Cold Chills About American Exceptionalism

I’ve noticed the rhetoric being thrown around in right wing circles for a while now.

And it has sent small chills down my back.


American Exceptionalism is a particularly unsavory bit of jingoism used to silence critics.

I think I first noticed it in debates about health care. The World Health Organization ranks the U.S. at thirty-seventh place, after, well, thirty six other countries. That, of course, is a somewhat vague metric. Although the attacks I’ve heard are that the WHO isn’t to be believed, after all its a creature of the United Nations. And we all know what the UN stands for…

The rejoinder from a few too many has been simple denial, saying it is obvious that the United States provides the best health care in the world as a mantra.

Of course then there are the numbers our own people generate. The C.I.A. using actually harder metrics such as life expectancy ranks the U.S. forty-ninth in the world. An even more disturbing statistic they’ve found is infant mortality, where the U.S. ranks one hundred and seventy-eighth. These numbers alone challenge the claims of how wonderful our health care is.

But the problem for me is that first denial of facts on the ground, reflecting, it seems to me the poisonous attitude of American Exceptionalism.

If we do it, it must be the best. And to challenge that is to challenge the homeland, very close to terrorism…

The deeper premise appears to be if you don’t think America has been marked out by God with a particular charism, you’re a traitor.

On the face of it, pretty nutsy cuckoo stuff.

And, here are the cold chills: it appears to have traction.

No doubt there’s a bit of racism in the mix with all this stuff about the president being somehow some kind of an other. But, I think the deeper issue is this sense that we’re the greatest, God said so, and if you have a problem with it…

I fear this is going to win some elections, and its going to put some very dangerous people into some very important chairs.

It does feel a bit like we’re facing some hard choices.

And I’m not really sure we’re up to it…