In Part I we looked at the origins and spread of the concept of American exceptionalism as well as the claims of its deniers and detractors. In Part II we will discuss the one essential ingredient that led to America’s exceptionalism and why exceptionalism’s deniers and detractors are so adverse to any consideration of its reality in the history of the nation.
To be exceptional is a condition of being different from the norm; also: a theory expounding the exceptionalism especially of a nation or region. In their book titled Understanding America – The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation, James Q. Wilson and Peter H. Schuck assembled a collection of essays which examined Alexis de Tocqueville’s declaration that America was “exceptional.” In their summation, the authors wholeheartedly agree with Tocqueville’s assessment and strongly refute the popular assertion, especially in Europe, that although the United States is the sole global superpower, America is no longer any more distinctive that other democratic societies.
Schuck identified seven overarching themes that connect the essays that point to America’s exceptionalism.
• American culture is different than all other nations due to its patriotism, individualism, religiosity, and spirit of enterprise.
• The American Constitution is unique due to its emphasis on individual rights, decentralization, and suspicion of government authority.
• Although generating greater inequality, the American economy has produced a high standard of living due to its competitiveness, flexibility, and decentralization.
• America has had a diverse population throughout its history. In spite of booms or busts, people all over the world want to come to America.
• A strong civil society has made America qualitatively different. This is evidence by the large share of responsibility for social policy borne by the nonprofit sector.
• America has historically relied on certain entities and institutions to provide benefits and minimize dependence on being a welfare-state.
• America has been exceptional demographically due to its population’s relatively high fertility rate.
As we read through this list, we begin to realize that none of the elements are exclusive to America and its founding but are found in varying degrees in other democratic societies. Also, there is no hint as to a special combination or mixture of these elements that made America exceptional. Wilson and Schuck’s book does a commendable job of analyzing the possible sources of America’s exceptionalism, but we still do not have a definitive answer as to that one ingredient that allowed America to become the greatest and most unique nation in the history of the world. Perhaps we can find a clue in the words of two of the nation’s Founders.
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity…From the day of the Declaration…they (the American people), were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of their Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of conduct.” John Quincy Adams (Sixth President of the United States). [William J. Federer, America’s God and Country, (Coppell, Texas: Fame Publishing, Inc., 1996), p. 18.]“
“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government—and all blessings which flow from them—must fall with them.” John Jay (Co-Author of the Federalist Papers; First Chief-Justice of the US Supreme Court). [“In God We Trust”, Tulsa World, July 4, 2012, A 17.]
From these words we see the influence of Christianity and Christian principles that permeate and bond with the principles of civil government. It is this influence that is the defining element necessary in creating and maintaining America’s exceptionalism, and it remained strong after more than four decades following the end of the Revolution and adoption of the Constitution and its Amendments. Tocqueville’s first-hand account also provides ample evidence of the centrality of religion and Christianity in particular in America of the early 1830s:
The Americans so completely identify the spirit of Christianity with freedom in their minds that it is almost impossible to get them to conceive the one without the other…
On my arrival in the United States, it was the religious atmosphere which first struck me. As I extended my stay, I could observe the political consequences which flowed from this novel situation. In France I had seen the spirit of religion moving in the opposite direction to that of the spirit of freedom. In America I found them intimately linked together in joint reign over the same land.
…America is still the country in the world where the Christian religion has retained the greatest real power over people’s souls and nothing shows better how useful and natural religion is to man, since the country where it exerts the greatest sway is also the most enlightened and free.
Therefore, from the words of the Founders and Tocqueville, we see the defining element that distinguishes America as the most exceptional of any nation in history. That element was not just religiosity but the influence of Christianity and its principles upon the new nation, its civil government, and citizens.
Among most of the institutions of American life and their leaders in the 21st century, the God of the Founders is no longer welcome. The Founders, if alive today, would not recognize America. Look at the seven themes Wilson and Schuck identified as important to America’s exceptionalism. Patriotism has been replaced by the “hate America first” crowd. Individualism and spirit of enterprise have been replaced by a drive toward a nanny-state government, entitlements, and invented and illusory rights. Individual rights and decentralization of government have been replaced by a “greatest good for the greatest number” mentality enforced by a monstrous bureaucracy. The American economy is losing its competitiveness due to confiscatory taxes, onerous regulatory burdens, and erosion of and loss of individual property rights as the country marches toward socialism. American culture has become a moral sewer as Christian morality is replaced by moral relativism in which there are no standards of right and wrong. Humanistic definitions of multiculturalism, tolerance, and equality are undermining the nation’s central cultural vision resulting in a loss of unity necessary for it to survive.
Those that deny American exceptionalism do so from the perspective of a humanistic worldview. Those holding that worldview have no trouble embracing various aspects contributing toward exceptionalism such as abundance of natural resources, isolation from the problems of Europe and other parts of the world, America’s cultural diversity, and the absence of class distinctions apart from the stain of long-ago slavery. However, the central, defining, and dominating presence of one element in birthing American exceptionalism is an embarrassment to them: America’s Christian religion. Therefore, American exceptionalism is judged guilty by association and like Christianity must be denied and driven from the public square. However, such denial is nothing more than historical revisionism.
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
Peter H. Schuck and James Q. Wilson, eds., Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation, (New York: Public Affairs, 2008), pp. 627-643.
Karlyn Bowman, “Understanding American Exceptionalism,” The American – The Online Magazine of the American Enterprise Institute, April 28, 2008. http://www.american.com/archive/2008/april-04-08/understanding-american-exceptionalism (accessed April 5, 2013)
Tocqueville, Alexis De, Democracy in America, Gerald E. Bevan, Trans., (London, England: Penguin Books, 2003), pp. 340, 343, 345.
