HALL: America boasts no special destiny

There is a dangerous current in American political thought, one that has been around since our nation was simply an extension of the British Empire.

It is the idea of American Exceptionalism - that America is a unique nation, different from all others in form and content. It is the idea that we have a special destiny to fulfill, separate from the other nations of the earth.

While it is an idea that the Bush administration has used as the foundation of its policy decisions, the idea of exceptionalism is far older than our current president.

While Alexis de Tocqueville first used the concept in respect to the United States, John Winthrop, Puritan leader and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was the originator of the idea. He believed America should be a "shining city upon a hill," a beacon of light for the rest of the world.

America was to be this beacon primarily for religious reasons. When Winthrop thought of the rest of the world, he largely imagined Catholic Europe. The new world - protestant America - was to be a new beginning, throwing off the shackles of the Catholic Church to truly be at one with God.

The sermon that contained this phrase was a harangue against the Anglican Church, which Winthrop and others believed had taken on too many of the rituals of Catholicism.

Even though its origins were religious, the idea of American exceptionalism has become both a political and a social idea. Since then, American exceptionalism has been the ideological force behind some of the best - and some of the worst - actions in American history.

In the 19th century, American exceptionalism morphed into "manifest destiny" - the belief that it was America's divine right to conquer all the territory of North America, or at least from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific coast.

Manifest destiny led to the Mexican-American war, a naked power grab based on a deception. It also led to the murder and displacement of hundreds of thousands of native peoples who were the inconvenient rightful owners of the land during the Indian Wars of the latter half of the 1800s.

The idea sustained America through the Second World War, casting the war as a battle between forces of "good" and forces of "evil" - bolstering the nation's morale during the bleak first months of 1942, as it led the "good" side.

But what once was hope in the nation's darkest hour has been thoroughly abused in recent times.

It has come to mean that America is infallible, incapable of making mistakes either at home or abroad. In all of the nation's actions, America does not err in intent or result.

The Bush administration is the embodiment of this spirit. The "Bush Doctrine" endorses pre-emptive and unilateral action against any nation or people deemed a threat. This action is taken regardless of the opinions of our allies, regardless of the international impact and at the peril of America's prestige and men in uniform.

This doctrine is, of course, seen as a solely American prerogative.

Pre-emptive unilateral action implies America knows what is best for the world by disregarding the opinions and sovereignty of other nations. Since America is always a force for good, America's actions are by default well-intentioned and morally correct.

This logic launched the war in Iraq. It is evident in the complete disregard of the immense international criticism of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. It's the logic behind the extraordinary rendition program, by which people detained by the United States are flown to remote "black sites" for torture and interrogation.

But George W. rarely invoked the specific phrase "American exceptionalism," even while calling upon the ideology.

It's one thing to act presumptively, but it's quite another to thrust yourself out there and assert that your nation is unique and above all others.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took up this mantle in both the vice-presidential debate and in her stump speeches. Drawing a contrast between "real" Americans and other, presumably "not-real" Americans, she said that real Americans see an "America of exceptionalism."

It may seem odd to be covering this topic now, a week after the election, but the point is that ideas rarely die. They may change, be put to a different use, but they seldom simply disappear.

And exceptionalism is an idea that is apparently making a dangerous comeback. With Palin as the "new hope" for the Republican party, it is unlikely the city on a hill analogy will fade back into obscurity.

But as it makes a resurgence into American political thought, it is important to remember that America is simply a nation of people. Like every other nation, we have our own history, customs and beliefs.

We are unique only in the sense that every nation is unique; we have no divine claim to morality or justice. We are capable of great things; likewise, we are capable of truly terrible things.

Ultimately, we are just as prone to error and folly as any other nation. But with our immense resources and tremendous international influence, the mistakes made by America affect dozens of nations and billions of people.

We can no longer pretend, like some would have us do, that we are a nation above reproach.

The ramifications of that kind of thinking are simply too dangerous.

Jeff hall is a senior secondary education major. Reach him at jeffhall@dailynebraskan.com