Posted on 09/15/2013 8:24:57 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan offered a counterintuitive reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in The New York Times last week, saying that other countries are “sick of hearing Americans” calling themselves exceptional.
Buchanan, author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” argued that Putin echoed what Obama and many Americans had said with regards to the United States as the world’s exceptional superpower.
“From the hysterical reaction in this city [Washington, D.C.] to Putin’s op-ed piece, he put this one right down the smokestack,” Buchanan said on ’s broadcast of “The McLaughlin Group. “What he did is he keyed off what Obama said on exceptionalism and he countered it with an argument which people all over the world believe. They are sick of hearing Americans talk about ‘we are the indispensable nation,’ as Madeline Albright said. ‘We see further than ours, that’s why we can use force.’ ‘We are the sheriff of the world, we are first, we are leaders.’ He’s not only appealing to the people of the world, he is appealing to that half of the United States to whom Barack Obama himself was appealing. So, I think he hit home.”
Are those characters any worse, really, than Obama and Kerry who pretend to be world-class leaders/statesmen?
I had a relative who was killed for telling old lame jokes.
For an American to insist that America is now exceptional in any other regard is really pretty pathetic. It reminds me of this:
Stuart Smalley needs to get a grip, and so do many Americans.
The fact is that American politicians and the Americans who elected them have squandered America's philosophical, moral, and economic capital, and it started decades before the sharp decline of late. Things will not get better until Americans realize the mess they have made and resolve to fix it.
As a kid in school, I just thought american was america and a great place to live in....But with a catholic education, you were taught better than us public school kids...my husband went to St Thomas until the 10 grade and the nun’s asked him to leave, then he went to Aero-mechanics for 1 year and they asked him to leave. His senior year at Pershing High school was went I met him....he said the stuff they were teaching seniors he got in the 10th grade at St Thomas before he and 3 of his friends were asked nicely to leave....those nuns knew how to teach....
Oh please.... its our constitution and the freedoms extended within that made America exceptional They could do it too, but have not
Demographics is destiny. And Pat was on the leading edge of this.
True. And that doesn’t take away from what pat is saying
Only an observation from a guy who has spent a fair amount of time in Europe. Up until around 2004...the exceptionalism deal was never an issue with the vast majority of Europeans. As the US election unfolded, American media folks fanned the globe and blasted Bush as much as they could. CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, and just about every single network news guy tossed out as much stuff as they could.
What they didn’t really realize...this anti-Bush stuff....turned into anti-American hostilities. By 2008, I’d say that seventy percent of European society had some minor or major element of dislike of US exceptionalism. So President Obama arrived on the scene, and they actually gave him a Noble Peace Prize....for nothing. If you think about this....a guy who was doing nothing....getting a prize...says something about their view of the mess.
Four years pass, and they now realize that President Obama is at the same level as President Bush. The exceptionalism problem is still sitting there in their view. The comical thing? The US news media that created this wave....can do nothing now to correct the mess. They are being challenged as they come into Europe and do their chats....finding hostile grounds in front of them.
Buchanan is right. The future? Until we have some President who pulls troops out of overseas and refuses to fight in anyone’s conflicts, and plays politics like “Silent Cal”, I think this negative issue will remain.
All nations have their founding myths that may sound ridiculous, tiresome or offensive to outsiders, and are intended for domestic consumption. Such is the concept of ‘American exceptionalism’. It does refer, as stated above, among other things to our constitution, which was exceptional in the 18th century, but is no longer exceptional as others have developed their own based on ours or not, improved or not, so that ours can be said to be archaic in parts (certainly not those parts that Marxist Obama disdains and wants to improve but in the meantime ignores.)
I read Post #6, and just couldn’t help myself!
He doesn't believe in American exceptionalism and never has. What's worse, he's wringing his hands about what the rest of the world thinks of us ("people worldwide are sick of hearing..."
...how leftist is that?
Our current administration sucks. That doesn't mean America sucks.
I and my brother went to a German Lutheran grade school. There are many private schools associated with or sponsored by different religious affiliations. Our grade school was very pro USA including the ladies organization that sponsored many events particularly sauerkraut lunches. When WWII was breaking and actually broke I never sensed any qualms about fighting Japan and Germany.
I don’t know about you but, if I had an acquaintance who was always spouting “I’m exceptional”, I would not hold him in high regard. If the statement were true in some regard, I’d consider that person vain and obnoxious. If it were untrue, or if he insisted that he was exceptional because he was God’s chosen vessel, I’d consider that person delusional. And if he said that his exceptional status justified actions that I thought were immoral or unethical, I consider him reprobate.
If he were truly exceptional, he wouldn’t have to say it. It would be plain to see.
I believe our Constitution is still an exceptional document and intended guide and authority for the USA today. Though some believe it is passe, I believe that all actions of government can be fitted by It if people really want such. I don’t believe Obama really wants such by expressed thoughts and demonstated intent.
One other thing is that no other country airs out their dirty laundry like the US does....There are big problems in every country, but nobody pays attention to those....But everybody knows all of our flaws.
Since Bill Clinton, the attitude of the Washington elite both domestically and internationally has been arrogant and overbearing. There’s a middle ground between this arrogance and the old leftist blame America first, blame only America thinking.
I am really not very surprised that Pat Buchanan does not believe in the doctrine of American Exceptionalism. And I do not intend that observation as a dig at Buchanan; his variety of conservatism is simply different from my own. (In fact, Buchanan’s views are really much closer to the libertarianism of Ron Paul and his son, Rand Paul, than they are to a more traditional conservatism.)
I agree with your post. You can’t demand respect you must earn it. There was a time when we could respect being Americans. Now with Obomba in the White House and the likelihood of having more Democrats including Hildabeast and Jeb Bush in the White House for another 16 years, why can’t we just call a spade a spade.
Okay, so we’re not exceptional nor indespensible.
Then GFY’s.
Stop coming to our country and we should stop coming the aid of theirs.
Your countries are so great, fix your own problems.
Next tsunami I’ll watch on the TV and won’t send a dime.
In fact, I’ll start a counter marathon so we don’t send aid to any country that isn’t our absolute friend. Guess only Britain and Israel can be counted on.
Get us the Eff out of the UN! They don’t need our money, food or support.
Let the world go to hell and sort their own problems out.
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