America is Exceptional

It’s become pretty obvious by now that Obama is not a believer in the idea of American exceptionalism, and there is a fair amount of consternation as to whether he’s right. Is there such a thing? Even some who firmly believe in this idea seem willing to entertain the possibility that it may once have been true, but also may no longer be.

Obama is wrong, and the consternation, while understandable, is not justified.

America is exceptional, and will always be, but not because there is a superior class of men or woman who live here (there isn’t), and not because of the quantity or quality of what are merely outward symbols of its prosperity and technological wizardry.

America is exceptional because it is founded on the truth of God, man and freedom. America doesn’t own this truth, but its founders proclaimed it boldly and publicly, unlike any other time in human history, at the time of the publishing of the Declaration of Independence. The world was forever changed for the better since that time, and while America and the world can seem to be in recurring cycles of advancing or declining in its collective respect and honoring of this truth, the overall direction is positive and good. Everyone who has lived under this truth has been blessed by it, even if they have experienced injustice or adversity along the way. The alternative is always worse.

What’s more—truth does not change or deteriorate; that is the nature of truth. Human grasp of and practice of truth may ebb and flow, but truth? Never.

American exceptionalism will therefore cease only when truth ceases to be true. This will not happen.

The sentiments of the Declaration of Independence are immortal. They will survive the bashing or ignoring or disputing of various generations; they would even survive a tyrannical executive, legislative or judicial branch of government which decrees that the Declaration of Independence no longer exists or has been superseded by some popular new human edict. Doesn’t matter. The truth stands.

What is stirring in America is a reawakened appreciation for these facts. The stirring is authentic; it is taking place in the hearts of men and women; that’s why it can’t be bowled over or otherwise cowed by our Pravda media’s 24/7 onslaught of godless intellectualism’s denial of truth. It is creating a force that will do the bowling over.

This past week has witnessed some truly despicable political behavior by the American President as he tries desperately to quell the stirring that is going on. He publicly accused Republicans of wanting ‘black folks to stay home’ from voting—this at a time when there are 11 black Republican candidates for Congress. He publicly attacked the US Chamber of Commerce, an institution about as American as apple pie, for allegedly—and without any factual basis whatsoever for the allegation—using ‘foreign’ money to pay for political ads. This from a President who is tapping every foreign source imaginable—most notably, Communist China--to run up American deficits designed to destroy the American private sector and force a collapse into socialism.

The details of these incidents are spelled out by many other sources; they are not what is important to us. What is important is how quickly and widely condemned these actions have been, and how powerfully they are backfiring on Obama. Pravda doesn’t see it happening, and would deny it if they did. But the reason has to do with American exceptionalism. A society grounded in truth and awake to this grounding just can’t be fooled anymore.

In many, many other countries, similar political demagogues escape condemnation and do not experience any similar backfiring effect. Not in America. There is something about the founding of America that just can’t be reversed or undone; there is something about the stirring power of truth that forever renews itself in human thought.

We are in a period of great renewal. American exceptionalism is taking new forms once again.

Thank God.

Paul Gable

October 13, 2010