The American Mission

Issue one from the McKenna text presents two divergent political philosophies from Humanities professor Wilfred M. McClay and Historian Howard Zinn regarding the concept of American exceptionalism. McClay and Zinn provide convincing arguments as they support their contrasting viewpoints with key examples from American history on the question, “Should Americans believe in a unique American mission?” On one hand, McClay offers a belief in the unique American “mission” as interconnecting with our Founding Fathers through divine providentialism. On the other hand, Zinn rejects this notion asserting that restraint from the mythical belief of American exceptionalism will suppress combative desires. Professor McClay believes that Americans should be in the uniqueness of our mission. He is adamant that there should be a steady interplay between founding ideals and current realities by fostering an interlocking relationship with the Founding Fathers through academics and paternal/governmental influence. He claims that our social cohesiveness depends on the preservation and dissemination of American myths and legends. For example, the myth of “Manifest Destiny” justifying American expansion into territory held by Mexico and expansion into Cuba and the Philippines in the 1890s (McKenna & Feingold 2011, 3). This helps further rationalize the countries’ advancement of values of universalism, idealism, and zealous crusading by endorse the notion that, “God is on our side!” asserts McClay (McKenna & Feingold 2011). Lastly, McClay does acknowledge that in nurturing mythic reality as a sustaining feature of American democracy and cultural hegemony, we must does not disregard the “strange moral complexities” of the past because it provides a basis for learning from previous mistakes (McKenna & Feingold 2011, 12). Conversely, Historian Zinn describes this sense of American exceptionalism and “Divine ordination” in conjunction with military power as a

Cited: McKenna, George and Stanley Feingold. Taking Sides, Clashing View on Political Issues, 17th Edition. Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill, 2011.