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Many people disdain the United States for all sorts of reasons. Totally legitimate, correct ones too. So many people, foreign and domestic, have suffered at its hands; so so many things are completely wrong with the US, as this election is exposing as maybe never before.
But me? Despite everything - despite my absolute awareness of its history of brutishness, racism, even genocide - I do love the US, deeply. I always have.
On my Master's course at LSE (on which over 80% of students were North American), I met the best people I've ever met.
On my Master's course at LSE (on which over 80% of students were North American), I met the best people I've ever met.
They were warm, open, informed, welcoming - and just as aware as any of my followers of the very many skeletons in their country's closet.
I learned so much about the US from them. Then, in 2002, when I visited them, I learned much more.
I learned so much about the US from them. Then, in 2002, when I visited them, I learned much more.
Starting in San Francisco, then on to Syracuse, upper New York state; Burlington, Vermont; Portland, Maine; Boston, and finally down to New York itself, I saw parts of the US many tourists never see.
Syracuse practically had a curfew at night, the place was so sketchy. My friend greeted me by calmly informing me that his Polish neighbour had been murdered days earlier!
Yet despite so many of its neighbourhoods being poor, it was full of US flags and Republican banners.
Yet despite so many of its neighbourhoods being poor, it was full of US flags and Republican banners.
That was my introduction to the culture wars now sweeping the West - particularly the English-speaking world. Poor white voters voting and loudly supporting the GOP; much wealthier middle class voters in Burlington, VT proudly calling their city the most socialist in the US.
This was 18 years ago now. I found it nuts - but what I also found was that in the US, politics matters. REALLY MATTERS.
Yes, I know its election turnouts have, historically, been awful until this year. I know how much voter suppression there is too.
Yes, I know its election turnouts have, historically, been awful until this year. I know how much voter suppression there is too.
But there's this almost indescribable energy you feel in America. So much vibrancy, so much life, and truly amazing people everywhere... who are MUCH MUCH kinder than they're ever given credit for by others who've never been to the place.
I visited Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley while I was there. I've researched at Columbia and the University of Michigan too. UMich and Berkeley are PUBLIC universities; Harvard is like nothing else on Earth, and makes Cambridge look a joke by comparison.
(And yes, I know how privileged that makes me sound. Academically, I am privileged. That's my lived reality).
My point being, though, that very many things in the US *are* better than most other places. It's just... not the most important things.
My point being, though, that very many things in the US *are* better than most other places. It's just... not the most important things.
Looking back, I guess I could see the roots of where we are now. Of nitwit radio and FOX News dividing the country; of people I spoke to thinking the US was the only place in the world with 'freedom' (!); of Democrats sleepwalking into the Iraq war and scared to challenge it.
And, after John Kerry lost in 2004, of learning through Thomas Frank's brilliant 'What's The Matter With America?' of just how cynical the Republicans' courting of working class voters had become. Always blaming 'the liberal Washington elite'; then stabbing them in the back.
What's happening in the United States right now isn't an accident exactly. It's a product of a political and economic system which is bankrupt and has failed its people totally. Trump simply exploits it for his own ends.
For it to survive, it needs radical, systemic change. Just as capitalism does. It needs a Constitution fit for 2020, not 1789; it needs universal healthcare; it needs a system in which everyone (most of all, global corporations) pay their fair share.
It also needs to scrap the Electoral College: which is literally breaking the country apart, just as First Past The Post does for mostly the same reasons. It needs to stop gerrymandering and, if necessary, add 2 Senators to represent DC (and make Puerto Rico a state?)
It needs a massive education system about fake news and how to spot it. And it needs its people to observe what the Republican Party is doing right now and finally, once and for all, reject it.
But the people? The American people? My heart goes out to them.
But the people? The American people? My heart goes out to them.
They've suffered so much already under this monster. Now, they face a hellish two-and-a-half months the like of which the world has rarely ever known - in which one man tries to mount a coup against their whole country.
Two things to wrap this thread up.
Two things to wrap this thread up.
First, just as we would never expect people in, say, rural Russia and metropolitan Madrid to have the same attitudes, we forget that the US is so big, it's almost an entire continent. Of course you'll get difference; lots and lots of it.
But second: well-educated Americans, the likes of whom I met on my Master's and engage with on here all the time, are truly just like you or me. The huge problems in their country terrify and exhaust them; they have European attitudes on almost everything.
What's happened to their country could happen - and is happening - to other countries. It's not their fault; and there are even legitimate reasons to at least understand why some continue to vote Trump.
The problem is the system, and the way people of pure evil exploit it.
The problem is the system, and the way people of pure evil exploit it.
There's no winners among the American public. Everyone loses. And they don't deserve that - just as no-one else does.
God Bless America. May you get through this; and may this never be allowed to happen again.
God Bless America. May you get through this; and may this never be allowed to happen again.
