Comments on: What Distinguishes American Exceptionalism from Nationalism?

By: America! Exceptional! For Goodness’ Sake! — Evangelical Outpost

America! Exceptional! For Goodness’ Sake! — Evangelical Outpost — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:41:47 +0000

[...] it seems that the debate fights a lot over just how Christian America is or is supposed to be. I recently saw this video posted by Joe Carter over at First Things, and I got to thinking about the exceptionalities of the [...]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:44:21 +0000

I’ve never gotten too worked up over “nationalism.”

I’ll let Lady Thatcher take it from here:

“[ ] the new internationalists rarely consider that without British patriotism or French patriotism or American patriotism there would be no national armies to enforce international justice in the first place. Far better if the commentators worried instead about what the unstable and dangerous regimes of the world have most in common, which is not nationalism but various guises of socialism.”

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:59:45 +0000

This is mostly pretty good, considering he’s speaking extemporaneously. The only slight quibble I have is that the point should be made that “nation” and “state” are NOT in fact synonyms, hence the fact that when one uses the term nation-state one is NOT being redundant. But America is NOT just an exceptional state/country. That’s not what American exceptionalism means. America is an exceptional nation, in the sense that you have to completely redefine what makes a nation, from ethnic to credal (a point he makes well at the very start). For many this might seem like semantics (those who think nation=state), but it’s critical and darn near unique.

By: David Nickol

David Nickol — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:37:28 +0000

It seems to me that saying America is an exceptional country (and I would say that it is) is not the same thing as subscribing to “American exceptionalism.”