Jonathan Zimmerman: Exceptionalism and the Left
[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author, most recently, of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory."]
Is America "exceptional"?...
That's becoming the battle cry of the Republican Party in its bid to unseat President Obama in 2012. Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and other GOP presidential hopefuls have all declared Obama insufficiently attuned to American exceptionalism. America is exceptional, they say, except our own president doesn't appreciate it....
Whether we're exceptional or not, then, most of us believe we are. And it would be political suicide for Obama — or anyone else — to suggest otherwise.
Instead, the president should invoke America's long tradition of left-wing exceptionalism. The great warriors for social justice in our history all insisted that America had a providential destiny. Unlike present-day conservatives, however, they also indicted the nation for abandoning this mission. They used American exceptionalism to critique America's vices, not just to sing its virtues....
Read entire article at LA Times
Is America "exceptional"?...
That's becoming the battle cry of the Republican Party in its bid to unseat President Obama in 2012. Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and other GOP presidential hopefuls have all declared Obama insufficiently attuned to American exceptionalism. America is exceptional, they say, except our own president doesn't appreciate it....
Whether we're exceptional or not, then, most of us believe we are. And it would be political suicide for Obama — or anyone else — to suggest otherwise.
Instead, the president should invoke America's long tradition of left-wing exceptionalism. The great warriors for social justice in our history all insisted that America had a providential destiny. Unlike present-day conservatives, however, they also indicted the nation for abandoning this mission. They used American exceptionalism to critique America's vices, not just to sing its virtues....