America: No Longer the Greatest Nation?

According to Jeff Daniels, American is no longer the greatest nation in the world, yet America was once the greatest nation in the world. Although this might seem to be a very humbling stance to take, it is, in fact, yet another example of the mentality of American exceptionalism. The myth of American exceptionalism suggests that America is a unique and special nation, unparalleled in human history. It also suggests that America must strive to fulfill its destiny to be the greatest nation in the world. This is an extremely dangerous mindset and ultimately alienates America from the world community.
The idea that America is somehow special is perhaps the most ordinary thing about the nation. “The British thought they were bearing the ‘white man’s burden,’ and “even many of the officials of the former Soviet Union genuinely believed they were leading the world toward a socialist utopia despite the many cruelties that communist rule inflicted” (Walt, 20111, par. 7). Many of America’s fellow industrialized nations find it profoundly offensive to hear it characterized as the only free nation in the world. The idea that America is more virtuous than other great powers as a result of its specialness is also highly questionable, given America’s history of seizing territories in an illegal fashion, including what became Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California (Walt, 2011). It also illegally seized land belonging to indigenous people and confined them to reservations. Of course, America is not the only nation to engage in aggressive, colonialist actions and to construct a moral defense for its actions but it often perpetuates the myth that morality alone has governed its policy.
America has also seen a sharp decline in social mobility in recent years, despite its self-styled identity as a land in which people can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  Between the years 1981 and 2008, “the chance that someone starting in the bottom 10 percent would move above the 40th percentile decreased by 16 percent,” while “people who started in the seventh decile are 12 percent more likely to end up in the fifth or sixth decile—a drop in earnings—than they used to be” (Semuels, 2016, par.4). This is due to a number of factors—firstly, higher education is more expensive than ever before, and there are greater disparities between the school systems of different areas, given that property taxes largely determine school funding and wealthier areas have more money to spend on children’s schooling. Organized labor is less powerful and corporations have greater political lobbying power to keep lower-level wages low. There is been a decline of middle-level job growth, versus growth at the upper echelons of American society, which can further stymie individuals’ attempts to extract themselves from the low-wage job sector. A lack of affordable daycare for women increases the likelihood that women in particular will experience downward mobility over the course of their working lives, particularly if they divorce.
Of course, some people point to the United States’ great foreign policy objectives of the past to argue that the US was once the greatest nation in the world, as well as to its current standing as a great power in the world community. Granted, the US record on human rights is not nearly as abysmal as some nations. “The United States never conquered a vast overseas empire or caused millions to die through tyrannical blunders like China’s Great Leap Forward or Stalin’s forced collectivization” (Walt, 2011, par.15). Nor has it engaged in the type of rampant military expansion in the model of Germany in the past or empire-building in the model of Great Britain. But merely the absence of such actions is not an argument for the US showing demonstrably greater morality than its fellow industrialized democracies of today. Additionally, in recent years the US has shown an uncomfortable tendency of cozying up the dictators in Latin America and in the Middle East if they serve its policy objectives in the region (Walt, 2011). It has shown little change in its willingness to do so. Furthermore, it has not acted as a leader in humanitarian military campaigns to prevent abuses of human rights such as in the much-publicized genocides taking place in Bosnia and Rwanda, nor has it taken an international leadership role to promote green technology and conservation to combat global warming (Walt, 2011). Even the rise of the European Union as a cultural force has detracted from the US status as a great power.
In regards to its social mobility, many supporters of American exceptionalism point to the many ethnic and social groups who have experienced tremendous benefits as a result of living in America that they would not have enjoyed in their previous places of residence. People still immigrate to the United States in large numbers, legally and illegally, in the hope of opportunities. But the abundance of statistical evidence suggests that this is not achievable in reality, even though the dream may come true for some individuals on an anecdotal basis, thus fueling the desire among many more to enjoy America’s alleged benefits.
America has many strengths as a nation, but it is not a perfect nation. Rather than focusing on making America the greatest nation on earth, Americans would be better off if they focused on attempting to make the world community better. America has commanded great respect in the past and is still a world power. But it has serious problems in terms of the social issues with which it is grappling and its record on military invasions, human rights, and environmentalism is lagging. It must work with other nations rather than attempt to reestablish its past dominance or greatness to build a better tomorrow.


References
Semuels, A. (2016). Poor at 20, poor for life. The Atlantic. Retrieved from:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/social-mobility-america/491240/
Walt, S. (2011). The myth of American exceptionalism. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/11/the-myth-of-american-exceptionalism/