Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

American exceptionalism .. not ..

American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other states. In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation," and developing a uniquely American ideology, based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire. This observation can be traced to Alexis de Tocqueville, the first writer to describe the United States as "exceptional" in 1831 and 1840. Historian Gordon Wood has argued, "Our beliefs in liberty, equality, constitutionalism, and the well-being of ordinary people came out of the Revolutionary era. So too did our idea that we Americans are a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty and democracy."

The specific term "American exceptionalism" was first used in 1929 by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin chastising members of the American Communist Party for believing that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions."

Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense. To them, the United States is like the biblical "shining city on a hill", and exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries.

Since the 1960s "postnationalist" scholars on the left have rejected American exceptionalism, arguing that the United States had not broken from European history, and has retained class inequities, imperialism and war. Furthermore, they saw every nation as subscribing to some form of exceptionalism.

[...]

Puritan roots

Parts of American exceptionalism can be traced to American Puritan roots. Many Puritans with Arminian leanings embraced a middle ground between strict Calvinist predestination and a less restricting theology of Divine Providence. They believed God had made a covenant with their people and had chosen them to lead the other nations of the Earth. One Puritan leader, John Winthrop, metaphorically expressed this idea as a "City upon a Hill"—that the Puritan community of New England should serve as a model community for the rest of the world. This metaphor is often used by proponents of exceptionalism. The Puritans' deep moralistic values remained part of the national identity of the United States for centuries, remaining influential to the present day.

[...]

Aspects of arguments .. Republican ethos and ideas about nationhood

Proponents of American exceptionalism argue that the United States is exceptional in that it was founded on a set of republican ideals, rather than on a common heritage, ethnicity, or ruling elite. In the formulation of President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, America is a nation "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". In this view, America is inextricably connected with liberty and equality. This interpretation of American exceptionalism has been championed by Newt Gingrich. In a 2011 film, A City Upon a Hill[36] and book, A Nation Like No Other, Gingrich argues the claim to "exceptionalism" is "built on the unique belief that our rights do not come from the government, but from God, giving honor and responsibility to the individual -- not the state".

[...]

Mobility

For most of its history, especially from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, the United States has been known as the "land of opportunity", and in this sense, it prided and promoted itself on providing individuals with the opportunity to escape from the contexts of their class and family background. Examples of this social mobility include:

* Occupational—children could easily choose careers which were not based upon their parents' choices.

* Physical—that geographical location was not seen as static, and citizens often relocated freely over long distances without barrier.

* Status—As in most countries, family standing and riches were often a means to remain in a higher social circle. America was notably unusual due to an accepted wisdom that anyone—from impoverished immigrants upwards—who worked hard, could aspire to similar standing, regardless of circumstances of birth. This aspiration is commonly called living the American dream. Birth circumstances generally were not taken as a social barrier to the upper echelons or to high political status in American culture. This stood in contrast to other countries where many higher offices were socially determined, and usually hard to enter without being born into the suitable social group.

However, social mobility in the US is lower than in a number of European Union countries if defined in terms of income movements. American men born into the lowest income quintile are much more likely to stay there compared to similar men in the Nordic countries or the United Kingdom. Many economists, such as Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, however, state that the discrepancy has little to do with class rigidity; rather, it is a reflection of income disparity: "Moving up and down a short ladder is a lot easier than moving up and down a tall one". .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

See also ..

Those condemning the events of the past couple of nights in north London and elsewhere would do well to take a step back and consider the bigger picture: a country in which the richest 10% are now 100 times better off than the poorest, where consumerism predicated on personal debt has been pushed for years as the solution to a faltering economy, and where, according to the OECD, social mobility is worse than any other developed country. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66013466
==========
"The Tea Party isn't protecting the rich! They are middle class!"

Yes they ARE protecting the rich... they are just too stupid to figure out they are fighting their own interests. They are being played like a fiddle and sincerely believe that cutting programs that help the middle class (themselves) is fine, if done in the name of protecting the rich's tax loopholes and breaks and the Bush handout tax cuts to them.

The Koch brothers have them whipped up into a froth of santorum that the rich DESERVE to not have to share as much of the burden because they are somehow superior beings for having inherited or scammed their way in life. (the truly hard-working middle class tend to stay just that, hard working middle class. Class mobility is now rare, about the same rate as lottery winners... but is the myth that keeps teabaggers showing up for their foodstamps and drawing SS while deriding others for being freeloaders) .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65936354
==========
Tea Time with the Posse: Inside an Idaho Tea Party Patriots Conference ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=62250071

==========
Project Nim .. As Nim grows larger and stronger and starts to assert his instinct for dominance, the daily struggles of getting him fed and dressed turn into life-threatening perils for his keepers. Finally, after a research assistant's face is badly gashed, Terrace dissolves the experiment and takes Nim back to the research center where he was born. Overnight, Nim goes from a coddled baby in a mansion to a lonely ape in a cage. I won't give away the tragic turns the story took thereafter, except to say that this chimp's downward social mobility is something out of an Edith Wharton novel. ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65129654
==========
Rudolph: US Inequality Quiz .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64750769
==========
Our Fantasy Nation?

June 4, 2011 By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

With Tea Party conservatives and many Republicans balking at raising the debt ceiling, let me offer them an example of a nation that lives up to their ideals.

It has among the lowest tax burdens of any major country: fewer than 2 percent of the people pay any taxes. Government is limited, so that burdensome regulations never kill jobs.

This society embraces traditional religious values and a conservative sensibility. Nobody minds school prayer, same-sex marriage isn’t imaginable, and criminals are never coddled.

The budget priority is a strong military, the nation’s most respected institution. When generals decide on a policy for, say, Afghanistan, politicians defer to them. Citizens are deeply patriotic, and nobody burns flags.

So what is this Republican Eden, this Utopia? Why, it’s Pakistan. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63902535

The USA IS a great country, but the fantasy of exceptionalism under God's eye
is a very damaging denigration of the real, that being, of course, good old reality.