"What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished ..." -- Barack Obama

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Perry on Politics: True American exceptionalism on display in Selma
By James M. Perry, March 9, 2015

Those who doubt Barack Obama loves America should read the brilliant speech he delivered in Selma, Alabama, on the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday." Google it, at Obama transcript Selma.

Mr. Obama said that what has not changed in 50 years since those innocent protesters were brutally attacked on the Edmund Pettus bridge over the Alabama River "is the imperative of citizenship, that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five to decide they loved this country so much that they'd risk everything to realize its promise.

"That's what it means to love America. That's what it means to believe in America. That's what it means when we say America is exceptional."

That, to be sure, is not the way millions of Americans see it. Americans are exceptional, they tend to agree, because God made them that way. Many of these devout and sincere Americans no doubt would agree with the great naval hero, Stephen Decatur, who in a toast at an early 19th Century dinner, said, "Our country ... may she always be in the right, but right or wrong, our country."

God had little to do with our good fortune. Our first colonists, landing on North American shores, were lucky (though they surely didn't think so). Spread out before them were thousands of miles of what would one day be rich farm and factory land. Minerals abounded, and so did buffalo. These early Americans were opposed by Native Americans -- startled Indians who took umbrage at what eventually became a crushing invasion by millions of white settlers spreading out across what had been a huge, virginal continent.

Rigid adherence to the exceptional theory means that we did no wrong, and to say we did is unpatriotic.

In a new book, "Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country," Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, says American liberals are torn by shame and guilt "about the nation's past sins -- slavery, racism, sexism, imperialism, Vietnam -- that exaggerates inequality and unfairness in American life in order to justify" heavy-handed government policies and programs.

That, it seems to me, is nonsense (How is it possible to exaggerate the cruel fact of slavery?). It's not what Mr. Obama was talking about in Selma on Bloody Sunday.

Mr. Obama asked, "What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people -- the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many -- coming together to shape their country's course" in Selma 50 years ago?

"What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation more closely align with our highest ideals."
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