The US
Constitution (as written) set us up to be a “meritocracy”. We were free to earn
a living and provide for ourselves and our families. It was exceptional because
Europe had a Feudal system with “Royals” owning the land and the wealth and few
opportunities for “the folks”.
Our
Republic was set up with limited powers imposed on the federal government to
ensure that government didn’t get in the way of our free economy. It’s still true and we need to return our
federal government to be in compliance with the US Constitution (as written)
We have
the only system on the planet that works with human nature and provides the
freedom and opportunity for citizens to become self-sufficient in meeting their
needs.
The origins of “American Exceptionalism” from Wikipedia
are as follows:
Scholars argue
that the Statue of
Liberty
"signifies this proselytizing mission as the natural extension of
America's sense of itself as an exceptional nation."[1]
American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States is qualitatively
different from other nations.[2] In this view, U.S. exceptionalism stems from its emergence from the American
Revolution, thereby
becoming what political scientist Seymour Martin
Lipset called
"the first new nation"[3] and developing a uniquely American ideology, "Americanism", based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy and laissez-faire. This ideology itself is often referred to as
"American exceptionalism."[4]
Although the
term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and other American conservative writers have promoted
its use in that sense.[4][5] To them, the U.S. is like the biblical "City upon a Hill"—a phrase evoked by British colonists to North
America as early as 1630—and exempt from historical forces that have affected
other countries.[6]
The theory of
the exceptionalism of the U.S. can be traced to Alexis de
Tocqueville, the first
writer to describe the country as "exceptional" in 1831 and 1840.[7]
The exact term
"American exceptionalism" has been in use since at least the 1920s
and saw more common use after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin chastised members of the Jay Lovestone-led faction of the American
Communist Party for their belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of
history "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence
of rigid class distinctions".
American
Communists started using the English term "American exceptionalism"
in factional fights. It then moved into general use among intellectuals. In
1989, Scottish political scientist Richard Rose noted that most American
historians endorse exceptionalism. He suggests that these historians reason as
follows:
America marches
to a different drummer. Its uniqueness is explained by any or all of a variety
of reasons: history, size, geography, political institutions, and culture.
Explanations of the growth of government in Europe are not expected to fit
American experience, and vice versa.
However, post-nationalist scholars have rejected American Exceptionalism, arguing
that the U.S. had not broken from European history, and accordingly, the U.S.
has retained class-based and race-based inequalities, as well as imperialism
and willingness to wage war.
Source: American Exceptionalism – Wikipedia
The term has been co-opted by propagandists to mean
whatever they are promoting. It does
require that we reduce government spending to allow the private economy to
re-emerge.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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