I was planning to write a column this morning about a new survey from the Pew Research Center subtitled “American Exceptionalism Subsides,” but New York Times columnist Charles M. “Joe” Blow beat me to it. So instead, I will focus on Blow’s takeaway from the poll.
Blow opens his column with a paragraph of questions:
Is America exceptional among nations? Are we, as a country and a people and a culture, set apart and better than others? Are we, indeed, the ‘shining city upon a hill’ that Ronald Reagan described? Are we ‘chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world’ as George W. Bush said?
Obviously some of these questions are more emotionally charged than others and will likely generate different responses, but Blow conveniently provides a single umbrella answer: “This year, for the first time, most Americans did not say yes.”
In support, he cites a finding in the Pew survey, to wit: 49% of respondents agreed with the statement “our people are not perfect but our culture is superior to others,” as compared with 60% in 2002.
Observing that the language in that statement is loaded, Blow turns to a second poll, conducted last month byTIME Magazine/Abt SRBI, which found that 71% of Americans say they believe our position in the world has been declining in the past few years. Only 7% claim to view the nation’s position as growing, and 21% responded it is about the same.
It is interesting that Blow doesn’t devote a paragraph to possible explanations for the purported decline, that he doesn't attempt to isolate variables that have changed in the last few years. The most conspicuous is the ascendency of a U.S. president who seems uncomfortable with the title “leader of the free world” and who early in his presidency traveled the world apologizing for America’s past arrogance.
Anyway, now that the stage has been set, it is time for prescriptions. Here are Blow’s:
We have to stop snuggling up to nostalgia, acknowledge that we have allowed a mighty country to be brought low and set a course to restitution. And that course is through hard work and tough choices. You choose greatness; it doesn’t choose you. [Emphasis added]
What comes next is a bunch of vague leftwing nostra that Blow might have lifted directly from one of Barack Obama’s speeches: invest in the future, invest in “a generation of foundering and forgotten children,” invest in education, yada yada yada.
But back to the last quoted paragraph and the highlighted word: restitution? It is an odd choice. Blow could have written restoration, but instead he chose a word meaning “payback”—more specifically, “compensation for loss, damage, or injury caused,” the “restoration of property or rights previously taken away.” Sounds a lot like reparations or whatever it is that the 99% is demanding on any given day. I wonder which segment of the population Blow thinks should be saddled with the responsibility of paying the nation back. (Selected graphs may be found here.)
A final point of interest is that the Pew survey presents about a dozen statements/questions in all, but Blow focuses on only one. Among the findings he ignores is the reaction to the statement “success in life is determined by forces outside our control.” Only 36% of Americans agreed, compared with 41% of Brits, 50% of Spaniards, 57% of Frenchmen, and 72% of Germans. Reactions to statements on the occasional necessity of military force, on isolation vs. engagement, and in support of the freedom to pursue life's goals similarly show a well-defined split between Americans and their global neighbors.
Sounds to me like American exceptionalism is alive and well.
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