I heard a friend of mine try to explain the “American way” to a group of people the other night. He said he believed it was a “state of mind” yet provided little else to contribute to that definition. I have to say I wept a little bit inside when I heard this explanation, since so many in our country fall under this category of not being able to define what makes America unique when compared with the rest of the world. I have to thank the great Rush Limbaugh for finally giving me a resonating answer that I can give my friends who don’t understand why America is exceptional.

The rule of the world has historically been one of tyranny, poverty, despotism, and misery. Great empires have risen and fallen, bloody wars have been fought—yet still when the dust settled the rule has always been poverty and tyrannical rulers, death and taxes. This was the rule, until the United States came into being as the first country to be founded on the idea of freedom. Freedom to worship, freedom to speak, freedom to build, freedom to learn, freedom to improve your own life—all without the interference of government or controlling leaders. No other nation recognizes these rights like America has! As a nation founded on these ideas of freedom, the United States has been the only one to break free of the rule of poverty, tyranny, and misery while still recognizing the inherent human rights of its citizens. America is not exceptional because its people are somehow biologically superior or because we have some self-inflated ego about ourselves. America is exceptional because its way of life is the sole exception to the rule of tyranny.