Review by Bill Doughty––
Liz Cheney and her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, show unbridled passion for their country in “Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America” (Threshold Editions, Simon & Schuster, 2015).
The Cheneys blame Obama and Clinton for alienating allies, weakening the military, and failing at nuclear arms control. “Maintaining America’s nuclear superiority is more important than ever, but President Obama has abandoned this goal.” He should not have signed the New START Treaty with the Russians or agreed to terms with Iran to prevent development of nuclear weapons, they say.
As for weakening the military: In 2011 Obama “announced a broad shift in American policy, a ‘pivot to Asia” … Particularly on the military front, however, there was a decided lack of follow through.”
Furthermore, Obama did not confront China strongly enough, in the Cheneys’ opinion. "Exceptional" predicts China would have a stronger navy than the U.S. Navy in the Pacific by 2020.
“Ignoring international law, the Chinese have claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and are embarked upon a massive land reclamation and construction program to bolster these claims.” The U.S. Navy conducted six Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) during President Obama’s presidency.
 Seaman Malik Flynn transfers a pallet aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) during a replenishment-at-sea with dry cargo ship USNS Amelia Earhart (T-AKE-6) in the Philippine Sea, June 29, 2022, underway in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (MC3 Santiago Navarro) |
‘Exceptional’ History Lessons
“Exceptional” opens with a jolt in the late 1930s with the rise of Hitler and Roosevelt’s resolve to wake up U.S. citizens to the threat of fascism and ethno-nationalism in Europe.
“Roosevelt’s determination to mobilize the nation was crucial to the success of the effort he knew we needed to mount. It had not been an easy or clear path getting to this point. The American people were war-weary and isolationist sentiment was strong. In the aftermath of World War I we had demobilized and retreated behind our oceans, hoping, as George Washington had advised, to avoid entangling our ‘peace and prosperity’ in the fortunes of Europe. While we were turned inward, Adolf Hitler began his Blitzkrieg.”
In rapid time, readers receive a history of World War II –– with emphasis given to the Lend-Lease Act (where we see parallels to current support to Ukraine), Battle of Midway, and D-Day.
“June 6, 1944, was a day when America’s greatness was on full display, from the unparalleled heroism of the soldiers who stormed the beaches; to the ingenuity of men like Henry Higgins, who invented the landing craft that made the invasion possible; to the courage and fortitude of the Rangers who took the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc; to the business leaders like Bill Knudsen and Henry Kaiser who had driven American industry to turn out the thousands of ships ad planes necessary to win the war; to the commanders like Marshall, Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley who built the force and planned and commanded the invasion. The world had never seen anything like it.”
The history lessons continue through the Cold War: “the triumph of freedom over tyranny, of the courage of millions who fought the oppression of Soviet dictatorship around globe, and of the importance of achieving peace through strength.
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| Liz and Dick Cheney, 2015 |
They devote several pages to Benghazi, the need for the Guantanamo detention camp, justification for “enhanced interrogation,” and recommendations to continue increased funding to fight ISIS.
Father and daughter denigrate Obama and Clinton dozens of times in this book after their presentation of post-WWII history.
Their vitriol seems boundless. They accuse Obama of having a “prominent” role, along with others, who “want us to see the United States as having had and continuing to have a malign role in the world … In the books they are assigned, in the tests they take, and in the instruction they receive, our children and grandchildren are too often being told that the legacy they ave inherited is a shameful one.”
Yet, they admit:
“Neither we nor our children and grandchildren should be uncritical of our country. Despite the self-evident truth that ‘all men are created equal,’ slavery continued after we declared our independence. The Constitution, signed in 1787, failed to end the system of slavery nor did it address the oppression of women. Among the wonders of this country, however, is that that document, our Constitution, was the instrument for remedying our failure, for abolishing slavery, granting women the right to vote, and working to ensure equality of opportunity for all. That we are a resilient country, able to correct wrongs, is among the lessons we should embrace and our children should learn. We have worked to make ourselves better –– and we have succeeded. No nation has ever been freer or more prosperous. No nation has ever worked so successfully to extend freedom to others. No nation, in the history of mankind, has ever been such a force for good.”
The Cheneys denigrate Obama for his nuanced view of America’s exceptionalism, including what Obama calls, the “distortions of politics, the sins of hubris, (and) the corrupting effects of fear.”
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| Then-Senator Barack Obama is sworn in by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, Jan. 3, 2005, as the Obama family look on. |
The Cheneys had to admit that Obama said in a NATO meeting in Afghanistan, “I believe in American exceptionalism.” Obama said the same thing March 7, 2015, in his speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama, for the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches.
Obama compared Selma to other significant historical and historic sites such as Concord and Lexington, Independence Hall, Appomattox, Gettysburg, Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk, and Cape Canaveral. A willingness to risk everything (personified by Liz Cheney in 2022) in order to protect the republic, ensure justice, and bring about positive change is what makes the United States exceptional, according to Obama.
The most recent Sisters In Law podcast recommended listening to Obama’s Selma speech for Independence Day, July 4th.
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| The Obamas and Congressman John Lewis lead the 50th anniversary commemoration in Selma, March 7, 2015. |
“We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, that racial division is inherent to America. If you think nothing’s changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or Los Angeles of the 1950s. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed. Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was thirty years ago. To deny this progress, this hard-won progress -– our progress –- would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.
“We know the march is not yet over. We know the race is not yet won. We know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged, all of us, by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. ‘We are capable of bearing a great burden,’ James Baldwin once wrote, ‘once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.’ There’s nothing America can’t handle if we actually look squarely at the problem. And this is work for all Americans, not just some. Not just whites. Not just blacks. If we want to honor the courage of those who marched that day, then all of us are called to possess their moral imagination. All of us will need to feel as they did the fierce urgency of now. All of us need to recognize as they did that change depends on our actions, on our attitudes, the things we teach our children. And if we make such an effort, no matter how hard it may sometimes seem, laws can be passed, and consciences can be stirred, and consensus can be built.”
Obama spoke about the importance of voting and voting rights in order to bring about change and protect our democracy from authoritarian aristocracy and autocracy.
“Fellow marchers, so much has changed in 50 years. We have endured war and we’ve fashioned peace. We’ve seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives. We take for granted conveniences that our parents could have scarcely imagined. But what has not changed 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.
“For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction –– because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.”
His speech only gets better as he shows how much we all have in common, again recognizing how much our nation has improved over time.
The Last Word –– July 4th
During an appearance on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell this week, Isabel Wilkerson, author of “Caste,” spoke about how this Independence Day is a watershed year.
“This particular Fourth of July is a very significant one, because this is the year when the United States will finally have been a free and independent nation for as long as slavery lasted on this soil. It`s humbling, and it is really staggering to think about the fact that we are alive at this inflection point, this moment, where the United States, we think of it as, you know, 1776 is a long time ago. We think about the country as being here for a very long time. And this is a sobering reminder of exactly how long slavery lasted, it lasted for 246 years from 1619 until 1865, with the 13th Amendment that finally ended legal slavery. And then the United States, it`s 246 years, and the United States turns 246 on Monday.”
Perhaps Wilkerson is right, and this exceptional watershed Independence Day will mark an epochal shift of positive change in 2022. “Caste” is one of the best books I’ve read in the past year, hopeful, powerful, and inspiring. “Exceptional,” by comparison –– while at times celebrating America’s greatness –– falls unfortunately into bitterness, pettiness, and disunited negativity. Quite a contrast.
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