Obama and 'American Exceptionalism'

Barack Obama is relatively popular in the Arab World. Indeed, positive attitudes towards the young president outnumber those towards the US itself almost three to one. In a recent survey of public opinion in six Arab countries by Shilbey Telhami and Zogby International, 45 per cent of people felt favourably about Obama, while only 18 per cent expressed the same sentiment about the US.

Perhaps much of this has to do with the fact that he is a member of a minority who has secured a position of great power. Obama, in a sense, is the epitome of the "American Dream". Was the election of a minority president uniquely American? Could one even imagine a Briton of Pakistani descent moving into 10 Downing Street, or an Algerian-Frenchman or woman living at the Elysée Palace?

The question is posed rhetorically to underscore American experience as sui generis. A long-held belief in "American Exceptionalism" pervades US political culture. The coinage, to be sure, is foreign. It was minted by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831, but its meaning, however, represents the kernel of American cultural identity. Perhaps nothing sums up the concept like the pithy phrase 'only in America'.

The intellectual roots of American Exceptionalism predate the republic itself. John Winthrop had adumbrated the idea, avant la lettre, in his sermon famously known as the "City upon a Hill", in 1630, before even setting foot in the New World. The idea is that the US occupies a special place among Western nations: its origins and credo is peculiar, and its political, social and economic institutions are unique, and usually, in marked contrast to those of old Europe.

Is the Obama phenomenon, then, explained by American Exceptionalism? Obama himself thinks so. His stentorian declaration "in no other country on earth, is my story even possible", would attest to that. In his inaugural address, he struck a similar theme: "And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath".

A cursory knowledge of the US, along with a smidgen of common sense, is enough to convince anyone of the great achievements of that country. Nobody, but nobody, would gainsay America's advances in all walks of human endeavours or its dazzling accomplishments. Suffice to say that the US was the only country to win every Nobel Prize (except Peace) for a single year (1976). Then president Gerald Ford put it eloquently, "In competitive sports terms it might be said that in 1976 Americans have swept the field in a way no other country has ever done before".

No one would deny Obama his illustrious accounts of his personal narratives: all encomiums bestowed upon him are veritably well deserved. To attribute his election to the highest office to American Exceptionalism, however, defies historical facts and belittles other countries' achievements in human equality. The fact that there are no chief executives of racial minority in London and Paris reflects more the nature of these societies than it is a proof of American Exceptionalism. And it is America's outstanding achievements that accentuate glaringly its tardiness in terms of striving for racial and religious equality.

Let us do away with the myth that Obama is the first African-American president. That honour belongs to a different person: Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809 1876), the first president of Liberia, a country "founded" by freed slaves from the US in 1822. Roberts was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and migrated to Liberia in 1829. Upon the declaration of its independence in 1847, Roberts was elected the first president of Liberia. It's fairly telling that the US withheld its recognition until 1862, for fear that southern members of Congress would demur to a black ambassador in Washington. There were 18 African-American presidents in Liberia before Obama took the steps of the US Capitol to be sworn in on a chilly January afternoon - even then, the oath was bumbled.

The Middle East has witnessed exceptional moments too. The Ottoman Turks ruled a good part of the Arab world under Islamic universalism for centuries. It was the emergence of Turkish nationalism and its Pan-Turanism variety that led to the Arab Revolt of 1916. One of the most prominent leaders of the revolt was Faisal. Although he was born in the Hijaz, now in Saudi Arabia, and was a scion of its rulers, Faisal made his bid, with British backing, to become the king of Iraq in 1921. Faisal was confirmed by a plebiscite as Iraq's monarch. His son, Ghazi, succeeded him, and his grandson, Faisal II, was also proclaimed king and reigned until he was overthrown in 1958. Faisal's brother, Abdullah I, established his own dynasty in Jordan that continues to rule.

The didacticism of this rather sprawling discussion is that Obama's ascendancy to the presidency is indeed historic, and 2008 will be marked in the annals of human history as annus mirabilis - but other peoples also have their histories, which are equally unique and exceptional. Whoever said a "nation is a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours" had it about right.

Dr Albadr S.S. Alshateri is a UAE political analyst and writer.