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

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I’ve noted elsewhere that there seems to be an air of fear about many Americans – even the military operations are designed to minimise risk in a way that seems like over-protectionism to many others. Italy and Germany as unified states are more recent (1870/71), but had long histories nonetheless, a culture, good and bad. A wonderfully readable, perceptive account of what America looks like today through the eyes of a seasoned, informed but ultimately sympathetic observer.

One of the few rules you cannot abolish in the USA is a person’s Second Amendment right to bear arms. Quite an interesting read that really opened my eyes at just how different the culture across the pond actually is. The central premise of Jon Sopel’s If Only They Didn’t Speak English is that Americans are a bit nutty and hard to understand for a Brit. A dangerous chapter to comment on, but it amuses me that he doesn't understand the term person of colour.

Jon Sopel tries to explain the madness of Trump's America with an elegant sense of stoic bewilderment. In reality however it proved to be that George Orwell was right when wrote as follows: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.

To be fair, his target audience is his fellow Brits (I bought the book in the UK) so if they’ve never been to America, they wouldn’t be able to quibble over his overgeneralizations.Instead, he explains, in a humorous and engaging fashion, what it is that makes the USA a place where a person like Trump could be elected.

He addresses head-on such difficult questions as why it is America's most God-fearing opponents of abortion who are also the most passionate supporters of the gun lobby and the death penalty. And yet, if your drug of choice is manufactured by one of the big drug companies and advertised on TV, it seems that you can get addicted to it with impunity. Mundanities of life start fading when the media first draw the thin red line disassociating a gritty castle of politicians from ordinary people, and then all of a sudden pull up the drawbridge. If you followed the previous few years closely you will know a fair bit of this but he does categorise it well and his analysis is good. There were some really interesting facts in here, and I particularly enjoyed Sopel’s personal insights into his first hand experiences of presidents and US political coverage (although it needed more of these).An easy read for non Americans wanting to absorb the BBC 24 news bulletins in a more thematic and considered perspective. Sopel is the BBC’s US correspondent and he communicates intelligence, open-mindedness and good manners. Easy to read, extremely interesting and helps to explain some of the craziness going on in US politics at the moment.

I assume it was plugged on BBC Radio 4 or Newsnight or somewhere, otherwise I can’t think that I would have heard of it. This book helped me to further understand some of the background as to why and how American culture is now what it is. Remember one strict rule: every time politicians dangle the carrot either in front of the elephant or the donkey – the result will be the same: whirlwind and tornado! The title of the book refers to the fact that Americans speak English, which gives the British people the idea that we’re sort of like their long-distance cousins—we don’t live in the same house, but we’re a part of the same family. It’s possible that many ignore the obvious exaggerations and mistakes in detail (or outright lies) but focus instead on the general underlying message – and as a result many of them are sold on Trump’s view of the world and his focus on how to make America great again.

We don’t wait for the council (local British government) to clean off the streets or pick up the litter like the British do; oh, golly, no—Americans have a can-do attitude and we take care of those things ourselves. Even when he is reporting Trump at his most rude, narcissistic and idiotic, he always manages to deliver his text with nothing more than a metaphorical raised eyebrow.