In January I wrote that both China and the United States view themselves as exceptional nations, ones that resist comparison to other countries across a broad spectrum of issues. Members of the U.S Republican Party, I wrote, believe in the superiority of the American system regardless of any metric that proves otherwise.
Five weeks later I’m pleased to have come across a very long article in National Review, arguably the most influential conservative magazine in the US, in which the two authors explicitly cite exceptionalism as a chief American value and argue that President Obama is doing his best to undermine it.
I don’t have time to provide a thorough critique of the piece, but to give you an idea of the authors’ perspective let’s consider this statement from the fourth paragraph of the article.
Our country has always been exceptional. It is freer, more individualistic, more democratic, and more open and dynamic than any other nation on earth.
Lest you think I am taking this quote out of context, let me state that this statement is made without even the slightest attempt to provide scientific evidence for the claims. Instead, the authors ramble on for a couple thousand words about why American history proves our exceptionalism. As a polemic, their argument has merit. As a work of political and historical analysis it has none.
Let’s just take two of the claims under scrutiny. One is that the U.S. is ‘freer’ than any other country. The other is that it is the most ‘democratic’. In economic terms, the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation- hardly bastions of Leftist ideology- listed New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Australia as the five ‘freest’ countries in the world. I wonder how National Review feels about a dreaded European state ranking higher than the US in terms of economic liberty.
NR’s claim that the US is the most democratic country in the world is even more laughable. For starters, lets consider the institution of the U.S. Senate. The Senate grants an equal number of seats in the national legislature to all states regardless of population. This means that Wyoming, a state with a population of less than 500,000, has the same number votes as California, a state with roughly 80 times its population. When you factor in abysmal voting turnout statistics, a remarkably small percentage of Americans have a great influence on political outcomes in the US.
This Economist ranking of countries by their degree of democratization does not list the US in the top 15. Countries that do make the list include Sweden, Iceland, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, and Austria. All part of, you guessed it, Europe. And the Economist too has never been accused of promoting a leftist agenda.
That being said, there are many things that the United States does quite well without having to resort to the ridiculous claims made in the NR piece. The US has an excellent university system that still attracts the world’s brightest and most ambitious students, many of whom remain in the country. The US also assimilates a large number of immigrants from across the globe with a lesser degree of social acrimony than in many European countries. These are certainly feats to be proud of.
But for contemporary American conservatives, it isn’t enough that the US outpaces all other countries in certain fields. We must be the best in all fields. And while I (and President Obama) would agree that this ambition is admirable, it is ludicrous to suggest that at present it resembles the truth in any way. As a result the Right expends tremendous effort writing counter-intuitive missives explaining why, in fact, the American health care system or education system or this or that is actually the world’s best despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
