Four incorrect assertions:

1.  Lenin did not appreciate globalization prior to writing Imperialism.

2.  Trotsky did not see the party as the object acted upon by social processes, seeing it only subjectively as a force of revolutionary will.

3.  Plekhanov preferred a bourgeois liberal government to a socialist government in Russia.

4.  Plekhanov did not see the revolution outside of the national framework.

All these points simplify callously the positions of these great leaders.  Taken together, these attempts to summarize their differences should acquire the label of Trotskyist Exceptionalism.  In the struggle against fascism and capitalist “democracy”, American Exceptionalism along with Pragmatism form the most powerful theories of the liberal bourgeoisie.  Socialists cannot adapt to these positions, arguing Trotskyist Exceptionalism over American Exceptionalism.  Socialists must respond to the flawed theory at its root- that neither nations nor individuals follow any set social or natural laws, instead deciding their fate with absolute freedom.

Socialists as well do not have absolute freedom, and Trotsky’s writing emerged as a part of a general awakening to Marxist theory and scientific thinking in general.  His analysis formed a part of a chain or an intellectual trend.  We study his writing not for its Exceptionalism as compared to his contemporaries but his ability to contain within his work the fundamentals of Marxism and the specificity of statistics, research, and experience as an advocate for revolution.

[Various quotes should be found to prove the contrary for each of the four points above.]