My experience tells me that many who are the most vocal about America being exceptional have never lived anywhere else.
American Exceptionalism.....
Let's agree upon what it means first....
Are we better than anyone else genetically? Nope.
Are we smarter than anyone just because we're American? Nope.
Are we braver than anyone else? Nope.
So what's exceptional?
What is exceptional is our founding.
We were born with the idea that the government was subservient to the people, not the other way around.
We were born with the concept that people have rights that cannot be trodden upon by anyone, rather than privileges given to us by our leaders.
We were founded with the idea that one's work is one' sown, and done for their own benefit, not that of someone else.
THAT is what makes us exceptional: that our founding was based upon principles that had never been used to found a nation before.
Now, was it perfect? Hell no. We fought a war amongst ourselves and have climbed a long way toward the order we were founded for, but the goal was unique.
Nowadays, of course, all of your work has been spent by a bunch of elites who will never be held accountable. You can do whatever you want with your property, so long as government let's you keep it and agrees with it's use. You can earn as much money as you like, so long as you turn over to the powerful the fruits of your labor under the guise of "economic justice". You can have whatever opinions you like, so long as they are politically correct.
And before anyone gives me any bull**** about not appreciating immigration, my parents were LEGAL immigrants. They came here LEGALLY and did something that seems to be out of vogue these days: the WORKED THEIR ASSES OFF and LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH. They took not one dime of welfare or government assistance. They didn't whine about discrimination. They provided for themselves, retained their cultural identity while assimilating to the American culture, and gave back much more than they got. Therefore, I know more about immigration than any of the ****** talking heads you see on TV...
As for seeing other countries, I've travelled and worked in a great deal on countries. There's a reason people die to try and get here as opposed to, say, France...
I'm going to stop now, before I really tell you what I think. Let me put it this way: I'm not so sure going to USxA is worth it anymore, since the USA seems hell-bent on destroying itself in the name of political correctness and "fairness".
Let humanity fall into 1,000 years of darkness and see how much they like it better than they did under the dreaded "Pax Americana"...