JONATHAN CHAIT AUGUST 11, 2011
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Republicans have endlessly recirculated the completely misleading talking point that President Obama in 2009 spoke dismissively about American exceptionalism. Washington Post writer Joel Achenbach, in a story about American decline, seems to have read the talking points and repeated the myth without bothering to check the context:
There is also a rash of books from Republican politicians that include attacks on President Obama, accusing him of not believing in “American exceptionalism, ” the idea that the United States is destined, either through constitutional genius, geography, culture, divine providence or some combination thereof, to play a unique and outsized role in human civilization. ...
When asked during a trip abroad in 2009 whether he believed in American exceptionalism, Obama said, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” This only drew more criticism from Republicans.
Since then, Obama has been more emphatic in speaking about America’s special role in the world.
This is a smear. In the comments, Obama defended American exceptionalism. The passage quoted by Achenbach, and many Republicans, is the throat-clearing caveat at the beginning of his answer, in which he describes the perspective of his critics before proceeding to disagree with it.
The full remarks:
I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I'm enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world. If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don't think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.
And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.
Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us.
And so I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we create partnerships because we can't solve these problems alone.
What you see here is a common Obama rhetorical technique. You could apply the Republican method to nearly any Obama statement, and simply take out of context the part where he describes the opposing view to make it sound as if he believes the opposite of what he actually does. It's a remarkable testament to the power of dogged, repetitive spin that the GOP has managed to get mainstream newspapers to start printing this utterly dishonest interpretation as fact.
9 comments
Jonathan, I think the more important issue is that Americans even feel the need to believe in this utterly delusional myth of exceptionalism. America is not exceptional. America is falling far behind in a number of areas. Politically, we have a bunch of idiotic, unread, unexceptional politicians running the country. It is perhaps the greatest irony that these morons think that our country should revert to "what the Founding Fathers wanted," as this would make them completely unqualified to be in public office. Thomas Jefferson achieved fluency in Latin, German, and Ancient Greek and was reading texts in these languages at the age of 9. American students are, for the most part, utterly unexceptional. They perform far lower than most of their peers in the developed world, yet they rank first in terms of how they view themselves and their accomplishments. Parents have spread this delusion and are largely the source of the problem. Instead of accepting the fact that their kids are perhaps complete idiots, they have encouraged their children in their quest against teachers, leading kids to contest low grades and leading to rampant grade inflation across the country. This, rather, is the "Exceptionalism Myth."
- khellaf
August 11, 2011 at 10:42am
The stupid thing is, of course, that the term "American Exceptionalism" never meant any of that. Until about ten (?) years ago, it meant the theory that the United States, because of its particular political history and social system, would not be destined to fall into the trap of class warfare and political dysfunction suffered by the European 'Old World' nations. Our exceptionalism was entirely domestic, so to speak, a product of guaranteed individual freedom and equality before the law.
- ironyroad
August 11, 2011 at 10:44am
A lie can get half way around the world before truth gets its boots on.
- liberalref
August 11, 2011 at 10:53am
But Jon, this is the WaPo. The politics equivalent of the WSJ? Owned by Murdoch and part of his grand propaganda machine? They, like Fox, are really just another outlet for the Republican propaganda, and this is likely not an indication that the lame-stream media has picked up the GOP spin on things.
- GSpinks
August 11, 2011 at 11:01am
Echo Lib. During the Bush years, I felt we acted like a schoolyard bully worldwide and I felt that populations of other countries would be unwilling to help us on terrorism because of it. Prior to the last presidential election, I told an Israeli that Obama would change that policy and I bet him $500.00 Obama would kill or capture Bin Laden. He reneged by claiming that Obama did not do it personally. I later learned that an "ass bet" is one where the bettor makes a bet with no intention of paying.
- Nusholtz
August 11, 2011 at 11:06am
It's like that class in high school mandated by the Florida legislature in the 1960s, Problems in American Democracy. Try though we might, we couldn't find any. And we spent an entire semester looking.
- rayward
August 11, 2011 at 11:24am
I believe Achenbach grew up in Florida in the 1960s. He must have taken the class too. It appears he didn't find any either.
- rayward
August 11, 2011 at 11:27am
One of the trends I find "exceptional" about the USA today is the number of religious sects and cults participating directly in the electoral process. The leading contenders for the Republican nomination for President seem to have profoundly original and certainly heretical Protestant belief systems. The leading contender for the nomination, Mitt Romney, is a Morman, a religion considered heretical by most mainstream Christians. Governor Perry of Texas begins his campaign by organizing an evangelical, and "dominionist" prayer meeting. Michele Bachmann also espouses a "dominionist" perspective and spent her entire professional legal training studying the "dominionist" approach to society, law and government. Sara Palin is a member of a "The Wasilla Assembly of God," founded in 1951. The Wasilla Assembly is a member of the "Assemblies of God," a Pentecostal Christian denomination, no one knew existed, outside of Wasilla. Frankly, her religious demonination is largely unknown to most Americans. The list of largely unknown, schismatic sects, cults, groups and churches which the contenders for the Republican nomination belong to is "exceptional." The present day Republicans could be renamed the "Christian, Schismatic, tiny Protestant sect, Republican Party." Other western democracies have Christian Democratic Parties. The Republicans have "reinvent the wheel," regionalized, non-conformist, and basically heretical, Christian leadership. To discover what these leaders believe requires the investigative work of a "large metropolitan newspaper." The dominance of evengelical, fundamentalist, sectarian, dominionist and religious cultist leadership in the Republican party needs to be understood. The ascendancy of tiny, sectarian belief systems, is undoubtedly "exceptional" for a modern mass political party. The decline of mainstream Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, as a societial forces, inside the Republican Party, has been precipitious.
- LawrenceGulotta
August 11, 2011 at 12:06pm
Obama's speech is that of an attorney. I'm not an attorney. But I remember my Legal Studies professor saying, "The 'A' student goes both ways" -- his humorous way of saying that a good lawyer always gives voice to the other side of the argument before explaining where that other argument is incorrect.
- PaulChum63
August 11, 2011 at 12:13pm