Is America the greatest nation in history?

Who wants to know?

In nearly every presidential campaign, someone asks the candidates if they think America is the greatest country in world history. The questioner is typically a conservative, since the question is presumed to cause more trouble for liberals than for conservatives. It usually does. Conservatives promptly answer, “Of course America is the greatest," and lead their supporters, explicitly or implicitly, in cheers of "USA! USA! USA!”

Liberals hesitate. They weigh their words. They know they can't say no, but they resist endorsing the jingoism they perceive in the question. Barack Obama got the question two months after he became president, and it took the form of a query as to whether he believed in American exceptionalism—the idea that the rules that apply to other countries do not apply to the United States, on account of America's greatness.

Obama answered,“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” Obama identified different aspects of American exceptionalism: political, economic, military, historical. He went on to say, "Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us."

Conservatives pounced on Obama's answer. He thought America was no better than Britain and Greece, they said. He thought the United States was merely one country among many, rather than the leader of the free world. He must hate the United States, the way most liberals did.

Obama spent much of his two terms in office walking back his answer and rephrasing his view of American exceptionalism. But it was too late. He had lost control of the narrative. Every elaboration gave his enemies a chance to revisit the issue and recycle their criticisms.

All of which underscored the fundamental insincerity of the original question. Gotcha questions are like that. They demand simple, often yes or no, answers, when simple answers can’t suffice. Is America the greatest country in history? What do you mean by great?

The reason the question is easy for conservatives is that conservatives like things as they are. When conservatives say America is the greatest country ever, what they mean is: Leave the status quo alone. Don't fix what ain't broke.

The question is easy, in the opposite direction, for progressives. Most progressives think America isn't great at all. They point to America's history of colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia and other failings and say America has more to be ashamed of than to be proud of.

Yet the progressives aren't really answering the question. The question is comparative rather than absolute. The question, as usually phrased, isn’t whether the United States is great, but is it greater than other countries? Here conscientious progressives have a harder time. If you view the world  through the lens progressives typically apply to the past, every country falls short.

Barack Obama, as behooved a liberal, tried to find a path between the complacence of the conservatives and condemnation of the progressives. He said America was great—”exceptional”—but it could be greater still. 

He returned to the question in a 2012 speech to the graduating class at the United States Air Force academy. He riffed on the phrase “American century” coined in the 1940s by magazine man Henry Luce. Luce was referring the 20th century; Obama explained his comparable vision for the 21st century. “And finally, I see an American Century because of the character of our country—the spirit that has always made us exceptional,” he said. “That simple yet revolutionary idea—there at our founding and in our hearts ever since—that we have it in our power to make the world anew, to make the future what we will.  It is that fundamental faith—that American optimism—which says no challenge is too great, no mission is too hard. . . . That is the essence of America, and there’s nothing else like it anywhere in the world.”

The greatest country by virtue of its openness to change—it was a valiant try. Yes, Obama told the conservatives, America is the greatest country. And yes, he told the progressives, America has needed to change and still needs to. To many listeners and readers, Obama’s answer was persuasive.

Persuasive enough to end the Is-America-the-greatest ritual? A new campaign has begun. We’ll see.