Tomes, Robert R

Abstract
Exceptionalist discourse is on the rise in American politics. In an article published in the Atlantic, Terrence McCoy found that the term ‘American exceptionalism’ appeared in national US publications 457 times in 1980–2000, climbing to 2,558 times in the 2000s and 4,172 times in 2010–12.
Concepts and beliefs associated with the term figured prominently in the 2012 US presidential election, bringing it from the relative obscurity of academia into mainstream political discourse. In the run-up to the election, American exceptionalism became a central part of the debate over which candidate had the better vision for restoring America’s economic vitality, for preserving the country’s role in world affairs and for revitalising the American dream.
At the height of the deliberations over the US response to chemical-weapons use in Syria last year, President Barack Obama claimed that having the will and capacity to act was ‘what makes America different … what makes us exceptional’. Earlier in the speech, he had argued that ‘for nearly seven decades, the United States has been the anchor of global security … The burdens of leadership are often heavy, but the world is a better place because we have borne them.’
Read the article here