Exceptionalism

Have you ever noticed that whenever anyone publicly questions American Exceptionalism, they are immediately attacked by the right wing?  Let's explore what exceptionalism really is.

What is commonly though of as exceptionalism is this: The United States is the one essential nation, a force for good, a global power that makes the world a better place.

But what is exceptionalism, after one takes a deeper look?  What it really is is a set of related beliefs, never publicly stated:

• The citizens of the United States, especially the wealthier, whiter more conservative ones, are god's chosen people.  They have been selected by their Christian deity to lead, rule and police the world, intervening wherever American power and authority is challenged.  It's therefore necessary, from time to time, for the chosen people, the exceptional people, to use military force to repel what is perceived and portrayed as evil in the world.
• Exceptionalism is a special kind of entitlement.  Believers in exceptionalism imagine that Americans, privileged Americans, are entitled to consume one fourth of the world's oil and about one third of the world's other natural resources.  Why?  Because Americans are god's chosen people, and shouldn't the chosen people be entitled to a bigger helping of earth's bounty, even if we have to fight wars against evil to protect what's rightfully ours?
• Exceptionalism is an excuse to commit violence on the less powerful people of earth, killing, maiming and torturing as directed by the leader of the exceptional people, the US President.  
• Exceptionalism is a justification for failing to agree to UN treaties or the authority of the International Criminal Court.  Why?  Again, because we are the exceptional people, and we recognize no superior authority but our own deity, and only conservative Christian US leaders and very powerful American industrialists are empowered with the ability to understand what this deity wants us to do.
• In order to remain the exceptional nation, the wealthiest Americans must not allow the US government to in any way lighten the heavy burden placed upon the poor, the sick, many of the young, the unemployed.  All government assistance creates weakness and dependency which weaken the exceptional nation.  Yet there is one exception to this rule: It's perfectly OK, indeed mandatory, for the government to provide a big helping hand to those who are already quite wealthy because the wealthy citizens have proven they are the most chosen of the deity's chosen people.  [And besides, they are major campaign donors.]

So in a very real sense, the US public is exceptional: Exceptionally deluded in thinking we have been selected to rule the world and that American values and our system of politics and economics may rightfully be imposed on the rest of the world whenever we see fit to do so.  Exceptionally deluded in thinking that there is some deity who has committed to magically protect the United States from harm, as long as the country remains a conservative Christian stronghold that limits the rights of gays, women, people of color, immigrants, and any other group out of favor with god's chosen political Party, the Republican one.  Indeed, we are truly an exceptional people... and we will be exceptionally disappointed when it all starts to fall apart.