Goldberg’s article, however, lacks the concrete definition of American exceptionalism which I feel is necessary before assessing who holds it as a belief. The notion of American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States, as a nation, is different from other nations in the world. Support for this notion often draws on Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” which points out the unique ideology found in the US and labels this “first new nation” as exceptional. It is important to note that though American exceptionalism is often perceived as a highly optimistic view towards the United States, it is in reality a far more objective idea. Goldberg fails to mention that American exceptionalism is merely a belief that the qualitative characteristics of the United States are comparatively exceptional – that the US is not necessarily better, but rather very different than any nation that exists today.
Goldberg thus, based on this article and his siding with Marco Rubio’s “America is the single greatest nation in all of human history” statement, is not so much an American exceptionalist, but rather just a very committed nationalist. President Obama, on the other hand, may be more of an American exceptionalist than Goldberg would like us to believe. The following comes directly from Goldberg’s article:
Last year, when asked if he believed in American exceptionalism, President Obama responded, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."
This reminded me of the wonderful scene in Pixar's "The Incredibles," in which the mom says "everyone's special" and her son replies, "Which is another way of saying no one is."
But at least the president made room for the sentiment that America is a special place, even if he chalked it up to a kind of benign provincialism.
The full statement, however, presented by Time magazine is:
Q - Thank you, Mr. President. In the context of all the multilateral activity that's been going on this week -- the G20, here at NATO -- and your evident enthusiasm for multilateral frameworks, to work through multilateral frameworks, could I ask you whether you subscribe, as many of your predecessors have, to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy? And if so, would you be able to elaborate on it?
PRESIDENT OBAMA - I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I'm enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world. If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don't think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.
And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us.
And so I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we create partnerships because we can't solve these problems alone.
Aside from the fact that Goldberg fails to take his quote from context before bashing on the leader of our nation, he also fails to realize that President Obama is truly an American exceptionalist. Though I feel the whole statement is important in order to understand Obama’s belief towards this notion of exceptionalism, the boldened and italicized passages particularly seem to emanate from the mind of someone who truly believes in American exceptionalism. This is no shocking fact though, you would be hard pressed to find a past president who truly was not an American exceptionalist.
Simply put, Jonah Goldberg is only a critic that fails to realize the truth behind Obama’s statement and who, despite being a good American nationalist, fails to truly support his own belief in American exceptionalism.
