Our Exceptional Nation of Immigrants?

“Exceptional” is one of political conservatives’ favorite adjectives to describe our country. Taken for what the word itself means, to call the United States “exceptional” is to assert that it lies somewhere outside the norms of nations. There’s no moral, ethical, or legal value to a nation simply being exceptional. In its adverbial form, the word can mean exceptionally good, or exceptionally bad, or exceptionally mediocre.

“Exceptionalism” is a lens through which conservatives often view the United States. By assuming that “exceptional” can only be followed by the likes of “good,” when exceptionalism considers the state of our union, it sees good everywhere and all the time. American exceptionalism filters out anything that might be bad or negative—such as slavery—so as to keep the lens focused on our claimed exceptional good.

With the above in mind, I call your attention to the opening lines in Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American blog for January 31, 2026:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media this morning:

“Plenty of countries in history have experimented with importing a foreign labor class. The West is the first and only civilization to import a foreign labor class that is granted full political rights, including welfare & the right to vote. All visas are a bridge to citizenship. In America, for generations now, the policy has been that anyone who would economically benefit from moving to the US can do so, exercise the franchise in the US and their children, the moment they are born, will be full American citizens with all the rights and benefits therein.”

After his call for a “labor class” excluded from citizenship and a voice in government, Miller went on to reject the idea that Haitians living and working legally in Ohio should be described as part of Ohio communities. Calling out Democratic former senator Sherrod Brown, who is running for the Senate again this year, for including them, Miller posted: “Democrats just flatly reject any concept of nationhood that has ever existed in human history.”

One legitimate reason to call the U.S. “exceptional” is that U.S. citizenship is not based on blood alone, but also, for those not born here, on their freely given pledge to “support and defend (our) Constitution and laws.” We are exceptional because we are “a nation of immigrants,” and that is good, and we are proud of it.

Apparently Mr. Miller does not like that aspect of our being exceptional. He does not think being “a nation of immigrants” is a good exception to the norm of nations. He breaks ranks with those who gaze at us through “exceptionality’s” eyes. When it comes to immigration, he wants us to stop being the exception.

It is not hard to believe that to Mr. Miller, the only good immigrant might be one whose skin is white, as with the white people from South Africa this administration eagerly welcomes. He has said as much in the past. His imported immigrant “labor class,” never to become one of us, would no doubt be dark-skinned and forever poor. Such a commodity (after all, it is imported) would be slavery dressed in new clothing. Mr. Miller does not accept the ideal of the United States welcoming peoples of all races and nations into a truly exceptional national community.

His post is full of holes, but his rejection of our “nation of immigrants” exceptionalism strikes me as deepest of them all.