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September 13th, 2013
02:07 PM ET
Van Jones: America is exceptional
In this Ceasefire, CNN Crossfire hosts Van Jones and Newt Gingrich agree on the fact that the United States is an exceptional nation.
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Posted by Crossfire staff Filed under: Ceasefire • Newt Gingrich • Van Jones |
Meet the Hosts
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
What I find exceptional about the US is that so many people seem to buy the rhetoric about tremendous freedoms and equality enjoyed by Americans despite the emergence of the surveillance state, persecutions of journalist and whistleblowers who dare to talk about it, and despite of the fact that measured by Gini coefficient (used by CIA for example) U.S. ranks at same level with Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Ecuador, Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Serbia. I recommend a visit to any Scandinavian country to see an an alternative that is much more in line with the principles expressed in the US constitution and "dreamed" by founding fathers. Equality is not a dream, it is the starting point.
Funny claim from a Christian country. I always believe that God created man as equals. This is the claim that gets US presidents into war.
this is a complete load of shite: If you look at our country's rank in virtually any statistic that matters against other nations we are marginal at best. And before you start trying to tie it to your infantile political views and tossing it around take note that this has been a long standing 'fall from grace'. But then again, on national network to say anything other than nationalistic tripe is to give your opponent something blindly emotion to nail you against the wall with that is all that most people will register on
This is simply a "lost in translation" issue. We understand American exceptionalism as an exceptional people, while President Putin has understood the phrase as "a people who think they are the exception to the rule." I would consider us dangerous too if we all walked around thinking that the rules everyone else is expected to follow don't apply to us.
What's exceptional about us is our ability to choose from multitudes of facts to support differing opinions and arguments. As long as both sides are able to select the facts they need to support their positions, we are free. When there is only one side to an argument, or we need to *pass the law to see what's in it* we are in the final moments of freedom. We've ceased to make the best choices, and all the facts in the world cant' save us from death or taxes. Let's see the ACA in your crossfire, or would you rather wait and observe the rage in the streets?
American Exceptionalism is one of those things we love to hear come campaign time.
That we somehow have a special God given place in the world. And there might have been a time when America was truly exceptional, in standard of living, health care, democratic institutions, and compassionate goodness. But I think all those institutions have become incredibly weak recently. If we honestly are exceptional, lets fix our exceptional problems before trying to tackle the worlds.
No doubt. Let us count the ways: Agent orange; Hiroshima; Nagasaki; racism; low educational standards; lax gun laws; more people in prisons; blacks as an underclass; more murders, refusal to condemn Israel for anything, yes, truly exceptional from one black person to another,