Based on a torrent of negative media coverage over the past few years, you could get the impression that the USA is a pretty bad place.  One way to assess how bad the USA might actually be would be to compare negative media statements with the less-frequent positive statements about the USA.

In doing that, the first thing one notices is that negative statements about America are most often made with reference to an ideal country that never existed.  As an example, a single injustice is taken to invalidate the pledge of allegiance: “one nation, … , with liberty and justice for all”.  A single instance of racism posted on YouTube is seen as invalidating American the Beautiful: “and crown thy good with brotherhood”. Anyone who says the Pledge of Allegiance or America the Beautiful are “accurate most of the time” would likely be labeled a hypocrite by nay-sayers.

In a similar vein, it has become popular to attack the Declaration of Independence as invalid, because Jefferson owned slaves as he was writing the words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Conversely, one notices that positive statements about the USA tend to be framed in a different way.  Pro-American statements are most often made with reference to other countries that actually exist.  For example, “For its first 100 years, the USA was the only constitutional democracy in the world, and, during that period, had the fastest growing economy.”  “The USA receives more immigrants than any other country.”  Americans are “more open”, “kinder to visitors”, “give more money to charity” etc. than people in other countries.

The differences between negative and positive narratives about the USA are meaningful and instructive.  People making negative statement are usually comparing this country to an ideal never achieved by any country, while those making positive statement are comparing America to its current competitors.  It could even be said that both sides in this argument have a point.

Our country has not achieved perfection, and sometimes fall short of its stated ideals, but, in most ways, it continues to outperform most other countries.

A now-forgotten songwriter John Stewart (no relation to comedian Jon Stewart) wrote a civil rights song in 1965 for the Kingston Trio called Stories of Old that included the lyrics “If there’s just one man in this whole wide land and he is living in pain, oh, then freedom’s not your name.”

If one were trying for a fair and balanced narrative, these lyrics might strike one as a pretty extreme over-statement.  To give Stewart his due, in 1965, a lot of people were worried that the USA was too self-assured and should pay more attention to what was going on at the margins of a great country.

In 2021, I feel like the goal of putting greater focus on the margins has been achieved, and it would be useful to pay more attention to what is happening in the center of a country that, despite everything, continues to be great, and has no need for anyone to “make it great again”.

It would be more accurate to say that the USA likely has a need for more people to recognize again how great this country has always been and why.

Categories: Commentary, Culture, Politics

Tags: America, Exceptionalism, USA