The ‘Insurrection’ and Its Discontents: ‘American Exceptionalism’ Revisited

The more political chaos and societal division widen, the more the notion of exceptionalism will be exposed as bizarre, selfish, and unsustainable.

Ramzy Baroud
By Ramzy Baroud
American Exceptionalism Feature photo

History is being written in the United States today. Even the most pessimistic about the prospects of American democracy have rarely ventured out this far while offering a bleak analysis of America’s future, whether in terms of political polarization at home or global standing abroad. As shocking and, certainly, telling as the images of thousands

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Is American Exceptionalism Shaping Our Scientific Response to the Coronavirus?

While New York City suffers through coronavirus, it’s worth recalling that in the name of science in 1966, the U.S. government released bacteria in the New York subways. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

David Swanson
By David Swanson
coronavirus response feature photo

(DavidSwanson.org) — What’s the matter with science? By that, do I mean, why don’t we turn away from corrupt politics and religion and follow the way of science? Or do I mean, why have we allowed science to so corrupt our politics and our culture? I mean, of course, both. We don’t need an uneducated jackass telling people how to control a viral

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How Big Brother Grips American Minds to Support Foreign Invasions

 For decades now, Gallup polling has shown that the most respected of all institutions by the American people is the nation’s military — more than the church, more than the Presidency, more than the U.S. Supreme Court, more than the press, more than the schools, more than anything. America is invasion-nation.

Eric Zuesse
By Eric Zuesse
American Flag

On November 29th, Gallup headlined “Democrats Lead Surge in Belief U.S. Should Be World Leader” and reported that “Three-fourths (75%) of Americans today think the United States has ‘a special responsibility to be the leading nation in world affairs,’ up from 66% in 2010. The surge is driven by Democrats, whose belief in this idea has increased

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These Should Be the End Times for American Patriotism

Exceptionalism has always been core to American patriotism, and American exceptionalism is no longer tenable.

Sam Haselby
By Sam Haselby
Alice Butler-Short, a supporter of Virginia Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie displays her American flag shoes while she waits for poll results at the election night party at Embassy Suites hotel in Springfield, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Patriotism is the organising passion of modern political life in the United States yet its vitality defies obvious explanation. The country has no national education system. There’s neither compulsory military nor civil service. No government agency distributes the ubiquitous US flags, nor enforces observance of the rituals to country performed at

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America’s Complicated Relationship with International Human Rights

The U.S. has long had a love-hate relationship with international norms, having taken the lead in forging landmark human rights agreements while brushing off complaints over its own abuses.

Nat Parry
By Nat Parry
A general view of the assembly hall during the opening of the Human Rights Council's Commemorative session marking the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday Dec. 12, 2008. (AP/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

American exceptionalism – the notion that the United States is unique among nations due to its traditions of democracy and liberty – has always been the foundation of the nation’s claim to moral leadership. As a country founded on ideals that are today are recognized the world over as fundamental principles of international norms, the U.S. utilizes

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Getting The Left To Embrace American Exceptionalism

Neocons have deftly used the Left’s hatred of President Trump and the demonizing of Russia to lure liberals and progressives into an interventionist mindset to defend “American exceptionalism.”

James W. Carden
By James W. Carden
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 5, 2012.

Last year, Donald J. Trump triumphed over 15 Republican primary opponents and a Democratic candidate with an impressive résumé largely on the strength of a simple four-word message: Make America Great Again.” Since Trump’s victory nearly a year ago, the major American media has often reprised the Obama-Clinton messaging that America is already

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