American Exceptionalism – Origins and Consequences
By Stuart Booth.
American exceptionalism is the belief that it, (the United States) is uniquely good, democratic and freedom loving. Consequently anything it does in the world, no matter harmful is motivated by the purest and best of intentions.
It certainly is an enduring theme of US Foreign Policy arising from the view that Americans are a chosen people with a unique mission to civilise the rest of the world.
It is found as far back as Jefferson , one of the Founding Fathers who claimed that the United States could produce a recipe for peace and freedom throughout the world. (Overlooking that the founding fathers were slave owners who didn’t want to pay their taxes. )
This was to become more practically enshrined within the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 declaring that the Americas (Central and South American nations) were off limits to all other powers. The whole region was to be an exclusive U.S. sphere of influence. The principle was a century later to be applied globally.
So, what are the origins of American Exceptionalism ?
To answer this we must initially deal with the term exceptionalism, which can be applied historically to other actors and nations. The British Empire of Rhodes and Kipling talked of the ‘white man’s burden ‘ to civilise the lesser peoples. The Third Reich claimed a destiny on behalf of the Aryan Race. The Catholic Church (pre Vatican 2) claimed to be the only true religion with the keys to the gates of heaven and a mission to convert all nations. It was to be practically enabled by Pope Urban in creating the Crusades making violence central to the experience of Western Christianity
and later in justifying the Spanish conquest of South America. This violent aggression has never been lost and was laterly to be central to theProtestant experience , but most particularly with evangelical Puritanism.
Thus Cromwell in Ireland, for instance,gave thanks to the Lord in his near genocide of the Catholic Irish , whom he likened onto the Amalekites defeated by the Israelites, (sounds familiar ?)
Puritanism laid the original foundations of the United States with the Bible Americansas its textbook ( native Americands also likened to the aforementioned amalekites). Despite the many various and multifarious splinter groups of puritanism who fiercely argue with one another. They all believe that Americans are chosen by God like the Jews. ( some believe they are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel )
For evangelical Chritians the Jews were also endowed with a special role for the end times and the second coming of Christ, as, they believe, foretold by prophecy. This view is held by millions of Americans who finance huge media platforms and support for Israel.
All this leads to the notion that America has a Manifest Destiny. The term was invented by a New York journalist and gave an intellectual as well as a divine sanction for American conquests and Frontier mentality. In the nineteenth century,it was the conquest of the American south and west from Mexico and the near annihilation of the indigenous native American population.
“ We the American people are the most independent, intelligent, moral and happy people on the face of the earth .”
It was claimed that this destiny was ordained for the U.S. to establish on earth the ‘moral dignity and salvation of Man’
Because of the assumptions in this belief that American society is
inherently virtuous, not only in its domestic sphere but also in its
international behaviour with the extension of the Monroe Doctrine through democratic internationalism treating the whole world as a sphere of influence. Furthermore, any attempt by any other powers to define a sphere of interest or influence was seen as a challenge to U.S. hegemony.
y 2002 the Bush Doctrine noting that with the collapse of the Soviet Union , the US now enjoyed a position of unparalleled power through military and economic might and political influence. It gave it the ‘right’ to preemptive military action against any threat or perceived threat. It also proclaimed the
goal of spreading democracy and to develop free and open societies on every continent. (In practice the destruction of nation states to acquire access to natural resources e.g. Iraq. )
One commentator even advised that “ Every ten years or so the US needs to pick up some small scrappy country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world that we mean business. “
The US also believes that it is always on the side of good and inherently benign even when millions die.
Indeed Hillary Clinton in 2016 explained American exceptionalism
“…….. it means that we recogniseAmerica’s unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress, a champion for freedom and opportunity. Our power comes with a responsibility to lead humbly,thoughtfully and with a fierce commitment to our values. Because when America fails to lead we leave a vacuum…….”
( This is in contrast to the murder of Gadaffi when she said “ I came , I saw,he died” whilst laughing. Also leaving Libya a broken state).
Over the last two centuries prominent Americans have described the US as an ‘empire of liberty’, a ‘shining city on a hill’, ‘the last hope of earth’, the ‘leader of the free world’, and ‘the indispensable nation’.
The US claims adherence to the Charter of the UN but in practice, with its own rules based order, it walks away from treaties and agreements (ask the native Americans) it has signed up to. As the strongest county it can and does walk away from any legal agreement or treaty and not face any consequences. No force can as yet make it abide by legal obligations.
This is true in the Middle East, South America or anywhere on the planet.
It has plenty of compradors in its vassal states of the West and Europe who are supposed allies.
The gloves are off with the election of Trump and his ongoing Frontier mentality with his religious support for actions in the Middle East. This extends to erstwhile allies with territorial claims to the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada.
An uncertain future beckons……But with one certainty, that anything the US government does will always be correct and divinely ordained.
