On American Exceptionalism

Republicans like to talk about American exceptionalism. A lot. We're the greatest, strongest, freest country EVER!!! So sayeth Sean Hannity, repeatedly, and others mirror the sentiments. And they are horrified by the way that some people, say, a particular descendant of those we once held in slavery who is now first lady, have expressed the view that America, at least in the past, may not have been all that worth being proud of.

So, naturally, 52% of Republicans think America's "moral values" are "poor," the worst option on Gallup's excellent-good-fair-poor scale. Compared to just 35% of Democrats. Yeah, conservative love America, all right.
What's going on here? Basically it's contained in the slogan, "Take our country back!" Because you see, Republicans and conservatives don't really like modern-day America. We're godless, permissive, urban, socialist, etc. Our society has been corrupted. Our government is oppressive. The evil homosexual secular Commie liberals have taken our country away from us. The idea here is that there is an ideal America, which is not currently extant. Conservatives believe that this ideal America is exceptional, not that the current real America is exceptional. And of course, they believe that this ideal America existed at some point in the past, possibly around 1890 or 1924.

 (As a side note, this difference between real America and ideal America is part of why I don't say the Pledge of Allegiance, and why I might if they took the "under god" part out of it. Without the god bit, it reads as aspirational, an allegiance to the ideal America, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. But you can't aspire to be under god, you can only assert that you are under god, so the current version is an assertion, an allegiance to the real America and a claim that it is one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all, which is patently false.)

But in any event. The point is, conservatives, we liberals believe in that ideal America, too. It just looks different from yours. And while you see a country that peaked a hundred years ago and has had its moral fabric decaying ever since the evil progressives took over, we liberals see a country that was deeply flawed from the time of its founding (yeah, I dare you to dispute this) and has rather consistently improved itself for over two-hundred years, coming closer and closer to living up to its ideals. You see a country once great, now falling; we see a country rising steadily toward a brighter tomorrow. You say, take our country back. And we say:

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!

Let America be America again, the land that never has been yet, and yet must be. This is our American exceptionalism: America will be!