A Nation Like No Other (2 page)

Emotions rose among the listeners, but most remained silent. A nearby row of frigates, with their gun ports open so the faint, late afternoon breeze could air out their ships, was a sobering sight. For some, in the upcoming weeks the flash of fire from those guns would be the last thing they ever saw.

Step by step, grievance by grievance, the declaration outlined the American case against their British king. The listeners nodded their heads at some arguments, while other pronouncements drew excited exclamations of agreement or impassioned denunciations of King George. Finally the officer's voice shifted into a more decisive tone:

The words washed over the anxious throng of cobblers, shopkeepers, tin-smiths, and farmers. When the aide finished, the regiment cheered
before the officer ordered, “Battalions, dismissed!” The surrounding crowd roared in approval. The more educated among them were eager to get a copy of the Declaration, which printers were already selling for a penny a sheet. Amidst cheers and back-slapping, men held their muskets high and gave three huzzahs for General Washington and three more for the Continental Congress.

Inspired by this declaration of independence, a crowd stormed down Broad Way to the small park at Bowling Green. There, they used grappling hooks and crowbars to tear down a statue of the horse-mounted British king. They dismembered the leaden corpse with hammers and chisels, carting away the metal to use as bullets—ironically, the king's statue would now provide ammunition for the rebels to employ against his troops. The spectacle outraged the Brits, who witnessed the statue's destruction from their ships. As one of the first acts of rebellion inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the scene at Bowling Green became a symbol of the Revolution, a sign that the Declaration was not just a philosophical treatise, but a call to action.

The colonists' euphoria, however, was tempered by a sense of apprehension, especially among war veterans. This would be a hard fight that could last for years, and victory was far from certain. In fact, that night a few colonial soldiers would quietly lay down their muskets and slip away, joining the masses of civilians evacuating what was expected to soon become a bloody field of battle.

But the Declaration had struck a chord. The following dawn, the vast majority of soldiers defiantly returned for morning roll call, despite the overwhelming forces arrayed against them. They would persevere a month later through the debacle on Long Island, and after suffering months of defeats, they would brave the frozen retreat across New Jersey. On Christmas Eve, they would faithfully follow their leader back across the Delaware River to a remarkable victory at Trenton. They would withstand Valley Forge, summers of heat and disease, winters of cold and starvation, for eight blood-soaked years. They endured because they believed in a set of ideals enshrined in a document written by their fellow citizens, a declaration proclaiming that rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable, that we are endowed with those
rights by our Creator, and that all men are created equal, as we are all made in His image.

That was worth fighting for, suffering for, and dying for. That is what made Americans unique in human history and made America, from its inception, a nation like no other.

For over four hundred years, America has cultivated a singular set of vigorous virtues and habits of liberty. We're the people whose first sovereign act was to fire our king. We did so in a classically American way, with clarity and courage.

We declared to the world who we are, explained which government actions were intolerable, and presented a clear case why King George III was a tyrant unfit to lead a free people. In proclaiming our rights as free men, we openly defied one of the greatest powers in the world. We knew this would mean invasion and war, which is why the Declaration ends with its signatories pledging to one another their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

The colonists fought willingly and courageously to realize the Declaration's ideals. Most were not professional soldiers but volunteers—free citizens who were willing to sacrifice everything to secure a land of freedom for their families, their children, and their grandchildren yet to be born.

The ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and the unique American identity that arose from an American civilization that honored them, form what we call today “American Exceptionalism.” This guiding ethos has always set America apart from all other nations. From its inception, our governing philosophy has been an exception to the practices of governments everywhere else in the world, as detailed by Alexis de Tocqueville and many others. Embracing freedom at a time when Europe and the rest of the world were mired in monarchies and despotism, we settled the frontier, became the world's foremost advocate of economic freedom, led the world in science and technology, vanquished
fascism, won a half-century battle against worldwide Communism, and eventually emerged as the world's sole superpower.

Americans today still overwhelmingly believe in American Exceptionalism. A December 2010 Gallup poll asked, “Because of the United States' history and its Constitution, do you think the U.S. has a unique character that makes it the greatest country in the world, or don't you think so?” Eighty percent of Americans responded “yes,” including 91 percent of Republicans, 77 percent of independents, and 73 percent of Democrats. Only 18 percent answered “no.”

However, even while expressing support for the concept of American Exceptionalism, many Americans have forgotten the original ideals represented by that concept, ideals that have animated the ethos of American life throughout our history and have led to America's unprecedented prosperity and global preeminence. Moreover, there is a determined group of radicals in the United States who outright oppose American Exceptionalism. Often convinced America is a uniquely brutal, racist, and malevolent country, these malcontents struggle to reduce American power and transform our political and economic systems into the kind of statist, socialist model that is now failing across Europe.

You don't need to look hard today to find this radical view, especially in the mainstream media and among left-wing pundits.
Washington Post
columnist Matt Miller mocks American Exceptionalism as a symptom of declining national self-confidence, writing, “Does anyone else think there's something a little insecure about a country that requires its politicians to constantly declare how exceptional it is? A populace in need of this much reassurance may be the surest sign of looming national decline.”
¹
Similarly, in a
Politico
column titled “U.S. Is Not Greatest Country Ever,” former
L.A. Times
editorial page editor Michael Kinsley argues that American Exceptionalism is a form of self-defeating arrogance: “The notion that America and Americans are special, among all the peoples of the earth, is sometimes called ‘American exceptionalism.'... This conceit that we're the greatest country ever may be self-immolating. If people believe it's true, they won't do what's necessary to make it true.”
²

The case against American Exceptionalism was made even more boldly in a
Boston Globe
column by author and journalist Neal Gabler. The article, titled “One nation under illusion,” argues:

Bemoaning that “the American people are too thin-skinned and arrogant” to realize their habitual mistake of opposing benevolent government policies like ObamaCare, Gabler warns, “We've been living in a fool's paradise. The result may be a government that
is
as good as the American people, which is something that should concern everyone.”

The purpose of such attacks on American Exceptionalism is clear: for those who believe Americans are generally stupid and mean-spirited, America's only hope is for an enlightened governing class to impose the “correct” policies upon its people. To these elitists, the ideals of freedom that underlie American Exceptionalism obstruct the unyielding power the government needs in order to force virtue, as they define it, on a resistant citizenry.

We must expose the agenda of these radials and fight relentlessly against their coercive, big-government policies. But it is worthwhile to consider the perspective of the larger group of people who have forgotten or just don't really understand what American Exceptionalism actually means.

President Obama, for example, simply does not understand this concept. In the past, he was outright contemptuous of American Exceptionalism, deriding Americans as “bitter” people who “cling” to guns and religion, pronouncing himself a “citizen of the world,” and denouncing America's supposed past transgressions in front of foreign audiences. His speeches betrayed a strong unease with American power; at an April 2010 nuclear summit, Obama declared, “Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.”
⁴
Most notably, he earned widespread condemnation when a
Financial Times
reporter asked him about American Exceptionalism point-blank, and he began his answer by asserting, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Recent events, however, seem to have sparked a change of heart in Obama. Just over a minute into his televised speech defending his decision to intervene in Libya, he proclaimed, “For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and as an advocate for human freedom.” Throughout his remarks, he unmistakably conveyed the notion that there is indeed something special about America: “To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and—more profoundly—our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different.” Later, Obama invoked our founding ideals and the American Revolution:

Many Obama supporters cited the speech as proof of his belief in American Exceptionalism; left-wing writer Glenn Greenwald agreed this was true, even as he worried that believing in American Exceptionalism may not be a good thing.
⁵
Nevertheless, looking past Obama's rhetoric, his policies betray a fundamental misunderstanding of what American Exceptionalism really means.

It is not enough to give a speech asserting the importance of our ideals of freedom, and insisting that governments must be “responsive to the aspirations of the people.” These ideals must be manifested in actual policies. On this score, Obama's record as president comes up woefully short. Imposing a centralized, top-down healthcare system that forces all Americans to buy a private service—health insurance—does not advance or preserve freedom. Undermining school choice to sustain the failing, bureaucratic, public school system and the privileges of its powerful unions does not help children or advance or preserve freedom. Saddling our kids with ruinous debt does not advance or preserve freedom. Strangling American companies' attempts to drill for oil and natural gas, using government power to pick winners and losers among private firms, and expanding bureaucratic control over the nation's industries do not advance or preserve freedom.