Stuart Allison: We must engage in struggle to live up to our ideals

As we celebrated the Fourth of July I thought a lot about American exceptionalism. That is partially because I always think about what America is and what it means to be American during the Fourth of July. But it is partially because of Ted Cruz’s angry retort when asked about American exceptionalism in relationship to the Uvalde school massacre. “I’m sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful” he exclaimed as he stomped off in a huff after a question from a reporter.

What do we mean by American exceptionalism and is it always an unalloyed good? Our ideas about exceptionalism begin with our foundational documents. The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal” (since expanded to include all people). The Bill of Rights laid out distinct, and at the time, unique rights for individual citizens. Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address recognized that it was a struggle to build our “more perfect union” but knew that it was worth the struggle. Franklin Delano Roosevelt claimed our founding principles lead to all of us sharing the right to four freedoms — the freedom of speech, of worship, freedom from want, and from fear. These truly are exceptional ideals.

Yet far too often our claim of exceptionalism devolves into a claim that therefore the United States is the greatest country on earth, probably the greatest country ever, and we demand that everyone around the world see us in that same light. Several years ago, Barack Obama was asked if America was the greatest country. When he replied that he was sure people in other countries felt their countries were great too, he was excoriated by the right-wing press. But isn’t it reasonable to understand that people in other countries may see greatness in their own countries — their culture and traditions, their history, and their landscape?

Our repeated claims of greatness sound like debates about who is the greatest athlete of all time. In basketball we hear passionate claims that Michael Jordan is the GOAT and equally passionate arguments in favor of Lebron James. The fans of each demand that the others see things their way. In the end there is no way to determine who is truly the greatest of all time so the debate is meaningless. If you think Michael is the GOAT, celebrate him but let the fans of Lebron celebrate too. And if someone thinks it is really Kareem or Magic, that is OK too. But we don’t accept such pluralism when it comes to thinking about our country. Our sense of patriotism demands absolute certainty of our place in the world.

The problem with exceptionalism is that being exceptional can cut two ways — things can be exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Our founding ideals are exceptionally good but how well we live up to those ideals frequently leaves much to be desired. Ted Cruz was upset by a question about exceptionalism related to gun deaths. By one estimate the United States is the only country in the world with more guns than citizens. We also have the highest per capita number of gun deaths for any country that isn’t an active war zone. Surely those two things are related and nothing to be celebrated.

The United States spends more on health care per capita and as a percentage of total wealth than any country in the world. But our health care outcomes don’t reflect our spending. We rank 26th in the world in life expectancy. We are 33rd in the world in terms of childhood mortality. We rank 10th out of the 10 wealthiest nations in maternal mortality and, by one estimate, 55th overall for maternal morality for all nations. We have had more reported deaths from COVID-19 than any country and rank 19th per capita for COVID morality. The data is clear — despite our investments we aren’t doing very well.

How do we achieve Lincoln’s much desired more perfect union? True patriotism demands that we recognize our strengths and correct our failures. Many of the people who have worked hardest to make us live up to our founding ideals are people who have frequently been marginalized in our society — African-Americans, Native Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, women and the LGBTQ community. They know how our words don’t match our actions and have demanded that we be better than we have been. It is a struggle. There are setbacks along the way. But if we truly believe that American exceptionalism is good, then we must engage in the struggle to live up to our ideals. Lincoln appealed to the “better angels of our nature” in a time that was more divisive and dangerous than our own. We all must be better angels to realize the dreams first written down when our country was founded.

Stuart Allison is the Watson Bartlett Professor of Biology and Conservation at Knox College.

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Stuart Allison: We must engage in struggle to live up to our ideals