The myth of American exceptionalism

Recently, and against better judgement, I opened up an issue of the ultra-conservative magazine "NewsMax." Now if I were to write a blog post for every utterly confounding thing in that magazine, it would be safe to say I wouldn't have any spare time to update my other blog, or even write angry Op/Eds to "The Post" for that matter. After seeing one particular phrase in an article about Obama's foreign policy however, I couldn't resist a rant. Near the end of the article was this well crafted claim: "Obama denies American exceptionalism, insisting that American is just another country like Uganda or Spain, except with more land."

What blasphemy! What lies! I honestly can't believe there are many Americans that believe his nonsense, and yet I know it to be true. I suppose the writers of NewsMax believe that by birth we Americans are better than the other people's of the world? By divine mandate we reserve the right to rule? These xenophobic and nationalistic writers believe they are actually superior.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of one's country, but such feelings often lead to dangerous nationalistic sentiments. These feelings create an atmosphere of lazy self-assurance, and are threatening the growing progress of our country. The conservatives are feeding Joe Citizen what he wants to hear, along with fatty foods and useless products. Eventually, without a new attitude, our country will continue to decline in world rankings for literacy, health care, knowledge, and freedom. These arrogant Americans can only shrug at the anger of the world for so long, before they utterly destroy our country. America's suffering and hard work decades ago gave us our pride, and these people are continuing to live off of it like a fat thirty year old in his mother's basement. Only a new commitment of hard work and global responsibility will cure the disease of "American exceptionalism." The sooner we all realize we're citizens of the world too, the larger the chance of positive development in our crumbling society.