Most American citizens are folks you would like. Most American citizens welcome individuals who want to come to America legally, and who want to become Americans. We would like to have more who are interested in becoming Americans, in pursuing the American dream.
This is my correspondent Jack, writing to me at the end of a week which has tested our patience with a certain strand of American behaviour demonstrated by America’s president and his entourage. I have spent a lot of my “holiday time!” in America and some work time, which seemed like a holiday (New Orleans and Boston). I have friends in California and New York, I listen to Dylan and Springsteen a lot, I admire America but I won’t go there today. I think Jack picked this up, read what he says.
We are not so hot on people who come here but who do not want to become Americans, who don’t invest here but remit as much as possible back to their country of origin.
If you look, over the past 80+ years, you will see Americans at work in other countries trying to help – directly, hands on as well as indirectly, via foreign aid, aid after a catastrophe, etc. Americans are very generous.
Easy example is not President Obama, who failed when it came to the middle East, and north Africa, and in various other international relationships and endeavors.
It was President Obama who pulled up the ladder to curtail refugees from Cuba (one foot dry).
It was President Obama who curtailed refugees from Iraq.
It was President Carter who curtailed refugees from Haiti and Cuba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Mariel_boatlift https://www.migrationpolicy.
org/news/carter-immigration- legacy It was Democrats, specifically Jerry Brown, who resisted refugees from South Vietnam:
https://www.spokesman.com/
stories/2025/apr/27/as-south- vietnam-fell-a-democratic- governor-turned/ It was FDR who refused entry of Jewish refugees on the St. Louis – many who later died in the Holocaust.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
MS_St._Louis It was only the idiot President Biden who opened the gates and let in anyone who could manage to get here, including hundreds of thousands of gotaways (folks who would have been returned immediately had they been caught or encountered CBP). Over 400 people came to America who were admitted even though they were on America’s terror watch list!
The easy examples in recent memory would be George H. W. Bush, when the wall came down (and his support for Lech Walesa/Pope John Paul II, not only when it came to German reunification, but his reticence and decision not to take advantage of the decline in the Eastern bloc); and his son, George W. Bush, in his efforts to rid Africa of the scourge of AIDS and other diseases.
For comparison, seldom would you see folks from other countries come to America to help out when we have a disaster, a hurricane, a California fire, a tornado in the midwest, etc. So, most folks don’t encounter Americans in their everyday lives or at the worst time of their lives.
Did you know that, of all the people who are citizens or lawfully present in America, that the percentage who are foreign born has again reached an all time high of nearly 15%, 1 in 7 people walking our streets (highest to include our first census in 1790)? https://www.
migrationpolicy.org/programs/ data-hub/charts/immigrant- population-over-time Add in the folks who are not lawfully present, and that number changes to almost 20%, almost 1 in 5. Unfortunately, the percentage of Americans who you (or anyone) would like declines precipitously when it comes to folks we elect to office – both our federal government and our state governments.
There are exceptions of course, some exceptional people make their way into government office. Most important, when it comes to American politicians, try to ignore what they say, watch what they do.
This is a post to me of a republican who would like me to like him and republicans and that is something that I have never thought of doing. I have never thought of there being a sour side of Obama , Jerry Brown and FDR, I have never thought much about Biden being an idiot.
What I think about is Gaza and Iraq and Indonesia and large parts of Africa when i think of misrule and ill-applied violence. I think too of ICE. In short I think of war-making by the American Government today and I hate to think of my friends who are living in a country they must be hating. I suspect Jack is hating his Government even though it acts in the name of republicans.
I wish Jack well, I wish my American friends well and I wish my British friends who have emigrated to America well too. Nothing is sorted by being a republican or a democrat, what is needed is a love of people, the kind of love I hear from Springsteen and Dylan and I remind myself of, when I think back to my holidays. I hope that I will have holidays in America again.
I think of Johnny Cash and all who came before him, of the South, of blues , of bluegrass and of country music and I know that America is intrinsically good.
Jack would not be a welcome dinner party guest with those views. Nor would I ever want to end up at a dinner party hosted by someone with such views. He is entitled to have these views, he is entitled to his freedom of expression. But it is just those views that explain how Trump came to be the President of the US of A. And such views sadly are becoming ever more prevalent in Britain. It is frankly terrifying that ignorant thugs like Farage Tice and now Jenrick are seen as viable alternatives to the admittedly inadequate mainstream parties. They are indeed alternatives. Thugs. It is regrettable that Labour spent 14 years working out how to get elected but sadly and obviously far too little efforts were made on what to do once they got there.
The politicians you name are surely “rowdies”, not “thugs”?
As for dinner parties, only having people we agree with suggests confirmation bias, a cogntive bias when we really need to embrace cognitive diversity.
“A great dinner party isn’t about the size of your home or even the food. A perfectly prepared dish of duck confit doesn’t make for a great dinner party if the company is as bland as a rice cake. The most important ingredient is the energy around the table.”
schoolofselfimage.com/lost-art-of-dinner-parties/
No, thugs. Using blunt racist discriminatory policy instruments to encourage one section of society to blame another. And dinner parties are to enjoy, and yes disagreement and discourse are intrinsic elements. But listening to racist contrary opinions is for neutral territory such as the pub or a hustings. I would not wish to subject my guests to someone with views rooted in (possibly unconscious) racism. Nor would I wish to go round their house for a social occasion, delighted though I would be to accept an invitation to disagree with them in less social surroundings.
I understand your thinking – but I’m not sure I agree with you!
“… The desert’s quiet, Cleveland’s cold
And so the story ends we’re told …”
But for the avoidance of doubt, Jack Towarnicky (who maybe lives in Powell OH rather than in Cleveland) would be welcome to dinner here in St Andrews, where nearly 40% of our students and academics are American.
British media coverage of US politics does not uniformly favour one party, but generally a large portion of the British press portrays the Republican party—particularly under presidents like Donald Trump—less favourably than the Democratic party.
More evidence of cognitive (“cold”) bias?
Sorry if my comments in a personal email to Henry offended anyone.
When I want to post something, you will find it here.
And, in the future, I will stick to my attempts to explain/contrast American benefits and retirement.
None of you should have to hear comments about politics from one more American idiot.
As sometimes misattributed to Lincoln: “Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt.”
Background
I was responding to Mr. Tapper’s concerns about America and Americans.
As the son of an immigrant, I was attempting to explain how many Americans feel about many recent politicians. Did you know that Americans are so frustrated that a larger percentage have rejected affiliating with one of the major parties?
https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx
I was confirming all recent politicians have issues. And, I was confirming America’s past, just how inconsistent our treatment has been of refugees and immigrants, yet, just how much of an immigrant nation we really are. I could have gone much further back in our history to share other errors and mistakes.
For example, America finds itself in a bind because, since President George W. Bush took office, just 25 years ago, we have added $34 Trillion US to what was $4 Trillion US. Since President Obama signed Health Reform into law on 3/23/2010, we have added $28 Trillion US – more than $1.5 Trillion a year during the Obama, Trump 1, Biden and Trump 2 administrations.
However, Mr. Gannon hit the nail on the head when he said he wouldn’t want me at a party to discuss politics (or maybe other topics too!)
When I quote facts (often with links, as above, to confirm these are not my own thoughts, but other parts of my American experience), I often have that effect on others, including other Americans
… especially, most Republicans and Democrats.
Again, my apologies.
Oops, the spending numbers shown are net debt we have incurred (how much spending has exceeded revenues). If we keep it up, we will earn a reputation as a “spendthrift”.
I was in New Orleans earlier this week the food was delightful, the music festival most enjoyable and I was the only Brit in the group.
When loud mouthed ignorant UK politicians succeeded in devastating the British economy with Brexit my only response available was to leave the UK. Democracy in action.
Ten years on I made the right choice.
I wish America well and leave it to the Mid Term elections to reward those who aspire to lead the country forward for all its citizens. In the U.K. some politicians have learned to engage brain before mouth others persist with poisonous rhetoric.