Until recently most of the world yearned for the US to become a more normal country. It had seen enough of George W Bush’s freedom agenda to put it off American exceptionalism for good. People should be careful what they wish for. Donald Trump may be the most gaffe-prone — and offensive — US presidential nominee in history. But he is also the first to scorn the belief that America’s mission should be to uphold universal values. It is not clear he even thinks such values exist. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is their unabashed cheerleader. “I believe with all my heart that America is an exceptional country,” she said in June. “We are still, in Lincoln’s words, the last best hope of earth.”
直到最近，世界大部分地區都渴望美國變成一個更平常的國家。他們受夠了喬治•W•布希(George W Bush)在全球推動自由的議程，以至對美國例外論心生反感。人們應該小心自己的期盼。唐納•川普(Donald Trump)可能是美國歷史上最出言不遜——以及最具攻擊性——的總統候選人。但他也是第一個對以下信念——美國的使命應是維護普世價值觀——表現出不屑的總統候選人。我們甚至不清楚他是否認爲存在這些價值觀。另一方面，希拉蕊•柯林頓(Hillary Clinton)則是這些價值觀的堅定擁護者。「我由衷地相信美國是一個例外的國家，」她6月時表示，「我們仍是——用亞伯拉罕•林肯(Abraham Lincoln)的話說——地球上最後、最好的希望。」