Sunday, July 24, 2016

Exceptionalism and American Ideals: What We Could Lose

In a weekend op-ed piece in the NY Times, Professor Mary Dudziak of Emory University offered a nuanced -- and bleak -- view of Republic nominee Trump's stance in the debate over American exceptionalism.  As she points out, US exceptionalism has many facets, but it is ultimately grounded in the idea that the US is governed under baseline principals of morality.  In her book, Cold War Civil Rights, she delved into the ways that the Soviet Union sought to turn these American principals against the US for global political gain, but ultimately "helped facilitate key social reforms, including desegregation."  The existence of American ideals, combined with the external pressure of living up to those ideals, improved lives of all Americans. 

Ideals matter and can spur positive change.  At the same time, though, American exceptionalism has a negative side -- in recent decades, it has provided a rationale for US failure to ratify human rights treaties, for example, and for refusing to participate in global governance measures such as the international criminal court.  American exceptionalism says that US judges should not cite judicial opinions of their counterparts abroad or in international courts.  It is this version of exceptionalism -- the notion that American ideals permit it to stand apart from the rest of the world -- that was endorsed in the Republican platform.

As Dudziak explains, though, candidate Trump rejects the idea that morals and ideals matter at all to America's success as a nation.  As she puts it, Trump openly rejects the idea that "American values of justice matter . . . to diplomacy" and, given his responses to recent racial tensions, "they appear to matter even less at home."  

Conservative pundits have also expressed concern about Trump's apparent rejection of American ideals.  As Daniel Krauthammer of the Weekly Standard put it, "Trump doesn't know what makes America great."

We face a grim and divisive few months as this election season gains momentum.  But on the issue of American exceptionalism, perhaps both progressives and conservatives can agree that Trump's campaign to substitute greed and fear for longstanding American ideals -- equality, liberty, human rights -- is heading in the wrong direction. 

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/2016/07/exceptionalism-and-american-ideals-what-we-could-lose.html

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