The United States: A Raison d'Etre

I heard several people arguing the other day as to whether the United States was truly exceptional or whether it was simply a matter of perception, that everyone thinks their country is exceptional. Unfortunately, the people involved in the argument missed the fundamental question: what is it that makes every country unique and from that, is that which makes the US unique truly exceptional?

Political theorists says that it takes several things to make a country: a geographic entity (a chunk of land), economic viability and political organization (you need to be able in some sense to support yourself and have an organization that can handle the day-to-day list of tasks that governments handle), and you need to have a raison d’etre – that is, a reason for being or reason to be.

It is this last that is the most important, or arguably the only meaningful differentiator of one country from another. The raison d’etre – the reason to be – tells us why country X exists, why country X split from country A and pushed through all the heartache of the birth of a nation to become what it is today. It is the single most important thing within any nation. Yet it seems to have been forgotten.

It is true that for many nations around the world, the raison d’etre is at best poorly defined. Many nations in the world exist for no other reason that that they have existed – in one form or another - for hundreds, even thousands of years. Perhaps originally formed by the self-centered and arrogant for their own purposes and self-aggrandizement, smaller states slowly merged with other small principalities through wars and marriages of convenience to form larger and wealthier states from which more taxes could be squeezed. Many such states exist today, states that exist simply because they did exist, defined more by their geography then by anything else.

That is not the case with the US. In fact, the United States is one of the relatively few nations in history that was founded based on clear concepts and ideas, concepts and ideas that are embodied in four specific documents from our history. The importance of this is simple, but massive, because this raison d’etre, this reason to be, explains not only why our Founders engaged in this truly wondrous experiment called the United States of America, it also helps to explain why we are different and why we must not only celebrate that difference but also defend it.

When politicians say that they believe in American Exceptionalism just as a Greek believes in Greek exceptionalism, they miss the point of our exceptional nature, they miss (perhaps they never understood?) the real ‘reason to be’ that underpins all that makes us Americans.

The first document that I believe holds a facet of our reason to be is the Mayflower Compact. A simple and brief document, the Mayflower Compact establishes that they were forming a government, and state that is to create equal laws. While it still acknowledged the King of England as their sovereign, they are stating that they, the people, will determine the laws that govern them. This ‘simple’ proposition would later be a central issue that led to our independence, that we would not sit idly by while laws affecting us were passed on the other side of the ocean.

The second document is, of course, the Declaration of Independence. And the spirit of that incredible document is to be found in two distinct places, the opening lines of the second sentence, which are so often – and rightly – spoken:

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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed -

Two incredible concepts: all people with equal and unalienable rights – that exist from God not from government, central to which is liberty; and that governments are subservient to the people, that the only powers they possess are those given to them by the people. This is unique – exceptional – material. And while other nations have attempted to mimic various elements of our system, few will be found that state this idea so clearly or who have attempted to honor the concept in daily practice.

A second concept is also provided in the Declaration of Independence that is, I believe central to how we as a nation see ourselves and see other nations and that is in the following line:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The key here is the belief that a people have a duty, a responsibility, to stand up and act to overthrow despots and to establish responsible government. This is truly revolutionary stuff, and it’s presence in our founding document made the US unique in history at the time of our creation and, even today, there are few countries that capture this sense of the real power being in the hands of the people.

The third document is the Constitution. Two elements of the Constitution must be considered, first the Preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

A glaring statement, leading the legal foundation of all of our laws, clearly stating that the people form the government, that the government – the bureaucracy – works for the people as a whole, not the other way around, and that our prime goal is the ‘blessings of liberty.’

Second, the text as a whole provides a strong and explicit message limiting of the powers of the organs of government. While much argument has been made of what this or that line might mean, I would suggest that much of this legalistic splitting of hairs is the obfuscation of disingenuous lawyers. The Constitution as amended, when read as a whole, with the Federalist Papers nearby, makes an incredibly strong statement about limited government, about a government that has defined borders and must stay within those border, that the purpose of government is to provide equality under the law and equal opportunity within society. In no sense does the Constitution, or the discussions about each article found within the Federalist Papers, suggest equality of outcome. We are, after all, a free people, and our successes or failures are matters of individual initiative. It is the government’s responsibility simply to ensure the ‘playing field’ remains level.

The final document that defines our reason to be is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and in particular, the final line:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

In no other nation is found the clarion call to liberty and to true equality. Throughout these documents winds a thread that speaks to the birth not only of a new nation but a new people. Our motto - ‘E Pluribus Unum’ – ‘One Out of Many’ - speaks directly to a concept that has been rejected by many pseudo-sophisticated wags of the last 30 years, who have stressed our diversity and who have called for us all to not only recognize what makes us different but to ‘celebrate’ it. That call is anathema to the very nature – the reason to be – of our nation. We are no longer English, Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mexican, Portuguese, Egyptian, Japanese, Nigerian, Chinese, Samoan, Vietnamese or any other nationality. We have given up those other countries.

These documents both encapsulated and helped us to define our raison d’etre. And they have made a truly exceptional country, one that is unique in the 6000 year of recorded history. While some will be quick to point out our mistakes, the fact is that no country has ever made such an effort to advance mankind as this nation and no country is today poised to take over that role.

We are an exceptional country, a unique country. (And despite our seemingly endlessly ballyhooed faults by many in the media, I have yet to observe a mass emigration to all the other places that are so much better.) What we must do is act to not only preserve our exceptionalism, but we must stress it to the next generation. Our exceptionalism not only must be taught, it must be respected, cherished and nourished. It is not something to be haughty about, but something to be treated with the greatest respect and the recognition that each generation is charged with preserving it and preserving this nation, Governor Bradford’s shining ‘city on a hill,’ as a beacon to all who believe in liberty.