An unexceptional nation

 One of the ideas that has come to the forefront in our current political debate-is a very flawed one. That it has been allowed to take root in our civil discourse is indeed a tragic development for the nation as a whole and it is probably the one thing that is holding America up from advancing into the 21^stcentury.  That idea is the idea of American exceptionalism-that hoary and totally ridiculous idea foisted upon our populace by our politicians- that the United States of America is somehow qualitatively different from other nations. I’ve stated it before and I will continue to state it-I firmly reject that idea and so should any sane inhabitant of the United States.

Regrettably, it would appear that the current President of the United States has not rejected that idea. And that’s a bad thing in the long run-because it would appear that he is taking the country down the same rat hole that his predecessor did. For the record-the United States is not uniquely called to solve the world’s problems. Even if it was capable of doing so ( which it is not-and especially now is not resourced to do), the obligation to intervene in the hope of creating a better world is simply not there.

 It is unfortunate that acceptance or rejection of the idea of American exceptionalism has become a litmus test of one’s patriotism and sense of civic responsibility. In Tea Bagger parlance-if you don’t accept the theory you are some kind of lost soul who is not fit to be involved in the affairs of the nation. Like most Tea Party viewpoints-this idea is based on a flawed conclusion drawn from the available historical data. As with other things they espouse,  they are 100% wrong.

Here’s why. The key principle of American exceptionalism derives from the flawed premise that America’s ideals are unique to the country of America and are not resident in any other country on earth.  That is clearly nonsense. America is a product of its own history and the European history that preceded it.  One begat the other. Seeing American ideals and principles as unique to America is to erase the British building blocks of that tradition, as well as the French thoughts of the Enlightenment that are at the core of the thoughts and ideals of the founding fathers. Furthermore-embracing this idea that America is somehow gifted and unique is to ignore some incredibly ugly segments of our own history.  That’s a bad thing to do-especially in our current context-where so many bad ideas are passed around as if they are factually based.

Furthermore, it is an arrogant proposition to state, as some of the more devout devotees do, that God has somehow “favored the United States” over other nations. If that’s true-what is says about God is not really good.  It certainly does not square well with idea of an all loving God who loves all the people of the world on a basis of compassion for them as His children.

If America’s ideals are universal, they cannot be reduced to the ownership of one country. And our country’s actual history – as opposed to Tea Party mythology – is as flawed as many others.   It ignores the intended and unintended genocide of those who already lived here, as well as ignoring our almost 100 year embrace of a concept such as slavery which was indefensible then-and certainly more so now. It also ignores the unique influence of some incredibly lucky events that kept the nation on a path of unity-when clearly the global trend was in the opposite direction. The simple truth is that America was very lucky-and its success had many fathers, but the path of the success was uneven at best.  Our wealth did and does not now exempt us from making hideous national mistakes. The invasion of Iraq was one such mistake, as is our current misguided intervention into what is essentially an internal matter in Libya.

This is not to say the United States of America does not have a lot of advantages going for it. Our Constitution-when properly interpreted-is an amazing and very durable document. The fact that the nation has not followed the “independence” path of fragmentation that we saw in Africa during the 1960’s and Central Asia in the 1990’s is another. More continents should be like  America with larger single nations than the opposite model.  But we owe that to some unique circumstances-not the least of which is being un-bombed and uninvaded for over a century and a half. Americans would do well to remember that and not think other nations will who have been bombed and invaded will behave the same way.

In the period following World War II, this misguided belief in the oneness of the American experience may actually have served a useful purpose. Certainly it kept the US from becoming isolationist and it allowed us to help a generation of Europeans, Japanese, and others to get back on their feet economically and politically. But now-in the multi-polar world we willed into being by our lack of recognition that not all anti-colonialism was in our best interest-the idea of American exceptionalism is more of a stumbling block to progress . Glen Greenwald sums it up:

The fact remains that declaring yourself special, superior and/or exceptional — and believing that to be true, and, especially, acting on that belief — has serious consequences. it can (and usually does) mean that the same standards of judgment aren’t applied to your acts as are applied to everyone else’s (when you do x, it’s justified, but when they do, it isn’t). It means that you’re entitled (or obligated) to do things that nobody else is entitled or obligated to do (does anyone doubt that the self-perceived superiority and self-arrogated entitlements of Wall Street tycoons is what lead them to believe they can act without constraints?). it means that no matter how many bad things you do in the world, it doesn’t ever reflect on who you are, because you’re inherently exceptional and thus driven by good motives. And it probably means — at least as it expresses itself in the American form — that you’ll find yourself in a posture of endless war, because your “unique power, responsibilities, and moral obligations” will always find causes and justifications for new conflicts.

As a business proposition, not to mention a moral proposition, continuous war is a loser. Your competitors are under no such special obligation, and are able to sit out the conflicts-while all the while accumulating wealth and prosperity for their own ends. Thanks to the Faustian bargain our politicians have made the likes of evil men like Grover Norquist, we can’t even raise our own revenue for such endeavors because it has become an accepted (and equally flawed) principle that you can never, ever, raise taxes-no matter how many wars you are in at one time, or how many of your own population are unemployed. So the “unexceptional “ nations get the privilege of loaning you money.

They also get a free ride off your distraction and potential failure.

What Sarah Palin and the rest of the ilk like her have not grasped is that exhortations of American greatness aside-the facts are unchangeable and in our case, don’t tell a good story. The 21’st century is about competition: competition for resources, markets, and capital.  Our competitors have learned well enough how to “play the game”-saying the right things to avoid outright provocation, while still doing the actions that undermine the local position of the US within and around their countries.  Because the American Empire is “empire light”-empire with all of the responsibilities and bloodshed, but none of the perks ( conquering and exploiting land and the local natives)-the competitors know they only have to match the capability within their neighborhood.

President Obama had a chance to reverse all this nonsense.  That’s what he was elected to do-end the insanity of the wars started by George Bush. Instead Obama reverted to embracing the forces he was elected to resist and restrain. Politically-thanks to the warped political environment created by an electorate that is stupid enough to elect someone like Allen West-it was the pragmatic choice for him to take. But it does  not make it any less wrong-or in the long run any less self destructive for the nation.

As a result we are still at war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya. And because these Arabs and other brands of the lower end of the human food chain-they will screw up any advantage given to them by our intervention. And as I have pointed out previously-in the case of Libya we don’t even know who these so called rebels really represent. Algeria, you will recall, became independent-only to spend 40 years worse off than under French rule.

Obama could have lead a retrenchment from all that-and focused effort on improving the lot of our own people. Instead we cave to the noisiness of a group of spoiled children-doing the bidding of a wealthy few in our own country-while giving in to the neocon wet dreams of the  utopian notion of the US as the rescuer of all those subjected to tyranny.

Trust me-we have seen this movie before and it doesn’t end well.

I’m not sure what it will take for us to learn our lessons. Perhaps it will come when the rebellion in Libya or elsewhere fails-and we face an even murkier choice-or it will come when we finally wake up and realize that we are arguing over cutting minuscule amounts of federal spending-while wasting billions on worthless Arabs who are unworthy of the privilege.

What’s perhaps the most astonishing to me, is that some of the same people who are so outwardly supportive of this incredible generosity of effort towards a foreign people who will eventually turn on us-have not the slightest bit of compassion for their own fellow citizens. Following the tea party script-they are all too willing to attribute any shortfalls among those folks to their own failings-while giving an Arab rabble a free pass.

If that does not seem abhorrent to you-then you lost sight of the ball early in the game.

I’m not sure whether we will realize it in time before our competitors force that realization on us. Either way its not exceptional-its a stupid drama that has been replayed many times.