Much has been written about American exceptionalism (or the lack thereof) since Barack Obama’s turgid assertion that America was no more exceptional than Greece or, by implication, any other country. The fact of Obama being a two-term president of these United States, a nation only 13% African-American, gives lie to that statement. Can you imagine, even for one brief moment, a Caucasian being elected president of South Africa, a nation that coincidentally is only 13% white?

America Was Exceptional Because Its People Were Exceptional

Several years ago, I completed a three-volume 425,000 word family history that took years of research and encompassed nearly 400 people. It included my ancestors and their progeny (of which there are many) who immigrated to or were were born in America. It also included many of my ancestors and their progeny who remained in Europe – Slovakia on my father’s side and Hungary on my mother’s side.

I hired genealogists in both Slovakia and Hungary to research my ancestry and to identify living relatives in those countries. I travelled there twice, once with genealogists accompanying me as guides and translators. I met many relatives who never knew I existed. This provided me a rare perspective to compare the descendants of my ancestors who remained in Europe to those who immigrated to America.

My ancestors who emigrated from Slovakia and Hungary were the smartest, most ambitious, hardest working and most open to risk. Try to imagine leaving behind family and friends to take a long ocean voyage to an unknown place without money, education or speaking the language. Such people must have been imbued with an intense desire for liberty and to better themselves at great risk. There can be no mistake about the outcome; my ancestors who emigrated and their descendants are infinitely better off in every possible metric than those who remained in Europe.

If my family saga, admittedly anecdotal, proves anything, it is that those who immigrated to America were truly exceptional. Thus, America was seeded with exceptional people who did not follow the path of least resistance. America was exceptional because it was populated with exceptional people!

Other Indicia of American Exceptionalism

• Many Europeans (Tocqueville, Trollope, Dickens and thousands of other lesser luminaries) marveled at and wrote extensively about America’s exceptionalism
• America’s setting between two oceans and with a seemingly boundless frontier
• Its founding documents defining the relationship between man and the state
• The idea that men had natural rights not derived from the state
• A pervasive sense of egalitarianism not found elsewhere

Historian Bernard Bailyn wrote the following description of early America.

“Faith ran high that a better world than any that ever had been known could be built where authority was distrusted and held in constant scrutiny; where the status of men flowed from their achievements and from their personal qualities, not from distinctions ascribed to their birth; and where the use of power over the lives of men was jealously guarded and severely restricted. It was only where there was this defiance, this refusal to truckle, this distrust of all authority that institutions could express human aspirations, not crush them.”

Is America Exceptional Today?

I have no doubt whatsoever that America was exceptional at its founding, during the early years of the republic, during its march toward manifest destiny and well into the twentieth century. But things began to change in the second half of the 20th century.

I also have no doubt American exceptionalism has significantly eroded. All the indicia of our exceptionalism listed supra have been degraded. The oceans no longer isolate us; there is no frontier; egalitarianism has morphed into a more rigid class structure; our politics have become vulgar; and our liberties are under constant assault.

Bailyn’s description of early America no longer applies. The exceptionalism of our people, particularly their love of liberty, has been diluted by many subsequent generations where the qualities of early Americans have not been reinforced. As Ronald Reagan often said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children. It must be fought for and protected.”

America in 2024 is like a priceless jewel whose setting has become badly tarnished. Yet quite unmistakably, significant vestiges of American exceptionalism remain. America continues to be a beacon of liberty and hope for millions of people in countries all over the world – a shining city on the hill.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com