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| November | 23 |
| 2003 |
Would you believe it, eh? Not only can that Texan halfwit speak in proper sentences, he’s even capable of reading a good speech and – stone the crows! – not fluffing his lines. It only goes to show what you can do with a speechwriter and some coaching.
The response to President Bush’s speech on Wednesday has been almost universally (and oh so typically British) condescending. Few have criticised its content; since it ranks as one of the finest ever delivered by a visiting - or even home grown – leader, that would be a sneer too far. Instead, reaction has been surprise, either feigned or genuine, that a gun toting moron, incapable of stringing two sentences together, managed to speak for so long, so well.
Mary Dejevsky, writing in The Independent, was typical: “Whoever has been coaching George Bush in oratory deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom (and a congratulatory glass of champagne).”
Almost the entire British chattering class seems to be animated by the same deep-seated contempt for President Bush. Even when confronted by the evidence of their own eyes and ears, that he is a thoughtful, charming, convincing, eloquent, intelligent, forceful leader, they cannot bring themselves to believe that he is as he seems. And when they do witness such positive traits, they’re clearly being hoodwinked. As The Guardian began its leader on Thursday: “Conscious that he has a bit of catching up to do, George Bush turned on the charm yesterday”.
No, he didn’t. He simply spoke as he always does: with a clarity of moral and political purpose unmatched by any American politician since Ronald Reagan, and with a charm that all who have met him confirm is entirely natural. Wednesday’s speech should hardly have come as a surprise. He did, after all, speak just as eloquently when interviewed by Sir David Frost last Sunday. It’s simply that until now they have chosen neither to listen nor to see. Last week they had no alternative, and so they decided it had to be a one-off.
What such attitudes really reveal, however, is not how much they loathe President Bush but the reality of – I choose my words carefully – anti-Americanism in Britain.
It’s a phrase that has been bandied about far too loosely of late and is usually intended – and taken - to mean a loathing and hatred of all things, and people, American. But just as a true anti-semite can seem to rebut such an accusation by pointing out that ‘some of my best friends are Jews’, so a genuine anti-American can, apparently convincingly, point out that he holidays in Florida and adores Indiana Jones films.
Real anti-Americanism – the sort which lies behind so much of the hostility to President Bush – isn’t about hating burgers and Matt Monro. It’s far more subtle. The really damaging anti-Americanism – because it blinds its sufferers to reality - derives from that characteristically British sneering superiority which so permeates metropolitan and media types.
It’s the conviction that the arriviste who has moved in next door with his flashy car and his gauche ex-model wife may have more money, own the business, and be getting more sex, but he lacks what really matters: class. That Bush fellow is just so typically American: crude and unsophisticated.
The Sunday after the World Trade Centre was destroyed, John Humphrys paraded the full scorn of the superior Brit, attacking the likes of George Bush who “damn those who did it as evil, as though there is nothing more to say, as though we still believe in a devil with a forked tail…Perhaps President Bush truly does - his Christianity is of a pretty fundamental variety.”
It’s not just President Bush. His predecessor, Bill Clinton, was equally American; just as fundamentally uncouth and unable to resist his gross appetites. But we humoured him, since he spoke our sort of language. What really offends about George Bush is that what you see is what you get, and what you see is a genuine American who makes no effort to be anything else.
We can put up with Americans who seem somehow ashamed to be American. Woe betide them, however, if they’re proud of it. They’ll have to put up with our weapon of choice: the condescending sneer.
UPDATE: Oops. My mother has pointed out to me that Matt Monro was English, and a former bus conductor. I suppose I can now look forward to a host of emails from outraged Sunday Telegraph readers...
MessageSpace
What troubles me is the 20%+ of Americans who have the same kind of anti-Americanism.
They went to the best universities,they got firsts in Autoproctology,they eat in the best restaurants,they have important jobs in the media,they just cannot believe it isn't them!
Yes, it's been interesting to see the responses to the fact that the President can talk without the aid of an autocue. Leaves a warm glow in my stomach! :)
It's also not that surprising that a % of Americans are 'anti-American', as being American is an idea not a place - see the latest den Beste piece related to an 'American' who was born in Spain for more details (it's a short piece this time!).
I feel the same way a lot of the time (increased dramatically after 9/11).
Yes, the idea of being an American born in the wrong place has been something of a comfort to me in the past year ( and I'm British).
You'll hear a lot of people saying in your company that they aren't anti-American, just anti-Bush. A little experiment for you: pretend to be anti-American yourself, and see how long they maintain the distinction of merely hating GWB. (The same game can be played with blog comments - see how differently the same commentators describe themselves on pro-US and anti-US sites)
What troubles me: the atavistic Confederates-cum-Republicans passing themselves off as real Americans. Better that the nation had split in 1861, leaving the then-Neanderthal Rebs (proto-Neocons) with their own poverty-stricken land. We, i.e., the civilized part of the US, the North, would offer sanctuary to escaped slaves, as Canada had with the Underground Railroad after the Dred Scott decision.
The good news: with the GOP ascendancy in the South, they are establishing their own de facto Confederacy. High time we secured it de jure as well.
"We, i.e., the civilized part of the U.S.,the North.....".That has got to be one of the most arrogant statements I've ever seen posted by a yankee twit Mr. Muse. We southerners have a long memory and have not forgotten the "civilized' conduct of the Union soldiers as they raped and burned their way across the south after the tide of war changed. If the south is so uncivilized then why do so damn many of you northerners vacation or retire there? Sorry about being off topic Mr. Pollard, I will not let idiotic statements such as that spewed by the green guy pass. Anyone who contends that a split between the states would have been a good thing is an absolute moron. I'm not proud of the south's history of slavery but there were a lot more issues involved in the Civil War than just that.The arrogance of the yank just dripped off of every sentence and it pissed me off.
Sorry to push on the off topics side, but I'm genuinely curious here: is it really an issue of North vs. South or is it possible that, more broadly, the green muse and his/her/its aversion for proto/neocon/reps could be one among the 20% the Commissar mentioned at the opening of this thread?
You hit it right on the nail Mr Frogman. I imagine the green one is of the " it's all our fault" crowd who would like nothing better than to see the U.S. become yet another failed socialist state.The North versus South antipathy still exists in a limited way as you can see but in the end we are all Americans.This view is shared by the great majority of the country except for a tiny minority of elitist Northern Democrats.
RH - Agreed. However, I think that rather than North/South rivalry, the sneering condescension expressed by the "Muse" is rather the result of a casually and easily adopted self-righteous moral stance. It is very flattering for the Muse to think that well "I" am against slavery, but those dipsh*t rednecks from the South are still all for it, hooray for me! But wait, there's more! Not only is it flattering, but it's SO easy! The Muse doesn't have to do anything except adopt a nearly universally held belief, ascribe the anti to those he dislikes and then look down his nose and sneer at them. How's that for deep thought?!
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The North was plenty racist then and would have enjoyed the fact that a split would have left all the blacks in a different country.
People are exponentially funnier when they're in rant mode.
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