(Since my thread on a related loss of theirs sunk like a rock.)
A key Wingnut meme has been “American exceptionalism.” On its face the gloating, bragging, pridefulness, haughtiness is off putting. Restated it’s “I’m better than you,” spat at the rest of all the cultures of the world. The smallness of the purveyors’ frame of reference would be shown by a brief philosophical look up at the firmament. Yet somewhat of a pass might be granted if examples of “American exceptionalism” were things like LINCOLN’s “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Or FDR’s grace (from the ROOSEVELT Institute: “Winston Churchill once said that Franklin Roosevelt was the greatest man he had ever known. His life, Churchill said, ‘must be regarded as one of the commanding events of human destiny.’ " ) or the MARSHALL Plan. Things like that. But those who tout American exceptionalism, with their smallness of vision, mean something like material accomplishments, their settling for a small definition of freedom, perhaps the greed of amassing for its own sake. Just, amassing. Oh, they cite their version of American charity to others. Instead of an interpretation of idealism, things like humane treatment as opposed to torture. But Wingnuts decided to adopt torture into their tool chest. Previously, one worthy example of American exceptionalism would have been the professing, at least, of abhorrence of torture. Now the Wingnuts have been balleyhooing a torture goon named Jose RODRIGUEZ, their loving it that he claims PELOSI lied about having been briefed about the new torture scheme of things. That’s rich; they choose to believe somebody to whom deception is one of his minimal stocks in trade, understandably because of their petty view of things in general. So much for American exceptionalism, since what might have made Americans exceptional was professing the abhorrence of torture. Wingnuts now have to face how unexceptional they are after all. They lost by not being better than anybody else.
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