America IS Exceptional

The differences between American leftists and American conservatives are many, but none are more pronounced than their differences regarding foreign policy and the role of the United States in the world.  In this area, the differences are as sharp as night and day.

American conservatives are strong believers in American exceptionalism.  American leftists cringe when they hear the term.  We believe that this nation is a peculiar entity in the world and that, through our ideals and our attempts to live up to those ideals, we are exceptional.  The model that other nations should aspire to emulate.  The Left sees us as, at best, simply one nation of 200, and at worst, the focus of evil in the modern world.

Leftists ignore the fact that we were the first modern nation to be founded on the ideas of freedom and the rights of man.  Were our Founders perfect?  No, but they stand head and shoulders above all others throughout history.  We've had our hiccups, like the Civil War, our treatment of Indians and Jim Crow, but no nation on earth has ever handled such a hodge podge of races and ethnicities, championed freedom and stayed strong.  See the Balkans.

Leftists ignore our history of championing the cause of freedom throughout the world.  Note to leftists, opposing Communist thugs masquerading as anti-colonialist revolutionaries IS championing the cause of freedom.  An individual enslaved by communism is no more free than a nation controlled by a colonial power.

Leftists just can't see the good where  this nation is concerned.  They don't even see us as better and more moral in comparison to Islamist terrorists.  Do you think I'm exaggerating?  Let's take a closer look.

In 1993, Samuel Huntington, around the time of the first World Trade Center bombing, put forth the idea that we, the United States and the West, were facing a "clash of civilizations" with the Islamic world.  Huntington, rightly, connected the dots of history of Islam, the words of the Qu'ran, the fatwas of the clerics, the targets of terrorism and the unfinished goals of the Islamic Crusaders to determine that a confrontation between the Islamic world and the Judeo-Christian secular West was inevitable.

The brilliant left wing minds of academia scoffed and ignored him until after September 11, 2001.  Was he embraced then?  Not by the "enlightened leftists".  In October of 2001, The Nation, now there's a publication that's unbiased, published an article called "The Clash of Ignorance", to dismiss Huntington's views.

The author, Edward Said, was quick to point out that we have had our own extremists, Jim Jones and Jonestown, etc.  Of course, the fact that none of these groups ever attempted to wipe out 3000 innocents, simply because of where they lived, was completely ignored.

Further, Said pointed out that it did no good to describe conflicts in terms of "good vs. evil", or to assume that WE, the United States, held the moral high ground.  He stated, "These are tense times, but it is better to think in terms of powerful and powerless communities, the secular politics of reason and ignorance, and universal principles of justice and injustice, than to wander off in search of vast abstractions that may give momentary satisfaction but little self-knowledge or informed analysis."

In other words, we need to understand what motivates them.  They ( the Islamofascist terrorists) have a point of view, too. 

Do you think that such a view is a minority, even on the left?  Don't be so naive.  It's the same view that had John Kerry state to Congress, "we can't defeat communism everywhere".  It's the same view that caused Democrats to work for nothing more than a stalemate with the Soviet Union.  It's the same view that questions our right to liberate 27 million Iraqis.  It's the same view that causes Kerry and others to demand that we seek validation from the United Nation before acting.  It's the same view that causes Howard Dean to say we CAN'T win in Iraq.

Conservatives are called simpletons when they don't accept the leftist view.  Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union "the Evil Empire" and the Left faints like a Southern belle.  Reagan demands that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall and he is viewed as a senile fool.  George W. Bush discusses spreading democracy throughout the world and he is termed "stupid", "arrogant" and a liar.

Thanks to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Eastern Europe was liberated from the clutches of communist oppression.  The United States of America did that.  Thanks to George W. Bush, Afghanistan and Iraq are well on their way to freedom. 

This week, an enormous turnout, including Sunnis and Christians, voted in Iraq.  Terror and defeatism were crushed in a landslide of liberty.  The United States of America did that.  No, the fight isn't finished, but victory was proven to be attainable.

These things could have only been accomplished by the acts, determination, and ideals of an EXCEPTIONAL nation.  American exceptionalism stands triumphant again.  The Left will never get it.