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Joshua King
America The Exceptional
The slogan “Make America Great Again!” was used during the 2016 race for presidency.
Donald J. Trump’s slogan was very popular among his supporters, although with all the
characteristics that make America so great and unique, you would think we as Americans
wouldn’t need to make America great again. Weather it’s freedom, opportunity, or our
democracy; the foundation of American exceptionalism has been often used in political speech.
American exceptionalism is often defined into three related beliefs. The first idea is that the
history of the U.S is different from other nations, second, is that the U.S. has a mission to make
the world a better place, and finally that the U.S. is far superior than all competing nations. In my
paper, I will be determining the relationship between American exceptionalism in political
speech and the U.S. public’s reaction to it given the specific time period American
exceptionalism was invoked.
My research has been divided into four areas of focus that will help explain my answer to
the relationship between American exceptionalism in political speech and the U.S. public’s
reaction to it given the specific time period American exceptionalism was invoked. I began my
research with Benjamin F. Wright’s exploration of Alexis de Tocqueville’s first concept of
American exceptionalism. Understanding the original idea of American exceptionalism will be
important in seeing how the idea has evolved/changed from the beginning use of the idea to the
present political use. Gilmore et.al. then explain how past presidents have used concept of
American exceptionalism, the different situations that surface that effect how, and how often,
presidents use American exceptionalism when addressing the nation. I will also analyze how
recently President Obama has used the idea of American exception in comparison to previous
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presidents and their situations. Mike Milford then analyzes how during our nation’s first major
crisis (September 11, 2001), President George W. Bush chose to address public given the current
state of the nation. Then, more currently a speech given by Hillary Clinton during the 2016
Presidential Election is analyzed to gain understanding of current use of American
exceptionalism. Finally to conclude, I will explain the results of the research to answer the
original question at hand so that the American people can be informed to know why politicians
provoke thoughts to get reactions out of their audiences.
Benjamin F. Wright, a government professor at Harvard University for 23 years wrote
“Of Democracy in America” in February, 1946. Wright evaluates Alexis de Tocqueville’s
concept of American exceptionalism in Democracy in America written by de Tocqueville in
1835 and finished in 1840. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French diplomat who traveled to the
United States in 1831, just following the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In
Democracy in America, Tocqueville is quoted saying, “The position of the Americans is
therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed
in a similar one” (volume II Democracy of America). Both Alexis de Tocqueville and Benjamin
F. Wright see exceptionalism in America, with exception that both saw very different time
periods.
Whether de Tocqueville talked about the new future of democracy, or the opportunity
America presented; Wright acknowledged that de Tocqueville was very impressed with the
young United States. Although de Tocqueville could see the exceptional characteristics that the
new United States of America withheld, he didn’t see perfection. Wright investigated that some
of these exceptional characteristics ended up not being true or missed altogether in de
Tocqueville’s writing. For example, Wright writes “Tocqueville missed altogether the Monroe
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Doctrine (of 1823), so he failed, more understandable, to foresee that the American democracy
would…give a loftier and more farsighted lead in the development of the international
community” (Wright 56). Whereas in today’s day, it can be argued the America’s role in
international community is one of the biggest factors of American exceptionalism. Even though
de Tocqueville was able see so many exceptional characteristic, Wright was able to point out that
he failed to predict others.
The original concept of American exceptionalism shed light to the rest of the world who
were blind of the America’s exceptionality at an early point in the country’s life. It was extremely
rare of Europeans, let alone de Tocqueville, to see greatness in such a new and different country.
Although de Tocqueville focused on the greatness of the country, I believe it is more important
that de Tocqueville recognized the imperfection in America. If the original concept of de
Tocqueville’s includes the imperfection of America, is it fair to criticize political leaders for
questioning how exceptional America still is?
In the article “Make no exception, save one: American exceptionalism, the American
presidency, and the age of Obama”, Jason Gilmore, Penelope Sheets, and Charles Rowling
analyze how presidents invoke American exceptionalism into their political speeches. They also
collected data regarding President Obama and his use of American exceptionalism in his
speeches. Three general sections were analyzed: how presidents have invoked American
exceptionalism in the past, how a national crisis affects how presidents invoke American
exceptionalism into their speeches, and finally show data they collected on how often American
exceptionalism is invoked as well as the percentage of speeches that use American
exceptionalism in dialogue. Gilmore et.al. take these two pieces of data and compare President
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Obama’s use of American exceptionalism to other presidents’ use of American exceptionalism
throughout history.
Gilmore et.al. quote President Truman saying the U.S.’s victory in Japan (during WWII)
made the U.S. “the strongest nation on earth” (Gilmore et.al. 4). However Gilmore et.al. believe,
post WWII, the United States was known as one of two global superpowers, along with the
Soviet Union. American exceptionalism in this time invokes strength, given the fact that the
United States just ended WWII with a dropping of not one but two nuclear bombs. Gilmore et.al.
also observe that it was not until the end of the Cold War when the U.S presidents were able to
truly invoke the idea of American exceptionalism into their campaigns. There was no longer any
competition in the eyes of the American public when comparing their strength, uniqueness, and
opportunity. Gilmore et.al. say, “U.S. presidents during the post-Cold War era will be much
