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American Exceptionalism – Part II – The Essential Ingredient of America’s Greatness

Posted by :Larry G. Johnson On : July 12, 2013
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Category: America, Archives

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.

American Exceptionalism – Part I – Myth or God’s Blessing?

Posted by :Larry G. Johnson On : July 5, 2013
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Category: America, Archives

What is this thing called “American exceptionalism” that surfaces periodically in political speeches, esoteric articles and books in the academic world, and an occasional mention on talk radio? The term “American exceptionalism” is of recent origin (less than 100 years) but the concept of the unique and exceptional nature of the United States has been recognized and accepted for more than 200 years.

The unique and exceptional nature of the United States was noted by numerous Founders during and after the American Revolution. However, widespread recognition of the unrivaled and exceptional nature of the United States in comparison to the rest of the world began with Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, a monumental study of America. The visiting Frenchman described what he saw during his nine-month journey across America in 1831. But for America and the concept of American exceptionalism, there are many detractors in the 21st century, both here and abroad, many of whom are of the “hate America” variety and which are especially found in academia.

Tocqueville’s Democracy in America has been called one of the most influential political texts ever written on America. Yet, Terrence McCoy in an article written for The Atlantic dismissively calls Tocqueville’s Democracy in America a “travelogue”. The title of McCoy’s article claims that Soviet leader “Joseph Stalin invented American exceptionalism.” McCoy states, “There’s only one problem with that (American exceptionalism): It’s not strictly true. Although a superiority complex has long pervaded the national psyche, the expression ‘American exceptionalism’ only became big a few years ago.” McCoy is referring to the first use of the term “American exceptionalism” in the 1920s. The phrase came from an English translation of a condemnation made in Stalin’s 1929 criticism of the Communist supporters of Jay Lovestone for their heretical belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history “thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions.” (Marxist laws flow from the humanistic worldview which says there is no creator, man is basically good, and man can establish his own laws devoid of any independent supernatural authority.)

It appears that McCoy believes that the non-existence of the label of “American exceptionalism” prior to the 1920s proves that the concept and reality of American exceptionalism since the nation’s inception did not exist. To agree with McCoy’s shallow analysis and conclusions with regard to the existence of and belief in American exceptionalism is only possible when one ignores Democracy in America and other considerable evidence of wide recognition and acceptance of the concept following publication of Tocqueville’s book in 1835.

The theme of American exceptionalism became common in the 19th century, especially in textbooks. From the 1840s to the late 19th century, 120 million copies of the McGuffey’s Reader textbooks were sold. Most American students studied the Readers which hailed American exceptionalism, manifest destiny, and America as God’s country even in the more secularized versions beginning in 1879.

For others who believe that America may have once been the greatest nation in the world, they now say that is no longer true. In an article by Tyler Gobin in the Technician Online, he states that America is no longer at the top of the heap. Our competiveness has fallen and Americans are perceived as lazy and culturally unaware. Mr. Gobin believes that, “…we ought to stop believing we are unique…and stop ignoring that we are only one part of a larger whole.” Gobin believes that, “Obama correctly recognized that exceptionalism stands for uniqueness and not superiority.”

Following Stalin’s use of “American exceptionalism,” the phrase fell into obscurity for half a century, until it was popularized by American newspapers in the 1980s to describe America’s cultural and political uniqueness. The phrase became an issue of contention between presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign. President Obama again landed in hot water during the 2012 campaign against Mitt Romney for saying that while he (Obama) “believed in ‘American exceptionalism,’ it was no different from ‘British exceptionalism,’ ‘Greek exceptionalism,’ or any other country’s brand of patriotic chest-thumping.” But if everyone is exceptional, then no one is exceptional…thus the denial of American exceptionalism and its denigration as mere “patriotic chest thumping.” President Obama’s position is understandable given a thing such as American exceptionalism would offend his radical egalitarian sensibilities.

With certainty, the Founders would not have agreed with President Obama. Rather, they would agree with James Madison. Speaking of the American Revolution and the crafting of the Constitution, Madison said, “It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of revolution.” Madison’s words echo the beliefs of many other Founders that America was an exceptional nation and the product of God’s providence.

We have examined the origins and spread of the concept of American exceptionalism as well as the claims of the deniers and detractors. In Part II we will search for that one element that made possible American exceptionalism and why its deniers and detractors are so adverse to any consideration of its reality in the history of the nation. In Part III we must consider the question, “Will America continue to be an exceptional nation, or will it succumb to the cycle of nations and have ‘Rest In Peace’ inscribed on its headstone?”

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

Tocqueville, Alexis De, Democracy in America, Gerald E. Bevan, Trans., (London, England: Penguin Books, 2003).

Terrence McCoy, “How Joseph Stalin Invented “American Exceptionalism,” The Atlantic, May 15, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-joseph-stalin-invented-american-exceptionalism/254534/ (accessed April 7, 2013).

Tyler Gobin, “American Exceptionalism,” Technician Online, April 2, 2013, http://www.technicianonline.com/opinion/columnists/article_c3994862-9b4b-11e2-9c65-0019bb30f31a.html (accessed April 7, 2013).

W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap, www.nccs.net: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1981, p. iii.

Dis-united States of America

Posted by :Larry G. Johnson On : March 17, 2013
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Category: America, Archives, Culture Wars

George Washington’s farewell address to the nation was published on September 17, 1796 near the end of his eight years as the first president of the newly minted United States. He spoke of his concern for the nation’s welfare as he expressed his “sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people…” His advice, warnings, and prescriptions have influenced generations of Americans but have been largely forgotten or ignored in modern times. Upon the occasion of his recent February birthday, it is well that we review some of the salient points from his farewell address that are particularly pointed and appropriate in twenty-first century America. I will quote liberally from his address and then revisit those quotes in light of the disunity caused by the culture wars and the resultant American angst.

Washington expressed his greatest concern with regard to maintaining the unity of the nation, both geographically and culturally. Unity and the prescriptions for its preservation were the central themes of his address. Speaking of the importance and source of the nation’s unity, Washington said:

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth…

In other words, unity of government is the main pillar of America’s independence, tranquility at home, peace abroad, safety, prosperity, and liberty.

For this [unity of government] you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles….

Whether a person was native or foreign born, Washington believed that America has a right to concentrate its citizens’ affections such that local or tribal differences would be subservient to the quest for national unity. As the eighteenth century was near its end, Washington was most concerned with the geographical differences that might damage the national unity. Those things which gave him hope that unity would be preserved and the nation would survive were the similarities of its citizens’ religion, manners, habits, and political principles. Effectively, Washington was saying that Americans to whom he addressed his farewell had a central cultural vision, a common worldview if you will, that would sustain them in a quest for unity. Furthermore, Washington said that America had a right to concentrate its citizens’ affections in the preservation of national unity.

Let’s fast forward to the twenty-first century and examine our national unity or, more accurately, our national disunity. First, we must recognize that the rapidity of modern communication and transportation generally have erased the boundaries imposed by geographical self-interests as was the case in Washington’s time. If that is the case, why is America not all the more unified than it was in the 1790s? The answer is evident when we look at America’s failure to concentrate the affections of its citizens as Washington believed it should. In other words we have lost a common central cultural vision (worldview) held by the Founders and the great majority of America’s citizens up until the mid-twentieth century.

This common cultural vision was biblical Christianity. Of course those imbued with modern sensibilities dominated by a humanistic worldview will scoff at this suggestion and point to the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion. However, it is important to understand that the United States is not a nation that attempts to impose Christianity on all of its citizens, but rather it is a nation founded upon Judeo-Christian principles that form the nation’s central cultural vision. Americans can worship anyway they please or choose to not believe in a divine creator altogether. This is what the Founders meant by “…the free exercise of religion,” but freedom of religion does not mean we abandon the central cultural vision upon which the nation was founded.

To understand why American culture is in decline, one must understand the larger picture as to why cultures in general decline and ultimately fail over time. First, a culture declines and ultimately fails as it loses it cohesiveness or unity. Washington recognized this and made it the central theme of his farewell address. Second, even if a culture maintains unity and cohesiveness, its worldview must over the long term be based on truth. Again, Washington’s words point to the importance of truth in a nation’s central cultural vision.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness—these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens…And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of a particular structure, reason, and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Now, who is this God in whom the Founders believed? Is He some “generic, one-size-fits-all, and all religions lead to the same God” variety? No! The Founders’ God is the God of the ancient Hebrews and first century Christians as revealed in the Bible. From these beliefs arose the power of Christian teaching over private conscience that made possible an American democratic society that is unrivaled in the history of the world.

In twenty-first century America, a majority of its citizens still hold the biblical worldview, but most of the leadership of American institutions have abandoned it for the humanistic worldview. For America to survive, we must once again “concentrate our affections” and restore unity under the central cultural vision of the Founders.

Larry G. Johnson