New World Dictionary: American exceptionalism has been historically referred to as the belief that the United States differs qualitatively from other developed nations because of its national credo, historical evolution, or distinctive political and religious institutions. The difference is often expressed in American circles as some categorical superiority, to which is usually attached some alleged proof, rationalization or explanation that may vary greatly depending on the historical period and the political context.

In the 1600’s the Puritan John Winthrop stated that “we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us…”. Much later, in his 1989 farewell address, Ronald Reagan again emphasized the notion that America is “the shining city upon the hill”. Even Barack Obama argued that America is exceptional.

But is this notion accurate? Are we exceptional?

As I mentioned in a recent post, our Constitution is the oldest and most imitated in the world. Further, our country was founded on unique principles of individual freedom and, at least theoretically, equality, and we HAVE moved the equality needle significantly, albeit slowly, by abolishing slavery, extending the vote to women and others, passing legislation limiting discrimination, guaranteeing marriage equality, and more. In many ways the United States has also been the world leader in music, fashion, technology, pop culture, military strength, and language. Our economy produces almost 30% of the planet’s total wealth, more than any other single nation (Russia produces less than 1% and China about 8%).

It is also reasonable to conclude that America’s borders being overrun by people fleeing oppression, gang violence, political persecution, and weak economies, proves our exceptionalism because these immigrants come here hoping for jobs, freedom, and a better quality of life than is available in their home countries. With a foreign-born population greater than 50 million, America has by far the largest immigrant population on the planet.

In so many ways America is “great”, but are we “exceptional”? I guess it depends on definition.

Many of you will remember the 2012 clip from the HBO series The Newsroom in which Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniel) responds to a college student’s comment about America being the “greatest country in the world” (warning, some language might be offensive). McAvoy lists a number of factors leading him to conclude that America is not, in fact, the greatest, so I thought it might be interesting to update and expand his list.

• America’s standard of living is not even in the top ten when considering cost of medical care, cost of living, environmental pollution, and other factors. By the way, Canada takes the top spot.

• Life expectancy in the United States is lower than in any “wealthy” nation, and countries such as Qatar, Puerto Rico, and Slovenia, rank higher. Our life expectancy is 49th among similar nations.

• Only 79% of American adults are considered "literate", and 54% of American adults are literate below the 6th grade level.

• American students rank 24th in science, 39th in math, and 24th in reading. These data are about seven years old, but I seriously doubt they have improved.

• The U.S. is the only advanced nation in which maternal mortality rates have increased, and we rank 33/36 advanced nations in infant mortality.

• We are no longer the world’s top exporter, a distinction now held by China.

• The United States incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any other country, 13% more than our closest competitor. That number is thankfully in a slow decline because of badly needed criminal justice reform.

• Firearm deaths in the U.S. increased 43% between 2010 and 2020. In fact, American citizens are ten times more likely to die from firearms than are citizens in other developed nations. The United States’ crime rate ranks 56th in the world, worse than Ghana, Egypt, and Lebanon.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The original question was whether America is “exceptional”, and the obvious answer is “yes and no”.

In The Newsroom clip Will McAvoy concludes that the “first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one”. As long as we always assume we are the best in every category while ignoring facts to the contrary, we will refuse to address the serious problems facing our country. We can learn a great deal by observing the ways other nations have addressed similar problems if we can just move beyond our ethnocentrism, and we can be more creative in establishing policies improving our lives if we can move beyond petty politics.

And to be clear, you do not see me moving to another country because I do believe we have something special. I absolutely love living in the United States. I just believe we can do better. Much better.