I find it deeply ironic that the right-wing of our political system appears to spend a great deal of time either talking about or appealing to 'American Exceptionalism'. Let's talk about that.
In what way is America exceptional among nations? The answers that seem to most often appear are 'the only superpower', 'the standard of democracy', or 'the shining city on a hill'. There are other answers, of course, but these will do for now.
'The only superpower'...at the moment. The world has seen many cycles of power among nations. They rise and fall; the Chinese, the Greeks,the Romans, the Napoleonic French, the Spanish, the British (in no particular order there) have all had a turn at the top of the wheel,and at the bottom. That's without expanding to the empires of South America, Africa, or the rest of Asia. So the 'superpower' designation is not the strongest of reeds there.
'The standard of democracy'...at the very least, I suspect that most of Europe would take offense to the idea that they lack functioning democracies. India, for all its other issues, manages to hold the largest elections--and get results counted--more efficiently than practically anywhere else.
'The shining city on a hill'...is fundamentally a religious concept,brought by the Puritans and their notion of building a 'new Jerusalem'. That idea has been promulgated through American society ever since, and has given us the underlying sense that we are, somehow, more virtuous and righteous than any other nation. It's never mentioned that the 'new Jerusalem' was built on the dead bodies of the native people who already lived here, and later, on those enslaved half a world away. So that doesn't work too well, either.
No,I think that if we can claim anything exceptional it is that we came up with the idea of a nation that was born of an idea. THAT was the radical new thing. We were not (and are not) Americans because of our parents, or our birthplace; we are Americans because we subscribe to the idea of a nation that is described in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The nation described in those documents is based on principles--all men are created equal before the law and in the eyes of men; all are entitled to participate in their own governance; all are entitled to observe that governance and speak their opinion of it; all are entitled to pursue the trade of their choosing; all are entitled to worship in the manner of their choosing; and the rest of the rights, privileges,and appurtenances of citizenship.
None of that rests on one's parentage, or tribe, or religious affiliation,or residence. None of that , critically, rests on being able to pay for those privileges. And that becomes an issue, since the rise of capitalism happens to be more or less coincident with the founding of the nation.
As I look at much of what the right-wing advocates, I see a devolution to the framework of tribalism. Instead of the the growing inclusion of the citizenry, I see exclusionary corrals, and much of that is more financially driven than otherwise, although it often marches in step with religious and/or racial issues. We appear to be losing the idea that we, as Americans, have responsibilities to each other, and not just rights.
The economic disparities of the last 40-odd years demonstrate that the old motto 'E Pluribus Unum' has been replaced, and the new motto is 'If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?' Our inability to design a health care system (unlike the rest of the developed world,) our allowing our prison system to become a private profit institution,and our rapidly growing failure to support our basic educational system all testify to the commodification of the poor, sick,disabled, or elderly.
That again, goes back to the medieval Old World...where one needed either wealth or birth to rise (or sometimes just survive) in society, and preferably both. If we continue on this path, if we allow our leadership to continue on this path, we will have lost the main ideas on which we were founded. And that would be a very great pity.
