Narratives: American Exceptionalism vs Foreign Socialism

           Narratives are important, narratives shape everything at every level. Every one has a political narratives. I have a narrative, you have a narrative, Donald Trump has a narrative, Bush and Clinton have a narrative. Narratives are our overall world view. In Perloff ,(321-322), a narrative is simply an overall worldview that a politician puts on the world as a qualifier to explain his policies to the American people.  

A little while ago, I realized that people have completely different life narratives for a variety of reasons that make it almost impossible to relate, or even have a normal conversation because they differ so much in how they see the world. I realized this when in a mandated class assignment on how to improve Americas trust with police, I was put in a group with someone in training to be a police officer. The man in training to become a police officer carried on that the media wants to crucify police officers, and that's why cops have such a strong group mentality; and always side with other officers, even if an officer is accused of doing something bad. I shot back that if anything the media sugar coats what police officers do and never harass them like the media harasses civilians showing up at their homes and pester people, never showing up at their homes harassing them like the media does with civilians, never asking them tough questions and even when criticizing them the media always has to start off by saying something like, “I’m only talking about the bad ones, obviously most cops are good”. We got nowhere in the discussion. This is the power of narratives.

When I look at who I’m going to vote for, I don’t look at their policy positions because those change constantly due to changing events and political expediency. I look at their overall worldview to tell me how they will act when they are actually in power. That’s how I vote; based on narratives, and one good way to understand narratives is in the vocabulary that someone uses.

              As mentioned in Perloff, (321),Ronald Reagan started his narrative with “Its morning in America”. It’s an optimistic narrative that essential says that America will overcome whatever obstacles we face because this is America. That phrase has been replaced by American Exceptionalism which largely means the same thing. American Exceptionalism seems to be a slogan for the GOP. Especially for Ted Cruz. He explained American Exceptionalism as:

“Autocrats have reason to fear when Americans focus on our principles,and focus on exceptionalism, because it’s been American exceptionalism thatstood up to the Nazis, stopped the murder from the Nazis,”

“And it was American exceptionalism that stood up to the Soviet Unionand freed hundreds of millions from behind the Iron Curtin.  So Putin is right to be concerned aboutAmerican exceptionalism.”

When I read because I have different narrative or world view, it’s like gibberish. I think to myself that America didn’t stop the Nazis alone, we were one of many allies, the Soviets lost more people than anyone fighting the Nazis and were more responsible for Nazi defeat as well. When I see this mindset applied to modern policy I worry. To me this mindset of American Exceptionalism means that America can’t fail, that whatever we do is right; if we attack Iran we will be in the moral right, everyone who is moral will side with us and we will off course win with no chance of defeat and all the responsibility for the death and destruction will lay at the hands of the enemy. I shudder when I think of a man like this holding power, it’s the kind of man who send thousands of young people to their death, who bomb civilian populations. A man incapable of seeing any kind of inequality, injustice, or brutality happening within his own “exceptional” nation. I see a monster who would see himself as righteous no matter what crime he commits.

Then we have Bernie Sanders. We have a man who has cloaked himself in a vocabulary that most are afraid to embrace. He is a self-described Socialist calling for revolution (although a non-violent one). He is the opposite not only of Cruz but of most Republicans and democrats. He sees a deeply flawed society. He sees a society marked by inequality. He sees a society that doesn't work for the majority of the population, and sees no problem applying foreign ideas such as Socialism to change things. He, unlike most other candidates, sees the flaws in our foreign policy and wants to rectify them.

I see a man with potential to shape my countries future for the better. Sanders narrative of Socialism is a direct opposite Cruz’s narrative of American Exceptionalism.

             Oh and just a fun fact it was actually Stalin that coined the phrase America Exceptionalism and meant it as an insult. So the Republicans talking about American Exceptionalism are really quoting Stalin.