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<\/a><\/div>\nI\u2019ve noticed the rhetoric being thrown around in right wing circles for a while now.<\/p>\n
And it has sent small chills down my back. I think I first noticed it in debates about health care. The World Health Organization ranks the U.S. at thirty-seventh place, after, well, thirty six other countries. That, of course, is a somewhat vague metric. Although the attacks I\u2019ve heard are that the WHO isn\u2019t to be believed, after all its a creature of the United Nations. And we all know what the UN stands for\u2026<\/p>\n The rejoinder from a few too many has been simple denial, saying it is obvious that the United States provides the best health care in the world as a mantra.<\/p>\n Of course then there are the numbers our own people generate. The C.I.A. using actually harder metrics such as life expectancy ranks the U.S. forty-ninth in the world. An even more disturbing statistic they\u2019ve found is infant mortality, where the U.S. ranks one hundred and seventy-eighth. These numbers alone challenge the claims of how wonderful our health care is.<\/p>\n But the problem for me is that first denial of facts on the ground, reflecting, it seems to me the poisonous attitude of American Exceptionalism.<\/p>\n If we do it, it must be the best. And to challenge that is to challenge the homeland, very close to terrorism\u2026<\/p>\n The deeper premise appears to be if you don\u2019t think America has been marked out by God with a particular charism, you\u2019re a traitor.<\/p>\n On the face of it, pretty nutsy cuckoo stuff.<\/p>\n
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American Exceptionalism<\/a> is a particularly unsavory bit of jingoism used to silence critics.<\/p>\n