Is America Exceptional?

Originally published in the Laurel-Leader Call on July 2, 2021

Tomorrow is Independence Day, America’s favorite day for backyard barbeques, baseball, and fireworks. But it’s also a day for patriotism and celebrating all that makes America exceptional.

A few years ago, President Obama got in hot water for saying that America is exceptional to Americans, but people in other countries probably view their countries as exceptional too. More recently, then presidential candidate Trump similarly rejected the idea of American Exceptionalism, saying that it isn’t very nice to other countries.

I think both Obama and Trump were conflating patriotism with American Exceptionalism, which are very different things. Alexis De Tocqueville, a Frenchman, was the first to use the word “exceptional” in his book Democracy in America, and he wasn’t talking about love of country or whether America is more special than France. De Tocqueville was celebrating the uniqueness of America’s founding, that unlike every other country established because of geography, wars, or nationality, America was founded on an idea. As Lincoln put it, we were, “Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” That certainly makes us exceptional the world over.

That exceptional founding created the most free and powerful nation on the planet, and we’ve used our power for good across the globe. We helped to free the world from tyranny and genocide during World War II. Americans rush into disaster zones with food, water, and medical teams following natural disasters like the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and the Indonesian tsunami of 2004. And this past year, Operation Warp Speed and our American drug companies produced three safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that have saved millions of lives across the globe. America is most certainly exceptional.

But saying America is exceptional doesn’t automatically mean we are perfect. It’s currently in vogue to dwell at length on America’s original sin of slavery, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Self-reflection and humility is good for people and nations. Slavery and Jim Crow were a terrible black spot on our nation, and in many ways, we’re still healing of those abuses. But what’s also true is that America’s exceptional political system created the conditions for the ending of slavery and Jim Crow, and that’s worth at least as much attention as focusing on our sins.

The exceptional American political system has allowed “We The People” to do what is critical for growth and freedom to thrive – that is, to police the system itself. Because of the rights afforded to us, we have seen political resistance, peaceful marches, and free speech by Civil Rights activists who have publicly addressed hard truths necessary for us to remain committed to extending freedom to all. And it’s the umbrella of that exceptional political system that allows organizations like Empower Mississippi to exist. The American idea of freedom literally holds the door open for me and my Empower colleagues to spend our careers removing barriers to opportunity so all Mississippians can rise.

This year, the Federal government recognized Juneteenth as a new Federal holiday, and some have said that will further divide us by creating separate celebrations of independence for black and white Americans. I disagree. Juneteenth is a perfect companion to Independence Day for freedom-loving Americans of all races and political stripes. It is the celebration of the literal moment when we as a nation began to fully live out the exceptional ideas of the Declaration of Independence. The American Revolution marked America’s first founding, and in many ways the Civil War marked our second founding, our rebirth. Both wars were about high ideals worth living and ultimately dying for, so why not celebrate both unique holidays? What could be more American than that?

My family and I recently returned from a vacation to Washington DC. I love how the National Mall is bookended by the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Our country needed the new birth of the Civil War to remind us of our ideals—that all men are created equal. Lincoln is every bit as deserving of founding father status as the 1776 crew. In a similar way, the Gettysburg Address is a bookend to the Declaration of Independence. We were—and are—imperfect as a nation, but we’re making progress all the time, toward a more perfect union.

So while you’re enjoying those burgers off the grill, let’s take time to celebrate the blessings of liberty, those whose blood watered the tree of liberty, and the recognition that we are a work in progress. On this side of Heaven, nothing is perfect, but I’m committed to celebrating what is exceptional about America while we continue to make her better. It may not be a perfect system, but it’s better than any other that’s ever been tried.

Happy Independence Day!