It was an interesting exercise in watching the US Inauguration yesterday. Mainly on Fox News, although the core ceremony was carried by BBC News 24 - in general, vastly superior, although Gavin Esler was a very naughty boy when he started giggling whilst saying Dan Quayle's name.
Washington is a deeply impressive city architecturally. I have visited twice and have really liked it. Some splendid buildings, coupled with a remarkable sense of space. By memory, it was designed by Le Corbusier, and there is a law that dictates that no building should be higher than the Washington Memorial. The sight of the Washington Memorial reflected in the Reflecting Pond is impressive.
I've been to the White House but bizarrely have absolutely no memories of it. Perhaps a salutary lesson in how cameras really do preserve memories. One thing I do remember is when we were waiting in line to go in, Bush 1's helicopter - Marine 1? - came into land. He might well have been in it. He was certainly in DC that day.
In a Starbucks at Dupont Circus, the barrista wanted to engage my friend and I in a detailed analysis of British politics. I was up for it. She just wanted a chai latte. Overheard conversations were mainly political.
But outside the center, it is different. We got the subway the wrong way, and within a couple of stations the atmosphere was uncomfortable. Realising what we had done, we got out and it was an uncomfortable and threatening five minutes waiting for one in the right direction - at six o'clock in the evening.
We ordered a cab to take us home from the cinema. In Washington, the rules are you share cabs with total strangers. The other passenger wanted to go to a rough area. The cab driver seemed uncomfortable. Once he had dropped her off, he sped away and told us of his discomfort. In that short period we saw a drugs deal, someone shooting up and a couple having quick perfunctory - presumably bought-and-sold - sex.
This was quite different from the America portrayed, by the politicians, and by the newscasters and pundits yesterday. I got sick to the back teeth hearing about America is the greatest nation on earth, especially in the context of equality and indivisibility. Especially when this was followed by Republicans going on about how 'No Child Left Behind' demonstrates the greatness of the USA, that all children are entitled to an education. Of course they are, but this has been axiomatic in the Social Democratic countries of Europe at least since the Second World War, even when they have been ruled by parties of the right. I can't believe that the USA has taken to the Twenty-First Century to wake up to this.
Dubya made a big thing of being against racism, and, I have to say, despite his many faults, I would never accuse him of racism - heck, he even has an African-American mistress Secretary of State. (although the notorious Florida gerrymandering in 2000 was racist, amongst much else). Yet, the second most astonishing statistic about the November Vote was the extent to which it was ethnicity-based, with an overwhelming majority of African-Americans and Hispanics voting Democrat. And a majority of whites voting Republican. And the culture of 'with us or against us' is not a culture that celebrates diversity.
Most of all, I found it ironic that over-and-again they kept going on about America being the best nation on earth blah-de-blah, and at the same time, presumed that people in other countries watching would take inspiration from this show of democracy. I don't know whether the boasting is based on insecurity, but I know if I was ill-educated and living in a Third World country I would find the boasting offensive and it would sow a seed, or fertilise an already sown seed, of anti-Americanism.
To me, the single greatest thing about the USA is a culture, especially in the cities, especially of the East and West Coasts, and a few others, where, if you want to, you can prosper, regardless of whether you are a woman, or black, or gay, or whatever. Risk taking is encouraged, and rewarded. Pigeonholes are not applicable. That is why the US is a great nation. Yet, it is also a nation that harbours the Blue states, or areas, where bigotry, prejudice and pigeonholing is celebrated.
The rhetoric of Dubya - of walking side-by-side with nations that want to embrace democracy - is fine and noble. The devil, of course, is in the detail - to use a cliché. I suspect my vision differs significantly from Dubya, Condoleeeeeeeezza and Rummy. Although they would not use the word, they want to impose democracy. To me, that isn't possible. I'm not even sure that is philosophically possible to empower people.
To me, the dream of creating a democratic and free world does not lie in enabling and supervising elections. Voting is neither the beginning nor end of democracy. The economics of the First vs the Third World have been thrown into sharp focus this year. A programme on BBC4, 'Don't Watch That Watch This' listed the value of arms sales from the UK alone to Tsunami-hit nations. Which are not the poorest, nor are the UK's arms sales comparable to the US's. Libertarians, especially in the USA, balk at giving so much aid to the Tsunami countries. My concerns are that whilst they are getting this aid, the other needy nations are being forgotten.
I will not pretend at expertise in the economics of Third World Aid, but to me it is just plain wrong that for all that the West gives in aid, we get far more back in interest on debt. I do not know the answer to that, leaving that to Gordon Brown, who has made it his mission. What I do know is that any attempts to democratise nations by imposing elections is doomed to failure. I suppose what I want is a concerted long-term effort to build societies and nations from the bottom up, eradicating poverty, exploitation and ignorance, so that by sheer common sense, the benighted nations of the world take on the best aspects of Western-style democracies.
But it made me sad that it seemed that the best the Americans could say for their political system is that opponents are not poisoned and election results do not cause mass riots - unlike other, inferior, nations. A much more compelling case would have been to demonstrate the synergy between a democratic structure; and wealth, prosperity and freedom.
To be better than the bad and not very good is hardly a noble aspiration. It is barely an aspiration at all.
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