'America is Exceptional … and Ordinary'

From Lane Kenworthy (in June - missed it at the time):

America is exceptional … and ordinary, The Good Society June 2015: American exceptionalism is one of our country’s most cherished notions.¹ There is considerable truth in it: we are different in a number of respects from the world’s other rich longstanding-democratic nations, a group that includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, (South) Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. At the same time, there are a host of ways in which we’re quite ordinary.²

To some, “exceptional” doesn’t just mean different; it means best. To others it means worst. As we’ll see, America is both.

Here is a brief and partial introduction to the United States in comparative perspective. Though it barely scratches the surface, it will give you a sense of some of the ways in which the US is both different and similar, both wonderful and woeful. ...