Is America Still an Exceptional Country?

Often in life, people and subcultures will try and view themselves as better compared to other people and competition. When people and subcultures do things like this people will tend to take sides as well. This is considered exceptionalism, so when you evolve this definition into American exceptionalism you get a slightly different definition. “…American exceptionalism-the fantasy that the united states, as god’s gift to humanity, is, unique among nations, motivated by generosity, benevolence, and altruism as it strikes out in the world.

”(The Daily Beast) American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States of America is unique compared to other countries. Most citizens of the United States of America have American exceptionalism and believe that America is exceptional. This means that they believe that America is exceptional to all other countries. American citizens think that their country is unique in a good way and different from all other countries. Some people also believe that the United States is a country that was exceptional compared to the other countries but it is not anymore.

They believe that America should not be considered an exceptional country. This brings us to the question: is America still exceptional? There are many qualities that one can see from either side of the spectrum that could make someone sway either way but when shown the real facts then the answer should be obvious that America is still an exceptional country.

To start, on the opposing side of this argument America is not exceptional anymore because the economic system in which America operates is flawed and people are set up for failure.

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“We designed an economy over the past 30 years to funnel lots of money to the very rich” (Bivens) People think that America’s economy is set up for the citizens of America to fail because a large amount of the money goes to the rich. This may be true that the poor don’t receive as much of a portion of the money that they deserve. However, America is still exceptional because in the United States no matter where you are at now or how poor you are, you can always change that in America if you are willing to put in the work. One reason that America is exceptional is that they have the power and commitment to completely remake themselves and stand out to become a better country and people. You can relate American beliefs to bodybuilding. One way that American exceptionalism beliefs are similar to American bodybuilding beliefs is because in Leslie Heywood’s article she talks about how bodybuilding isn’t some gift that one is born with. One would have to work their ass off to achieve your goal of becoming a bodybuilder. With that said, that means that one can have no body strength or gifts at all and work themselves up to becoming a bodybuilder. Someone can completely physically remake himself. “You don’t like the shape to which your genetics have contributed? That’s ok, that’s just fine because you can physically remake yourself however you’d like”.(Heywood 220) When someone looks at a bodybuilder compared to themselves, the difference is that they are determined and committed to bodybuilding and they worked as hard as possible to get as far as they are now. It doesn’t matter where you are now, it is possible that one could physically remake themselves and become a bodybuilder no matter what they start with. Bodybuilding and American Americans take pride in being able to remake themselves. They take pride in being able to start from nothing and become whatever they want. This characteristic of America and its citizens is why America is still exceptional and unique.

Furthermore, another reason that people believe that the United States of America is not exceptional anymore is that they believe that America just simply isn’t unique. People say that there are other countries out there that are like America and have freedom. According to statistics the amount of freedom in the world is 45%. This means that one of America’s known qualities of being a free country isn’t as big of a deal. Yes, it can be said that other countries have the same benefits of freedom like the United States of America but with that said, the United States isn’t only exceptional for its freedom. America is still exceptional because they believe Americans have the potential and opportunity to work themselves up to become something amazing and important even if they start with nothing. In America, citizens have the opportunity to make their life as they see fit. Americans who have this idealism would say that this is a very important characteristic of America. They take pride in this and think they are different from others because of this characteristic. “U.S. citizens bring contradictory political and cultural descriptions into correlation with one another through the desires that make them meaningful” (Pease 2009:8). “Those desires are connected to the desire for autonomy, the celebration of the individual, and the desire to start fresh, unencumbered by the past or one’s origins.”(Heywood 221) United States citizens see this quality in themselves to be able to remake themselves to become greater regardless of their past origins as something to take pride in that makes them better than others. That is why America is exceptional and unique from other countries.

Moreover, another reason that people believe that the United States of America is not exceptional anymore is that they believe that Americans are selfish and want to keep America from the immigrants and to themselves without sharing the benefits of a free country with other human beings. Even their leader, Donald Trump who is the President of the United States is racist towards immigrants. “He has called immigrants criminals, rapists, and animals” (The Guardian). The United States’ very own leader is racist and doesn’t want other people to come inside of their country. This is all true to a certain extent however, The United States is not selfish. When it comes to helping people in a time of need America is selfless and will help other countries when they are in a time of need regardless of who they are. “What other nation fights for the freedom of others? In Europe in two world wars, in Korea, in Vietnam and, yes, in Iraq. In all those wars, America had very little or nothing to gain economically.“The United States fought for the freedom of other nations because they are so selfless. Whenever there’s a humanitarian crisis like when a tsunami hit Indonesia one of the first people to aid those people in the United States. America is still exceptional because it does all of these selfless things for other people.

In closing, there are a lot of reasons that America could have changed and become no longer exceptional anymore, but as shown throughout this essay it has been shown that America is still exceptional. It is a land of change, opportunity, selflessness, and freedom. Because of all the characteristics the United States has, it is considered unique and special.