Pollsters and political analysts have tried for years to find a clean-cut way of grouping the modern U.S. electorate into contending sides on the basis of personal characteristics, lifestyle, or ideology. There are a number of interesting versions of this ? the ?marriage gap,? for one, and the persistent importance of race and religion ? but another is the concept that has been called ?American Exceptionalism.?

Sociologists and political scientists have studied this phenomenon for years. Americans have long held a view about their country that is nearly unique in the world: the notion that it is defined by its principles, not by ethnicity or shared history, and that these principles are simultaneously exceptional (in the sense of arising to significant application only the U.S.) and universal (in the sense that these principles can and should be applied to everyone in the world, regardless of race or culture).

A recent poll showed a way to apply American Exceptionalism to the current political divide: asked if the world would be a better place if other countries became more like the U.S., about 62 percent of American voters said yes. But there?s a partisan split: 81 percent of Bush supporters said yes, vs. 48 percent of Kerry voters.