The Myth of American Exceptionalism

American Exceptionalism holds that the USA is fundamentally different from other countries, usually with the implication that it is also superior. The idea stems from the belief that through its revolution, America broke free from the chains and constraints of the “Old World.”  

The new country had a duty, a mission, to spread the benefits of its institutions to the rest of humanity, benefits like individual freedom, republicanism, democracy, equality before the law, a free market economy, and religious freedom.

None of these institutions or ideas originated in the United States. All can be traced to earlier history, from the Greco-Roman world and European history from the Middle Ages to the 18^th century Enlightenment. 

The Patriots appealed to “Anglo-Saxon Liberty,” Magna Carta (1215), the English Revolutions and British philosophy, to justify claims to individual freedom and legal equality. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson drew heavily on the ideas of John Locke.

American’s Founding Fathers admired and were influenced by the Roman Republic. The Netherlands, Venice, Genoa, and the Swiss Confederation were or had been republics for hundreds of years by 1776. Even Britain had been as well, though for only eleven years (1649-1660).

Ancient Athens was famously a democracy of sorts, but the makers of the Constitution were not enthusiastic about that system. They  created the Electoral College to ensure that presidents were not elected by the popular vote.* Their distrust of democracy also partly explains why the Senate is a thoroughly undemocratic body, with two Senators from every state, regardless of population. 

The USA embraced democracy as an ideal long after its foundation, slowly and reluctantly. For many decades, some states restricted voting to propertied white men. State legislatures, not the voters, elected senators until 1913. The law denied women the right to vote or hold public offices in most states until 1919. After the end of slavery, law and racial discrimination deprived blacks of civil rights.

As for free market economics, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published the founding text in 1776, The Wealth of Nations. His concern, however, was with the good of consumers (everybody) not employers and traders, who he viewed as a conniving, dishonest lot. 

Smith was more sympathetic to workers, who he recognized as being in a weak position. Not surprisingly, American capitalists seldom go into detail on that part of Smith’s work, or indeed his condemnation of monopolies and government subsidies.

The idea of religious freedom in Western countries arose out of the Wars of Religion that followed the Protestant Reformation. The Dutch introduced religious toleration in the late 16^th century, the British by the late 17th. Most Enlightenment thinkers advocated complete freedom of religious belief.

The view that the USA is morally superior to other nations is belied by its history of slavery and segregation, horrific treatment of Native Americans, and discrimination against immigrants of “inferior races," including the Irish, Asians, Jews, Southern and Eastern Europeans, and Hispanics.

Historically, the US has been all too exceptional in its insistence on other countries obeying international laws and moral standards while failing to observe them itself. 

The US national anthem ends with “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!” Those words of Francis Scott Key are hard-wired into many American brains, including my own. If the words are true, one must feel sorry for the rest of the world, those sad lands of slaves and cowards. 

The USA is quite exceptional in some ways. It is one of the most violent countries on earth. The most coveted right in American culture is the right to possess firearms of the most potent type. With millions of people armed to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons, it is hardly surprising that mass shootings are an almost everyday occurrence. 

The USA is the only developed nation without a system of universal health care. Countries with considerably less wealth have some kind of system that covers the entire population. Not surprisingly, the USA also leads the world in medical bankruptcies. 

*Some Southern slaveholders argued that white democracy was possible, but only with a large population of slaves to do the physical work, freeing the white elite to handle governance. They used ancient Athens as a model, with its thousands of slaves.