An Answer

Previously I was asked why Americans believe that anything their country does is "right".  I had only a short time to try to explain to the two Germans sitting opposite me on the Inter-City Express train from Brussels to Frankfurt the concept of "American Exceptionalism".

You could say that de Tocqueville started it in the 1830s in his Democracy in America when he said Americans were "quite exceptional" and that perhaps no people would ever be in the same position again.  Individual liberty and equality was supposedly unique in America.  According to de Tocqueville, it was the Puritan ethic of the American settlers, the lack of a history of feudalism, and the "virgin" land itself that made America "exceptional".  Americans differed from Europeans even though they came from Europe.  This was the support Americans used for "Manifest Destiny" or the right to expand throughout the continent without questioning the destruction of the existing Native American civilization that millions of indigenous people had established for thousands of years.  America became the Land Of Opportunity.

The phrase "American Exceptionalism" became common in the 1920s when it was used--are you ready for this--by the American Communist Party to explain that America was not subject to the Maxist Laws because it was a classless society.  However, to the Soviet Communists, the Depression showed the flaw in that argument.

The most concern should be directed toward the present interpretation of the phrase by the neo-conservatives in America, which use the term to mean America is superior to all other countries, and is not subject to the rules of law which the international community has established.  The neo-cons argue for an American Empire, which has a mission to forcibly impose American values of government and culture on any other country it sees fit through military and economic power.  The neo-cons argue that President Obama does not believe in "American Exceptionalism", because he believes that while America has a major role in leading the nations of the world toward democracy, morality, and peace, it cannot do it alone but must join in partnerships with other nations.

What is exceptional about a country founded on accepting the principle of slavery, genocide of the indigenous peoples, and voting rights only for male property owners?  What is exceptional about a country that has less social mobility than many European countries, and greater income inequality than most European countries?  What is exceptional about a country that tries to limit the voting rights of minorities, that has more weapons in private hands than the next 20 countries combined, and that attempts to erase 60 years of gains in civil rights, woman's rights, and gay rights in one election?  American cannot be the "shining city on a hill" when it has a very high murder rate, a huge prison population, pockets of extreme poverty, and a terribly inequitable health care system.  American is no more exceptional than many other countries, and in many ways less exceptional.

As we pulled into Frankfurt bahnhof, I thanked my fellow riders for letting me rant on.  We walked down the platform, and I wished them well, as my journey was continuing on another ICE train to Stuttgart.  We will never meet again, but we did communicate.  It is possible.