American exceptionalism is the claim that the United States is exceptional, unusual or extraordinary in some way and thus does not conform or does need to conform to normal rules and principles.
A
- A nation that should never do wrong must necessarily govern the world.
- John Adams, Journal entry (6 August 1796)
B
- We are different from other nations, I know professors, it drives them crazy to say American Exceptionalism - they hate that. The average length of a constitution in the history of the world is seventeen years. This year we're two hundred and thirty two years under the same constitution, so we are unique, we're the exception; not the rule.
- In 2010, 80 percent of Americans polled by Gallup said the U.S. is the "greatest country" in the world. Of the 20 wealthy "democracies," the U.S. citizens were the most proud of their nationality and most supportive of attacking other countries without the U.N.'s consent. Younger generations were less likely to share these beliefs... So what is the reality? When we look at the indices of economic, social, health and even the level of "democracy," the U.S. comes out behind other countries... According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. comes in 31st for life expectancy. The World Bank found that for equitable distribution in wealth, the U.S. ranks 147 out of 152 countries. In December 2017, the UN Special Rapporteur for Extreme Poverty in the United States found that the U.S. has highest youth poverty rate across the 36 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries....
- American exceptionalism harms all of humanity, Longmont Times-Call Carolyn Bninski , (24 September 2018)
- The UN Rapporteur also found that the U.S. ranks 36th in water and sanitation and has the highest incarceration rate in the world. What about education? The Programme for International Student Assessment found that U.S. students rank 38 out of 71 countries.
- American exceptionalism harms all of humanity, Longmont Times-Call Carolyn Bninski , (24 September 2018)
C
![](../I/m/Richard_Cheney_2005_official_portrait.jpg)
We are, as Lincoln said, 'the last, best hope of earth.' We are not just one more nation, one more same entity on the world stage. We have been essential to the preservation and progress of freedom, and those who lead us in the years ahead must remind us, as Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan did, of the unique role we play. Neither they nor we should ever forget that we are, in fact, exceptional. ~ Dick Cheney
- We are, as Lincoln said, 'the last, best hope of earth.' We are not just one more nation, one more same entity on the world stage. We have been essential to the preservation and progress of freedom, and those who lead us in the years ahead must remind us, as Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan did, of the unique role we play. Neither they nor we should ever forget that we are, in fact, exceptional.
- Dick Cheney, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America, Threshold Editions, New York, 2015. pp. 259
- Powerful states have quite typically considered themselves to be exceptionally magnificent, and the United States is no exception to that.
- Noam Chomsky, Interview with The Young Turks, October 26, 2010
- America is great because America is good.
- Hillary Clinton, Speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention (July 28, 2016)
- This statement of American exceptionalism can be found in a contribution by Reverend Clarenca Reynolds to the September 6, 1922 issue of the Herald and Presbyter. The statement is sometime falsely attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville.
- Hillary Clinton, Speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention (July 28, 2016)
- Perhaps there has been, at some point in history, some great power whose elevation was exempt from the violent exploitation of other human bodies. If there has been, I have yet to discover it. But this banality of violence can never excuse America, because ... America believes itself exceptional, the greatest and noblest nation ever to exist. ... One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen's claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard.
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015), p. 8
- We are situated differently in this respect from any other country. All the other great powers have a comparatively homogeneous population, close kindred in race and blood and speech, and commonly little divided in religious beliefs. Our great Nation is made up of the strong and virile pioneering stock of nearly all the countries of the world. We have a variety of race and language and religious belief.
- Calvin Coolidge, "Ways to Peace", speech at Arlington (31 May 1926)
K
- We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. ... In the face of this situation ... we should dispense with the aspiration to "be liked" or to be regarded as the repository of a high-minded international altruism. We should stop putting ourselves in the position of being our brothers' keeper and refrain from offering moral and ideological advice. We should cease to talk about vague and—for the Far East—unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.
- George Kennan, "Memo PPS23", written 28 February 1948, declassified 17 June 1974
- To this day, the United States remains the only superpower capable, and at times willing, to commit real resources and make real sacrifices to build, sustain, and drive an international system committed to international law, democracy, and the promotion of human rights. Experience teaches that when the United States leads on human rights, from Nuremberg to Kosovo, other countries follow.
- Harold Hongju Koh, "On American Exceptionalism" 55 Stan. L. Rev. 1479 (2003) quote at p. 1487
P
- The cry that we have entered upon our imperial course in order to benefit the native populations in the lands that we have conquered is an old one. ... I have before me McKinley's proclamation to the Filipinos, and I have placed it side by side with a proclamation of the King of Assyria, written eighteen hundred years before Christ. A man would think that McKinley had plagiarized the idea from Asshurbanipal. ...
Each act of aggression, each new expedition of conquest is prefaced by a pronouncement containing a moral justification and an assurance to the victims of the imperial aggression that all is being done for their benefit.
- Senator Richard F. Pettigrew, Imperial Washington (1922), pp. 345-347
- It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.
- President Vladimir Putin in A plea for caution from Russia, The New York Times, (12 September 2013)
R
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I, in my own mind, have thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. . . . Any person with the courage, with the desire to tear up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to live in a strange and foreign place, was welcome here. ~ Ronald Reagan
![](../I/m/B43_bomb_casing_on_display.jpg)
When a country armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons and overwhelmed by its own exceptionalism and indispensability... that country is a recipe for the end of the world. ~ Paul Craig Roberts
- I, in my own mind, have thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. . . . Any person with the courage, with the desire to tear up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to live in a strange and foreign place, was welcome here.
- Ronald Reagan, America the Beautiful: Commencement Address, June 2, 1952
S
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From the dawn of history the oppressor has always insisted that oppression was good for the oppressed. ~ Moorfield Storey
- Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't trust the evidence of one's eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilizatrice.
- Edward Said, Orientalism (1978)
- From the dawn of history the oppressor has always insisted that oppression was good for the oppressed.
- Moorfield Storey, "The duty of the United States towards the Philippine Islands: A reply to Secretary Taft" (1908), p. 3
T
- The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no other democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840), part 2, p. 36
See also
External links
Encyclopedic article on American exceptionalism at Wikipedia
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