Other countries are founded on blood and soil. The USA is founded on an Idea.

A commenter to a blog at Ammoland here has one of the best explanations of the difference between the United States and every other country on the face of the earth, and thus explains the fact of American Exceptionalism.I have tried to explain this in the past, only to have my explanations fall on deaf ears.  Perhaps the commenter can reach those I could not, since he writes much more elegantly than I do.

The commenter, one oldshooter says the following:

The idea that the 2nd Amendment only covers militia service and purposes is incorrect from a grammatical standpoint, and there is no reason to think the drafters were poor grammarians-quite the opposite, in fact. Because of the way the explanatory “militia clause” is used in the amendment, it is not, grammatically speaking, a limitation on the imperative, “shall not be infringed” clause. However, there is a much more far reaching principle involved. If you consider their writings at the time, and the principles the Founding Fathers were basing our country and government on, you will see that the most fundamental principle underlying all others was the idea that the government was instituted by the people, for the purpose of safeguarding the personal liberty of each individual citizen. The basic idea is that your liberty to rant, rave, and swing your fist should be unlimited-until your fist reaches the end of my nose. Or to use Jefferson’s words, your freedom should be unimpaired, “so long as it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” This in fact, is the idea that makes America “exceptional,” as no other country on Earth has EVER been founded on such a radical principle. It is far more common for nations to ascribe to either the monarchical principal that the people (the “Subjects”) live to serve the sovereign/monarch, or a socialistic one (a la the NAZIs) that the individual citizen lives to serve the state, and the benefit of the state supersedes the benefit of any individual citizen. That idea is based on the Utilitarian Philosophical principal that “the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.” Americans believe the exact opposite, that the liberty of the individual outweighs (and should underlie) the behavior of the government. The Founders weren’t “wimps,” and didn’t see the government’s job as protecting the people, but rather as safeguarding the people’s inherent right, and ability, to protect themselves. THAT guiding principle is ultimately the explanation for why the 2nd Amendment protects everyone’s right to keep and bear (ie, to own and carry) “arms” (ie, weapons, including the most effective weapons today-guns), for whatever use they please, so long as they do not hurt innocent others. It is a direct outgrowth of our exceptionalism-the protection of the individual’s inherent right to arms is, in fact, simply another good example of American exceptionalism. That also explains why anti-Americans like Obama, Hillary, and Socialists in general, neither think America is exceptional, nor see anything wrong with infringing the citizen’s inherent rights to self-defense-they just don’t believe in “Americanism,” that is, in the basic founding politico-philosophical principles on which our country is founded.

The United States is not like a nation such as England, or Germany, Japan, or China, or any of the nations that make up the continent of Africa. Those countries are based on ethnic majorities and and regional and historical areas: blood and soil. The United States is an idea, and if you take away its founding idea, you take away the United States. What you have left is the Former States of America.  Indeed, it is why I no longer fly a United States flag at my house.  We are no longer living in the United States.  Instead, for a number of years we have been living in the FSA.

Finally, a hat tip to David Codrea at the War on Guns for pointing me to this post.  Thanks.