Bush on American Exceptionalism

The President’s State of the Union foreign policy rhetoric last night touched on our key words--democracy, peace, and economic development. He wrapped the words in the American exceptionalist goal of ending world tyranny, a goal Bush suggested his critics would call “misguided idealism.” Here is how Bush put it:

We are the nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire. Once again, we accept the call of history to deliver the oppressed, and move this world toward peace. . . To overcome dangers in our world, we must also take the offensive by encouraging economic progress.

Bush had a word for those who would oppose American efforts to expand free enterprise and democracy abroad. He called his critics “isolationists.” Commentators have said the word has little relevance to current foreign policy debates.

But by using “isolationist,” Bush is deliberately tying himself to the presidents before him who fought to make the world “safe for democracy;” linking himself to Democrats Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt (who battled “isolationists” to get the U.S. into World War II), Harry Truman, and John Kennedy. Bush wants today’s Democrats to honor their idealistic past.