....i'd put forth a plea to humility...u.s. is great, as per all in the anglosphere..but the Christian in me warns what pride leads to...as does the (psuedo) classicist re; hubris...it's obvious that the anglo world alone was free throughout the 20th century, and an argument is there positing the u.s. @ the head...depends what metric one uses..a more pertinent fact is how we are diminishing ourselves as we move away from what got us here, and how/can we rectify this...w/ all the fervid socialist activity/belief that abounds...the tone can offset otherwise inherent truths.. :=/... btw, where's me star thingy??

Well said.

It's true enough alright, but for most of us it's just an accident of birth to be an American. Bragging about such a thing is never an endearing quality. This is something for historians to write about, not something to dwell on in the now. Besides, the real question is whether the country's greatness if mostly in the past or yet to come. Dwelling on the former does nothing to ensure the latter.

1) America is far too young a country to make this determination. It could be just another of those countries that "had a good run", as you say. We have led the world for less than a century.

2) The Enlightenment ideals this nation is founded upon are European in origin. We simply had a blank slate, so it was easier for us to implement them cleanly. Their adoption in Europe was well underway when the US came into existence.

3) Your rather arbitrary cut-off date conveniently dismisses the great classical civilizations that set the intellectual and cultural foundations we thrive on today. How can you have a discussion about great nations without referring to ancient Egypt, Greek, and Rome? The fact that they were perhaps organized a little differently than ours are today is a silly technicality. They were the highly organized political entities of their day.

4) To argue this philosophically, you would first have to define what "the good" is relative to nationhood, which you have failed to do here. Without an absolute good to reference, saying one thing is better than another is simply adolescent posturing. All you have really argued here is that America is the most American nation is history. That, at least, is true.

Dear Sir,
Quite obviously the greatest ever was the British Empire.
It would still be but for that unfortunate episode involving a Mr Washington.

The part about 200 good years followed by bankruptcy appears to pertain to the United States.

Some of the comments found here seem a bit illogical-

As a nation, we hardly seem to be suffering from an excessive sense of self-importance, in fact, quite the opposite seems to be true. It is difficult to believe that we could have reached our current state if, as a nation, we had possessed a strong sense of who we are...

With little awareness of how we arrived at this point, we woke to find that our country is in grave danger from the enemy within. While we were sleeping the miscreants of society have infected the very foundation of our country with the cancer of progressivism and political correctness - affecting negative change across the land. The disease has spread to our cities, our schools, our courts, our government and now the highest office in the land. The sheer amount of damage is staggering... and the very future of our republic is at stake.

Our nation's recovery is dependent on our ability to recall the faith and vision of our founders and to administer anti-venin in the form of robust patriotism, unwavering commitment and a rededication to our Constitution and first principles. Enter the tea party and providential candidates such as Marco Rubio and Allen West who are not afraid to speak about American exceptionalism for fear they may offend her detractors. God willing, and with their assistance we will be able to restore this great country to her original majesty.

Additionally, as Americans, it is our job to work together to eradicate this disease, diligently elect honorable representatives, teach our children our true history, and protect against future assaults on our liberty. * This will be the ultimate test of our exceptionalism, as history shows that no other society has ever reversed course in such a manner as we intend.

We WILL keep it... we just have this little problem with socialism and govt dependency to deal with.

Eventually, people will get sick and tired of being sick and tired, and hopefully realize that we need to return to our founding principles of independence and liberty, both personally and at the state/federal level and then act on those principles.

The very existence of the TEA party/movement shows me that the country has not been lost to socialism. Not by a long-shot...

I won't rehash the critiques set forth in other comments. However, I would suggest that some sort of objective criteria for evaluation must be established first, before conducting an evaluation.

Mr. Lowry, I'll acknowledge you're limited by the length of an average online article. Yet this cuts the other way, as well: why assume you can make such a case in so few words?

I'm on the fence, by the way, about so-called "American exceptionalism." I've read other, longer commentaries which are quite convincing in favor of the U.S. But then, like I said, it all comes down to what the grading standard is, and whether the standard applied is defensible.

Similarly, I'm on the fence about how much all of this matters. I guess it's meaningful in the sense of our moral authority in the world at present. (And surely, we should be proud enough not to "confess our sins" to China when we make illegal immigration slightly more difficult.) On the other hand, I'm sympathetic to the "Who cares?" side of the argument. Even if we did demonstrate some moral authority, wouldn't other nations be much more driven by realpolitik than an awe for our greatness? Just sayin'.