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| Nothing exceptional here. |
Putin isn't expected to understand our exceptionalism. The KGB couldn't brief him on it. Too bad for us that Obama doesn't get it either. m/r
Why America is an Exceptional Nation
Last week, President Putin of Russia told Americans, it is “extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional.” But we Americans have often viewed ourselves as an exceptional nation because our history is different from that of everyone else.
Typical nations are formed in warfare by conquering neighboring tribes and expanding. The Franks conquered many of the Germans in the time of King Charlemagne, and the Franks soon became France. Likewise, President Putin’s Russia expanded into a large nation purely through conquest. The way that one got to be known as “The Great” in Russian history was by conquering nearby land and absorbing it into the Russian empire—Peter the Great and Catherine the Great are examples.
America has always been different. Our nation received immigrants from many nations, and they came here not to conquer, but to enjoy freedom. We are a nation built on an idea—the idea that with God’s help we can govern ourselves and “secure the blessings of liberty” to ourselves and our children.
We fought a war for independence to preserve the liberty we were enjoying. Robert Morris, the man George Washington called “the financier of the Revolution”, was from England. He migrated to America, fell in love with his adopted country, and fought to see it emerge as a new nation.
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