Greetings, Dear Reader,
Most people, particularly people on the left, but also on the right, will say it doesn’t exist.
Let’s get into it.
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AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AT WORK
There’s a political horseshoe theory to American exceptionalism denialists. It usually meets somewhere around education. If anything, they say, we’re exceptionally stupid despite every possible advantage.
I’d agree. Our stupidity is exceptional. We know one stupid easy thing we can do for all schoolkids is remove the disruptive ones from class. Yet, just like the public and violent felons lately, we refuse to do it. Our commitment to avoiding the obvious answer is exceptional for both its stupidity and its adherence to self evidently flawed ideologies (See: “Highly educated” excuses).
And still we keep winning.
You could also do it with health, although I might flip that on its head as well. Our prevailing obesity simply shows how utterly dominated the natural world is by our will … even if our will evaporates in front of the fridge.
Setting aside the roots and the mythos of American exceptionalism — I’m referring to our founding — a more recent example would be our treatment of Japan and Germany at the end of WWII. For as much as modern media likes to call precedented things “unprecedented,” our efforts to rebuild and administer the welfare of a defeated enemy were truly unprecedented on the world stage.
Not so much for us personally. We did it domestically after the Civil War. Before that we at least attempted to make chums out of London shortly after beating the absolute brakes off that baddie.
Despite my politics, I’m fond of all American presidents. Unlike our cousin, the UK, which runs through political leaders like half-smoked “fags,” American presidents to a one are exceptional people. Yes, even Carter.
Our most “average” presidents, according to historians, tend to be either Ford or Cleveland.
Ford stumbled into the vice presidency and then presidency via appointment and process, never having won a national election. He survived multiple assassination attempts. He even survived a typhoon that killed more than 800 sailors and sank three destroyers.
He famously pardoned Nixon and offered to grant clemency to Vietnam draft dodgers. It probably cost him the election.
Cleveland ran, and won, on honesty. Think about that for a second. They caught him flat-footed with news he’d sired an illegitimate child, and he immediately copped to it. As a sheriff, he could have paid someone else just $10 to perform two adjudicated hangings. Grover hung those men himself.
At risk of exposing myself to accusations of political bias — I insist I’m being as clinical as possible — no modern president is more exceptional than Donald Trump.
Trump took the stage at the UN yesterday where he defended the war in Iran and pledged (again) to lead reconstruction efforts in Gaza. More than that, he pledged to make Israel team up with Hamas to do it. While rebuilding the countries of our (former) enemies is not unprecedented, there is no other word for this particular ambition than exceptional.
Trump also maintained an accelerationist approach to “artificial intelligence,” which he is rebranding to “super intelligence.”
Like Ford before him, these two issues probably more than any others represent political risk for Trump and his legacy. His America First base and even a swath of moderates — for both of whom inflation is more crushing by the day — are wildly skeptical of more foreign spending and increased power for dystopic tech overlords.
Another thing that’s always been exceptional about Trump is his ability to see potential in things most others either can’t or refuse to see. Maybe that’s the case with Iran, Gaza, and the AI nerds. Probably so.
It could be, all said and done, that even Trump’s corruption is exceptional. Worth noting that Ulysses, before him, and Thomas Jefferson, even before him, used State Dept. resources to fund oppositional newspapers. Trump is not unprecedented, simply exceptional.
Not to handwave the dodgy Trump deals, just to highlight that even that aspect of the man is above and beyond the norm. You might think of him as the most graceless human being on earth, even if you support him. In many cases — Ted Cruz’s wife — you wouldn’t be wrong.
There’s no denying the grace that is offering peace and prosperity to a people once hellbent on destroying you. The church at the center of Dresden, for example, couldn’t have been rebuilt without the great financial efforts of American citizens.
That’s not Trump’s grace alone. For all his billions and his schemes, he’ll never own it outright. It’s ours. It might be exceptional in human history. For Americans, it’s Tuesday night.
WHAT I’M READING
Let Them Eat Chicken: Rollins Tells Americans To Find Protein Alternatives As Beef Prices Soar
I’ve always been more of a steak guy.
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‘The View’ Host Admits She Helped Keep Notorious ‘Cannibal Killer’ Out Of Prison
Just when I thought The View couldn’t get any worse.
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Veteran Tied To GOP Think Tank Allegedly Runs US Surrogacy Firm Used By Chinese Billionaires
A decidedly bad look.
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