Mike Signer lives an exemplary life. I was not surprised when he published an article on American Exemplarism, A City on a Hill, “Exemplarism would value both strength and international prestige equally, seeing them not as mutually exclusive but rather as mutually reinforcing.”
“America’s economic, political, and military strength, when deployed wisely, enhances our prestige around the world; that prestige, in turn, allows us to expand our influence and power by engendering the willing followership of other countries.”
Exemplarism places “the United States in a community, but as its leader.” America has a tradition of exceptionalism, but Signer sees modern American exceptionalism as vulgar, framing “the United States as an exception to the world, rather than as an exceptional–meaning excellent–nation within it” which “undermines our ability to translate our uniqueness into global leadership.”
I am still reading the article, but I wanted to share it now because I will surely need to read it a couple times before I grab Mike for a couple beers and a heady conversation about the article.
Well worth registering for free to Democracy A Journal of Ideas in order to read the full article.
