Sure.
But the comparison with other countries to try to find who is greatest is obnoxious in the first place. Not saying you are. I'm just surprised it is a question they'd present to undergraduates. It's just as self-centred as the proclamation that the US is the greatest country on earth. Really, it's not a constructive thing to think about yourself all the time. The thing is to consider context. What is the US wanting to be? What are other countries trying to be?
America is a country which makes choices and these have consequences which make the country what it is. Other countries are doing the same thing. They become different from one another partly as a result of these choices and also partly as a result of their circumstances.
The output is difference, not comparative greatness.
In his shoes, I'd wonder how "greatness" is measured. How do you compare countries in sum in a way that is useful? Again, when folks talk about exceptionalism, what does it mean that is worth thinking about?
It's a pointless exercise. Hence I make jokes like - the US is exceptional because of its extraordinary incarceration rate. The purpose of this is not to say the US is a bad place. It isn't. Just that these kinds of comparisons and the demand to be set above others are a bit silly.
The US certainly remains unique, as other countries are also. But it isn't as if being the greatest is something that America was, is or will be. It will just be itself. Better at some things, worse at others. Ploughing its own furrow. Hopefully not visiting harm on others.
One thing I like about the US is its sense that it can do things and take on challenges which seem insurmountable. That is a really worthwhile thing. And to me it is a thing I strongly associate with the US. Rather than depending on a sense of illusory greatness, I would suggest folks bind themselves to this quality. The confident sense that the US can do it. Really, it usually can.
The question is, do folks still believe it, because they should. It is part of who Americans are. You can be true to yourself and thereby fulfill your own destiny. Then, when you look in the mirror, you see what you wish to see.
And that is enough.
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