If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes From Trump's America

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It is all somewhat incomprehensible to Europeans but who are they to cast stones? It is, after all, apparently the way Americans like it. Or do they? Sopel suggests that the deeply entrenched racism is a problem, as is a violent police force in a fairly violent country that has more than one gun per inhabitant. The massive amounts of self-medication also hint at a populace that is less than happy. They only lean towards the left-wing causes, which don't adversely affect the corporations e.g. LGBT, Racism, Feminism. Forget about left-wing causes which aren't profitable, like workers rights, healthcare for the poor & anti-war movements. But the prized swag is the little boxes of M&Ms exclusive to Air Force One, replete with presidential seal and the president’s signature. There used to be Air Force One playing cards and even cigarettes” To talk about a wish for the future or to show a contrast between how things are and how we would like them to be, we use if only + would + infinitive without to:

The definitive book on the making of Trump's America from the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel. Now updated with an exclusive new chapter. A dangerous chapter to comment on, but it amuses me that he doesn't understand the term person of colour. Here's a clue Jon, it includes people from Mexico e.g. the Oscar winner for Best Director, 2015. We want you to come on the air in the next hour to talk about Donald Trump and his golden showers.’

Summary

Of course, as Sopel highlights, the fundamental difference between European and American thinking is this individualistic sense of opportunity in the States, which has caused a stark divide up to this century. I personally think the US is a fantastic country, and still do, but this book made me realise that we here in the UK have much more in our common with our cousins on the continent, than we do with our cousins on the other side of the pond. This book was educational, I think I understand the TV news networks a bit better. They are obviously pro-Democrat (except Fox), but the corporate donors are running the show. Note: Being on the FBI list is not in itself sufficient grounds for being banned from buying a rifle! Through music, film, literature, TV and even through the food we eat and the clothes that we wear we all have a highly developed sense of what America is and through our shared, tangled history we claim a special relationship. But America today feels about as alien a country as you could imagine. It is fearful, angry and impatient for change.

Note: segregation in public came to an end only in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed by Lyndon B. Johnson. (in this regard probably we should redefine the presumed causes JFK assassination?) Less government in the USA but better social responsibility. The road and transport infrastructure is awful- John Kerry, visiting Haiti remarked that the state of the roads was better than in Washington! In If Only They Didn’t Speak English Sopel examines the current state of the US and the way Americans see the world. It makes fascinating and enjoyable reading, even if the book doesn’t contain too much that I didn’t either know or strongly suspect. Nonetheless, it is nice to have your impressions confirmed by someone who actually knows what he is talking about. The book is divided up into chapters that discuss the most important themes that define contemporary American culture, such as race relations, gun ownership, patriotism and attitudes to government. Sopel also highlights the mixture of anger and anxiety that suffuses the 21st century American psyche and includes a chapter on the post-truth world where the electorate prefers to be “informed” by fake news on Facebook rather than listen to educated and reasonably impartial press professionals such as Sopel. As with any nation, you can’t tar all the inhabitants with the same brush, but reading Sopel’s book does paint a picture of the average citizen which is at best somewhat incomprehensible to a European, at worst not very flattering. Americans are angry with their political class and deeply distrustful of it. This is one of the reasons why they own so many guns; they like to think that when the chips are down, no government agencies are going to mess with them when they are armed to the teeth. Paranoid? We might think so.There are reflections on guns – the fact that America have lots of them and the U.K. very few – though there's little new insight here. Aside, that is, from some of the statistics used, which are truly scary! Then there’s the so called special relationship between America and the U.K., which he largely dismisses as diplomatic claptrap. But one of the most interesting sections is on religion. The author goes to some lengths to demonstrate how much more religious Americans are than any other Western country. It seems that more than half the population consider themselves ‘seriously religious’ and it’s virtually inconceivable that an atheist candidate could – at this time, at least – find his or her way to the White House. I might have expected a more nuanced view of faith & religiosity in US. I understood US to be deist in outlook rather than theist, just about disdainfully tolerating Jews and Catholics, and as for Muslims.... He quotes a Bernie fan, saying "She’s a war-hawk, a liar and a bad person". Any reason why they would think that Jon? Many of us heard such saying as: “God created men. Colt made them equal,” Decades passed already since the day the slogan came into the humanity’s life, imposing divisive appeal to each segment of society. Though it is quite valid still, we could paraphrase the famous quotation easily. Suffice to swap the word “Colt” with “BBC”. The modern sophists could baldly go even further in assuming that there is no god but God and the BBC is the only righteous messenger of God. Hence, a BBC correspondent may be considered at least as a middle-ranking prophet (reaping certain profit). Jon Sopel is not just a BBC correspondent. He is flesh and blood of the upper crust of political society. Thomas Henry Huxley compared our world to a chess-board. But who moves the chess figures? That is the question. To my mind, chess game is the greatest human distraction. And journalists normally are used as a leverage to distract people’s attention from certain political facts, events or even political killings. And such weapon does not cost much. a) exploring the myriad and profound ways in which America is different to the UK, despite the common language (attitudes to guns, god, and government for a start);

This summary is not to take away the depth of Sopel’s writing, which cannot be done justice in a concise book review. He compares and contrasts, references extensively, and most interestingly of all, injects his own thoughts into his writing. Sopel probes why Americans are so anxious (because, among many things, their physical geography), and why, for instance, the “special relationship” may not exist entirely as we see it here.It's rather pathetic: for centuries Scotland an France maintained the "Auld Alliance" against England, but it was always unequal- France gained more for small investment, and France forgot us completely when it suited, but we kept on loving France. In this chapter, Sopel explains the reasons why people didn't vote for Hillary. Although he's missed the single biggest problem, which was Lena Dunham's rap video ;-) [2] From our cuisine and to our literature, to our fashion and our music, there is no escape from the beast that is the United States of America.