The Wall Street Journal created a graphic that maps the usage of a few key words in inaugural speeches since President Washington. It lists that President Obama mentioned “the people” almost three times as much as George Washington did. It’s where you can see that “God” is mentioned more in Obama’s two inaugural addresses than it was in either of the Bush’s. (Not quite up to Reagan’s levels though.)

What becomes apparent in Obama’s speech through this graphic are the phrases he repeats, the ideas that continue to reappear. His focus is not on war or law or duty but on commitment to each other. He stated “preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.” 

Though President Obama’s speech discussed a lot of those important freedoms, like gay rights and equal pay for women, and other issues such as global warming, it is his overarching theme that stands out. “What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea.” But the substance that follows doesn’t matter. What matters is that idea of American exceptionalism. The idea that we, as Americans, are exceptional because we are Americans. 

As President Obama begins his second term, his focus seems to be on this idea of “exceptionalism,” of America as a beacon to which all other nations can look toward as an example of a great nation. “America,” the president stated, “will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe … (because) no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation.”

American exceptionalism isn’t merely about setting the example, about being the infamous “city upon a hill.” It’s about action: “our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.” It’s about creating a world that is in our image, that follows our lead. It’s the idea that to be an American is to be special, to be endowed beyond the citizens of other nations. “America’s possibilities are limitless,” Obama states, “for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands.” 

In a 2010 Gallup Poll, 80 percent of Americans stated that the United States was “the greatest country in the world.” American exceptionalism, writes Terrence McCoy in The Atlantic, “along with flag pins shining from one’s lapel, is one of the rare issues where Republicans and Democrats agree.”

But they didn’t always. In fact, in the 1930s, Chicagoan S. Milgrom called exceptionalism “a chronic disease.” It was Joseph Stalin that actually coined the term American exceptionalism and his use was an insult, the “heresy of American exceptionalism.” Even President Obama, at a news conference in France in 2009, shared his doubts about the concept: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. … (That) I think we’ve got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in … recognizing that we’re not always going to be right.” 

“How,” The Atlantic article asks, “did a phrase intended as derision become a rallying cry of American awesomeness?” How much of our national identity has been shaped in direct opposition to another country’s politics and policies. Look at the Pledge of Allegiance. “Under God” was added to the pledge in direct contrast to Communism during the ‘50s. The salute to the flag changed to placing one’s hand over the heart during World War II as it had previously resembled the Nazi salute. Even the pledge itself was written by a radical preacher a century after the nation was founded. 

America is a nation purposely set against other countries. It is a nation defined by difference. It is a nation that is, literally, the exception. We are the “Great Experiment” of democracy. We are a nation defined not by our race or our ethnicity but by our shared history and our shared ideas. But that does not make us exceptional. It does not allow us to define the rules by breaking them. It does not allow us to create countries in our own image merely because we think that image best. It certainly does not, automatically, by definition, place us above the rest of the world.

In the HBO show “The Newsroom,” the nightly news anchor Will McAvoy is asked, “Why is America the greatest country in the world?” His response is a nearly five minute monologue, the crux of which is summarized by the sign in the audience that prompts his response: “It’s not. But it can be.”

Sarah is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].