Obama hopes to reframe the election for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. Voters are demanding radical change, but the former secretary of state is the emblem of status quo and Trump is living disruption. She represents a political system that most Americans don’t trust; that failed to protect their livelihoods in the shift from industrialism to globalism; that made promises it didn’t keep; that puts more value in the results of the next election than the needs of the next generation. She could lose that fight.

But if the election becomes a battle over whose vision best represents true American greatness, Trump might not look so good.

American exceptionalism is a recurring character in the nation's narrative. We, the people. Manifest Destiny. Conceived in liberty. Fear itself. Ask not. Morning in America. United we stand. Yes, we can. In times of great change and tumult, presidents seek to inspire beleaguered Americans by reminding them of their national identity.

For a generation of Republicans raised in the Reagan era, American exceptionalism has become a false perfection—overly polished and star-spangled jingoism. It became a cudgel to question the patriotism of Democrats, and it spoke to America's standing abroad rather than the aspirations of its people at home.

Obama didn’t buy into that Republican definition—for instance, he famously refused to wear a lapel flag pin—and instead, sought to redefine it into something honest, tangible, and uniquely aspirational. “Obama’s conception is more inwardly focused,” wrote Greg Jaffe wrote a year ago for The Washington Post. “It’s a patriotism that embraces the darker moments in American history and celebrates the ability of the unsung and the outsiders to challenge the country’s elite.”

A year ago, Obama stood at the base of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and used the civil-rights movement to speak of a nation with blemishes and grit that learns from its mistakes and gets better. Greater.

"What could be more American than what happened in this place?" Obama asked. "What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people—the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many, coming together to shape their country's course?"

As I wrote last June, Obama's concept of American exceptionalism is not, as critics say, something smaller. It's Reagan-plus: a striving city under constant construction.

Obama’s new American exceptionalism provided the intellectual and moral spine of his address Wednesday night.

I’m here to tell you that yes, we still have more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who hasn’t yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years. We need to keep making our streets safer and our criminal justice system fairer; our homeland more secure, and our world more peaceful and sustainable for the next generation. We’re not done perfecting our union, or living up to our founding creed – that all of us are created equal and free in the eyes of God.

Some conservatives hear those lines and believe—or pretend to believe—that Obama doesn’t love his country. They miss something truly exceptional about America: The framers encouraged dissent because it forces positive change. Criticism of country doesn’t make you a disloyal American; it makes you a patriot.