American Exceptionalism is not what the President or Vladimir Putin wants us to believe. I believe that Putin understands what it is and he is taking advantage of the President’s misunderstanding of the uniqueness of the United States of America, American Exceptionalism.
Obama, “I believe in American exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
American Exceptionalism does not mean that we are better than other people. It does not say that we are somehow better than our neighbors in the world. We dishonor the meaning of “American Exceptionalism”. The great gift of “American Exceptionalism” has been passed down from generation to generation and it is our rightful duty and obligation to future generations to protect it. Everything in our power must be brought to bear from time to time to ward off the ideas and words push upon by those that want to direct us into the pile of mediocrity.
It is with great distraught to witness the unraveling of our heritage. Leadership requires an understanding what the foundation of this country was all about. Leadership is more than being able to read a speech with the theatrics of a mythical orator. The knowledge and kinship with the past should be internalized by the leader to be espoused upon freely without the written word. Unfortunately we have people elected to office that believe that they are not servants of the people to protect the people by the power of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
Instead we have public servants serving themselves for their own fortune and glory. By their grandiose designs they have built a castle of centralized power to house their royalty so as to rule over us servants. Progressives and statists see that they are the architects of your life. A statist believes that this country has it wrong in that it is not the individual person for which this country was founded for. He sees the role of an all-powerful federal government as being unjustly limited by the Constitution, Bill of Rights and proclamation made in the Declaration of Independence. The statists, progressives, elitists, intelligentsia, and the publically educated serfs see the spelled out limits of the federal government as “negative liberties”.
American Exceptionalism is not about Americans being better than their neighbors to the north and south. It is not about Americans being better than those people living across the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans. What is it is this, the American opportunity presented to the world, a grand experiment that attracted millions of individuals to come here and live the “American dream of freedom & liberty”. Go back three short centuries ago and you will find that nothing existed like what our founding fathers envisioned. It was about the individual and the freedom of liberty. Look at the world of 300 years ago where you had rulers who simply ruled by birthright or pure brutal savagery. Our foundation was the exception. Our foundation was based on YOU the individual person with all the God given rights that each human is born with. It was with this perspective that the framers of the birthing of our country saw fit to limit the role of government, limiting the infringement by government upon our God given rights. It was the people that would hold the power through a representative Republic. This was an exception to the world and I believe it still is. This is “American Exceptionalism”.
Progressives and Statists believe that the role of the federal government is to be expanded. They believe that it is the government that gives you your rights. Those that see this as a proper role of government in the end give up their individual rights and their freedom of liberty. The more Americans become subjected to the ties of government doling out benefits of any kind the further away we get away from American Exceptionalism.
Progressives and statists see the Tea Party and people of that persuasion as a threat to an ever-expanding federal government. The usurping of our God given rights is tyranny. It is a subtle tyranny slowing eating away at the soul of the individual not unlike a flesh eating bacteria.
It is time to wash away this threat. It is time to remind ourselves to always be vigilant of the threat that will never be fully removed as it will lay dormant waiting for Americans to drop their guard. Americans, be aware that it is our own human frailty that can lead to tyrannical government. Americans must take it upon themselves to be involved. We need a populace that is educated to think and question the lack of wisdom of those in power and most importantly know what makes the United States of America an exceptional country that still holds the hope of mankind.
Jack Lara
Pensacola
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: American Exceptionalism