What Trump and His Acolytes Get Wrong about American Exceptionalism

Conor P. Williams wrote for the New York Daily News about President Trump's perception of American exceptionalism:

It's an uncertain time to be an American right now. If the multitudes in U.S. streets and airports are any indication, the divide between the country's governing leaders and we, the governed, has gotten especially stark. President Trump's executive order altering the United States' longstanding treatment of immigrants and refugees struck a nerve. Across the country, protesters came together to question what the order says about who we are as a country. "Make America America Again," one demonstrator's sign read.

What defines our shared community? These aren't new questions - Americans have long obsessed over our national identity. We often talk about it in terms of American exceptionalism, those key things that set us apart from the rest of the world.