptional arrogance

Hey Herb,
I agree America is exceptional but I think its because of our economic prowess, free trade policies, and things like the Marshall plan.
Your ideas about health care, and the environment aren't exceptional, but rather generic, since they involve following the crowd.

Change the US Constitution... BAN ALL RELIGION!!!

I don't believe God granted any exceptional status to the US. (I couldn't, since I am not a believer).

But... I am a musician, and it's hard for any musician not to look at the US in the 20th century and conclude that we have an exceptional culture. Since the decade my father was born, American popular music has swept over the whole world repeatedly. Jazz, rock 'n roll, soul, hip hop, plus various hybrids. In the 60's the king of Cambodia played drums in his own jazz band. In WW2, jazz stood for freedom, and eastern European resistance groups held underground jazz concerts to raise money and morale.

It's worth noting, though, that every one of these musical surges was condemned by the conservatives of the day as a threat to morality. The critiques usually boil down to "This music is too black."

So, yes, we are exceptional, and the things that have made us exceptional (like the mid-century Civil Rights movement) were all bitterly opposed by conservatives. The liberals prevailed in every case, and they will prevail again.

Suppose that a guest at your dinner table asks for a second helping of pie. Would it then be proper to ask the guest, "Are you going to starve us out of house and home?" The guest would be right to retortn, "Heavens no! I merely asked for a second helping of pie."

True, Palin is more conservative than many who post on WaPo.

But is it possible that those who see the face of Hitler or Genghis Khan behind Palin's glasses are a little bit nuts?

Hype has become the tool of too many liberals and Democrats. But such hype prevents dialogue and prevents accomodation. And it takes you away from a realistic appraisal of what the "other side" is like.

One of the James Bond movies is about Goldfinger who covers his victims with molten gold and turns them into statues.

Once senator Goldwater went to see that movie and after the movie ended, heard a woman ask her companion, "After this, aren't you glad you didn't vote for him?"

The ability to distinguish between Goldfinger and Goldwater is crucial if we are all to remain sane.

America will not survive if we are unable to maintain a level of civilized discourse.

As a devout Republican, I say that this issue will be settled once we adopt the Christian Nation Amendment to the Constitution after the new GOP Regime seizes power in 2012:

"The United States is a Christian Nation. Congress shall make no law abridging the free exercise of all Christian religions, nor make law giving preference of one Christian denomination over another Christian denomination, nor giving preference of one Christian sect over another Christian sect. This amendment replaces the religion clause of the first amendment and supersedes all treaties as relevant to this amendment."

People who keep calling themselves exceptional are fighting an inferiority complex. It's not a question of what you call yourself. I can call myself the King of France but it doesn't make it true. For me to keep saying I am exceptional simply reflects an infantile narcissistic desire to be the centre of attention - even if that attention is my own, for myself. The original - and to my view extremely primitive - exceptionalism and specialness is to be found in the jewish religion's account of their own relationship with god. It's just a myth but it's still proving a dangerous and racially motivated myth more than three millenia after it was invented. Palin comes dangerously close to this with her invocation of god as creating the US as part of "his plan" - whatever that might be. Maybe his plan was to humiliate a nation whose hubris had got the better of it.

What is truly comical about all of this is that the things that have truly made America "exceptional" in the eyes of the rest of the world are those vary liberal, progressive, enlightened aspects of our society and our government that conservatives like Palin, Bachmann, Limbaugh and Beck passionately oppose--our 14th Amendment guarantees, our Civil Rights laws, our leadership in forming the United Nations, our working with the rest of the world to promote all of the aspects of our Constitution around the world that conservatives say they support.
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Are you sure? What about Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford? What about lasers and the internet? All of these are American contributions to the world.

In terms of liberal values, Canada would surely come ahead of America as might Sweden. But neither of them carries the weight of the world on their shoulders, nor are those shoulders broad enough to bear that burden.

You, as a liberal, celebrate America's liberal ideas. But America is hardly alone in its (partial) liberalism.

Where it has excelled is in its wealth and its strength.

What is that saying? False pride commeth before a fall? Funny, it has always worked out that way in my life.

Some exceptional things have happened in America and America as a country has done some exceptional things. But we have some serious problems to address and we should focus on them. The past gives us insight on how to deal with the future.

And no, this conservative does not want Palin to run for the presidency. Republicans have some pretty impressive governors who are living up to their commitments to the citizens.

What is truly comical about all of this is that the things that have truly made America "exceptional" in the eyes of the rest of the world are those vary liberal, progressive, enlightened aspects of our society and our government that conservatives like Palin, Bachmann, Limbaugh and Beck passionately oppose--our 14th Amendment guarantees, our Civil Rights laws, our leadership in forming the United Nations, our working with the rest of the world to promote all of the aspects of our Constitution around the world that conservatives say they support.

Look. Why are we exceptional? Because we enacted or changed or judicially decided on laws, codes and statutes that actually implemented what our Founders set down in the Constitution as principle. Conservatives of all stripes--political, cultural, religious--have consistently opposed these sorts of acts. They were in opposition to the Brown Decision that said separate but equal was unconstitutional. They opposed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws, which when implemented had negative consequences for liberal democrats because the southern contingent of the democratic caucus abandoned the party and became republicans.

Even during Teddy Roosevelt's administration, conservatives resisted the progressive reforms of that era, even Child Labor laws. And today, here in the 21st century, there are conservatives who call themselves libertarians who still oppose the Civil Rights Act as an intrusion on the right of businesses to refuse to serve someone owing to their race.

And now here we come to that last bastion of conservative resistance to enlightened laws implementing the Constitutional principles they say they believe in--the right of gay members of the military to serve openly without feat of retribution or bullying. And typically, who are the opponents to this enlightened policy? Conservatives--especially those religious conservatives who are wont to redefine exceptionalism as the same old oppressive religious domination that drove us out of Europe.

America suffers far more religiosity than any country in Europe. A huge percentage of our population would no doubt be more comfortable in a theocracy not much unlike those one encounters in Iran, Saudi Arabia, or any of the other rabid muslim countries so many of our christians complain about.

And yet, we survive their religiosity: the incessant battles in the culture war they've declared, their never-ending attempts to separate us from the country our founding fathers created for us; and their incredible willingness to subvert real history and real reality to help support and maintain their religious delusions.

We have survived and are surviving our own christians. That makes us exceptional.

The role of Divine Providence in America
Even though we just had an election, the culture war wages on. In many ways America is an exceptional country. For example, it is exceptional in our inherent diversity. America is a nation of immigrants and as such we have become a salad bowl of cultures around the world topped with a blend of rebelliousness dressing. It is both that rebelliousness and that diversity which has helped to make America strong and exceptional.

You can read the rest of my response to this topic:
http://exm.nr/gs3TDz

I will be responding to every issue posted in the 'On Faith' section. If you would like to be notified when my new response is up, please subscribe.

Hear hear!

It is particularly disturbing to note that the same individuals shouting about God's relationship with the U.S. tend to also proclaim that God selected THEM personally to run for office. (Or to win Dancing with the Stars.) It is the height of hubris and utterly inconsistent with religious principles.

It's counter-productive to justify such ethnocentric, myopic beliefs by saying "we're exceptional" and, once again, invoke a diety to bolster that misguided justification further. Words don't make a country exceptional - deeds do, and the deeds of the US, both within her own borders and around the world - are exceptionally destructive. Rationalizing poor behavior is not a plan to make this country and the world a safer, saner place.

Hasn't exceptionalism been the battle cry of every aggressive, war-mongering nation that ever existed? And aren't Americans all decendants of Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc? How can we be more exceptional than our cousins who still live in these countries?

I just hope some of those more "reasonable" countries will take in a few ex-pats if Sarah Palin wins in 2012!

I am a resident of South Carolina, a little triangle of ignorance, fear and despair on the southeastern slope of this great republic. I can tell you that we have more holy rollers per acre here than in any corner of the known world. Our social, cultural and economic backwardness is in direct proportion to our belief in a vengeful and paternalistic god. And, yes, South Carolina feels exceptional, too. We started a Civil War to demonstrate how special we are.

With time the majority of Americans will come down on the rational side of this issue and begin again to strongly support our secular heritage. Unfortunately with the wealth and power of conservative America pandering to the religious right in order to hold power this is going to take more time than I probably have left in life. But I don't fear that it will not happen. Perfect example of "power corrupts".

Babylon, Egypt, Athens, Rome, Genghis Khan, the Catholic Church, and the British Empire were all exceptional in THEIR times as well, and the 3rd Reich and Soviet Union certainly aspired to be. But they got way too full of themselves and started thinking that they had money to burn and people to spare, so why not fritter them all away on foreign wars?

Doesn't matter much WHAT gods you worship (if any) if you let arrogance and complacency take over.

Who needs facts and reason when you have God and missiles?

Look at all the conquistadors, the Nazis, and Imperial Japan accomplished. They were exceptional too. One day we can be just like them.

Yes, America is in many ways exceptional and superior and we the Americans are proud of that, but this has nothing to do with God. All these have been achieved because of the will and the hard work of Americans. If God has to do anything with it, this God should be a bias God that disadvantaged the other nations.