Despite my occasional efforts at a wacko punk veneer, I am at heart a conservative prone to underestimating people and being disappointed by them. This, I suspect, is a nature/nurture issue, stemming from being born in Britain. Because last night, sitting at the Oregon Convention Center next to Teresa Teater (whom else would I be bound to watch Obama’s victory with, I pondered), waiting in vain as my two tasks for the evening began to look less and less accomplishable, (get Jeff Merkley’s remarks following the outcome of his race, which didn’t get decided, and find out what’s happening to the ballot measures, the most important of which was 50.18/49.82 by 10pm…), I realized at last how I am fundamentally different from you Americans. The British Guardian sums up the English disbelief this morning:

They did it. They really did it. So often crudely caricatured by others, the American people yesterday stood in the eye of history and made an emphatic choice for change for themselves and the world.

I imagine we felt similarly surprised in Boston, during the tea party. Just when we’ve decided you’re all fools, that you couldn’t pull together around a common ideal to save your lives, you, er, well, you pull together around a common ideal to save your lives. This would never have happened in England, never in a million years.

I still don’t really believe what happened last night. As Obama’s speech aired, two African American guys who were on my left got onto the press table to watch it. I was talking with them, thinking how strange it was that an African American man was addressing them, and me, and that they had more in common with the guy in power than I did. Again, I was struck: This would never have happened in England. Admittedly, we abolished slavery before you did. But race aside, we have a rigid class structure. Obama winning the presidency last night was the British class equivalent of a barrow boy being made King. It wouldn’t happen there. There’s a conservative streak running through our nation that just doesn’t exist in yours. And for that, God Bless America.

I’ve spent the last eight years accepting the fact that Bush was the end of this country, that I was around at the demise of America as a relevant world power. I thought it would be fun to stand apart at an ironic distance, chronicling the bonfire. Because what other option did I have? I’d never experienced some of the other spectacular rallies this country has been through. I only had a British sense of doom and gloom to fall back on. Now, today, I have to start seeing things differently.

If you’re American, you’re better than me because I didn’t believe in some part of me that last night was really possible. I’m glad I live here among you.

Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.

12 replies on “A Britisher Is Astonished By You Yanks”

  3. ‘There’s a conservative streak running through our nation that just doesn’t exist in yours’
    To quabble over definitions, I’d say it’s more of a monarchy/royalty streak.
    A modern American conservative would argue for the ability of the people to govern as laid out in the constitution.

  5. Mm I don’t think that’s fair to be honest. I too am a Brit living here, but am US born, and as a dual national I felt incredibly proud and patriotic, possibly for the first time, for this country yesterday, but your comments regarding Britain are quite harsh!

    -I disagree that there’s more of a conservative streak in England than here, and at least we don’t have Christian extremists thank you. The older generation of conservative republicans haven’t disappeared, but this year the youth and ‘minority’ voters finally got out and got involved; and if we had someone to energize those groups and boost turn out in Britain I’m sure we could do it too.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely over the moon for the President Elect, and his achievement, and for the fact that we no longer have to feel kind of embarassed about our leader, and his speech was SO unifying and beautiful. I think it’s important to see it as a victory for liberals and intellectuals too, finally a good progressive politician won on issues and not smear tactics. woop.

  6. CRAM IT GO BAKC TO BRITTANY CHEESE DICK

    Sorry, I just thought that was funny. What I mean is, welcome to our shores, you tired, poor huddled Matt, yearning to breathe free, wretched refuse of Britain’s teeming shores.

  8. I think we’re earnest in a way that a lot of other countries aren’t. That earnestness accounts for our humorless, puritan streak that is the envy of no one, but it also accounts for a certain belief and determination that can occasionally make great things happen.

    Anyway, this was really nice, Matt.

  9. Dammit. This is really annoying me. I’m glad Brit expats are glad. But really, it’s high time the Brits started sorting their own country out before they put all kinds of hope into ours. It’s not like GB is a paradise. (I lived near Manchester for 7 years. God I’m happy to be home.)

  10. @toilet joe- No Christian extremists in England? Really? Did you pay any attention to the recent parliamentary debates on abortion? You know, the ones campaigned for by um, Christian extremists in England?

  11. I am perfectly willing to believe there are Christian extremists in England. Wales and Scotland too. Perhaps that is why I made no claims to the contrary — I wrote the misspelled faux-xenophobic diatribe, and “Jenb” left the expert opinion on Britain’s religio-political climate.

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