Before, during and after the recent vice-presidential debate, Governor Palin claimed that she shared John McCain’s view of American Exceptionalism. Let’s examine that phrase and what it implies.
The term means quite simply that America and Americans are better than everyone else. Therefore, the argument generally goes, Americans are entitled to impose their “exceptional” will on others, which though on the surface appears to be “freedom and democracy for all,” usually means economic and militarily strategic arrangements that favor the U.S.
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