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Examples Of American Exceptionalism

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In its own way, America is in fact exceptional. While it may be lacking or struggling in some certain areas, it excels in others. America is exceptional in that it has become a sort of refuge, or safe-haven, harboring those in need and providing them with new, prosperous opportunities. Allowing for new opportunities and extending basic rights to all, America assists in the success of individuals, indirectly advancing the nation as a whole. However, just because America is indeed exceptional in some regards, that does not make it superior over all other nations or imply that our nation is without fault. Hillary Clinton for example once stated, “When we say America is exceptional it means that we recognize America’s unique and unparalleled ability to be a force for …show more content…

Relating back to the idea that by American’s believing they are exceptional and attempting to remain that way, they forge their own path for success, propelling the nation forwards. Different countries competing to be the best push each other to become exceptional. Later, President Obama went on to say, “This dynamic, evolving, pressing, expanding, self-critical experiment… An America that’s chronically dissatisfied with itself, because embedded into our DNA is this striving, aspirational quality to be even better… That's what has driven progress for everybody,” (Article 3). Touching on the primal human instinct for competition and our inability to settle when we know we can do better, he explains how this competition is a basic part of our nature. We are all simply striving for what we believe to be the best and in the process we find competition and take pride in our accomplishments, thus resulting in the aspect of not only American exceptionalism but the exceptionalism of various

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