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Don’t worry. They’re not mad at *you*

No, it has not escaped notice here that our juvenile president seems to go way out of his way to insult Britain. Sending nobody from his administration to Maggie’s funeral is just the latest in a series. (The picture is from the rehearsal, by the way).

Here’s the thing, though — that “special relationship” stuff is real and it is an incredibly durable and powerful force. It’s not about our governments cooperating. In fact, politicians of all kinds seem a little embarrassed about it (for reasons I can’t quite wrap my puzzler around). It’s because we are the same people. We share a common history, a common law, a common view of the world. Not just Anglo-American, but wherever free markets and English common law have penetrated — in other words, former British colonies. (Oh, it’s not racial, either. It applies equally to former colonies like Hong Kong). It’s the Anglosphere, and it’s real and persistent.

I get a much wider view of it from here. Despite the locking down of legal immigration (and you better believe they’re clamping down on migration between these two countries — not the right sort of immigration, don’tcha know), people are still finding ways to move between Anglospheric countries. Nearly every one of our neighbors has family in the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. This is sheep country, so that’s not surprising, but it’s also true of my doctor and the road engineer who lives on the corner.

I expected to encounter some degree of anti-Americanism, but so far…nada. People’s faces light up when they hear my accent and they can’t wait to tell me about their last trip to Vegas or Disney World.

So, no worries. The petulant man-child in the Oval Office has tweaked a few tails, but nobody’s mad at you. We’re family, after all.

Comments


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: April 16, 2013, 10:01 pm

Well anyone with a few years behind them knows presidents come and go. Yes, they can do some real lasting damage, but they are temporary. So if a president comes along that’s a cosmic prick, well he’ll be gone after a while. We’re still Cousin Jonathan, even if the guy at the White House is such a pillock.


Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: April 16, 2013, 10:16 pm

Yes we are family. My family’s elder sisters (on my mother’s side) took a trip to England to trace out distant ancestors.

As for Obama, Reagan and Lady Thatcher were markedly anti-anti-capitalists. So to Obama they are the enemy.


Comment from East Asia
Time: April 16, 2013, 10:27 pm

I’m glad to know no one over there is taking it personal. I’m still deeply embarrassed by this poo-flinging president-child.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: April 16, 2013, 10:32 pm

Don’t worry my English cousins. When things get so bad you become our enemies, he’ll apologize to you… for the revolution.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: April 16, 2013, 11:58 pm

Nearly every one of our neighbors has family in the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. This is sheep country, so that’s not surprising,…

There’s a whole conversation there I’m not going to think about.


Comment from Argentium G. Tiger
Time: April 17, 2013, 12:35 am

“I expected to encounter some degree of anti-Americanism, but so far…nada.”

Best news I’ve heard in a couple of weeks. Thank you Stoaty.


Comment from Nina
Time: April 17, 2013, 1:06 am

Yes.


Comment from dissent555
Time: April 17, 2013, 1:14 am

I’m looking forward some day to hoisting a few pints with locals somewhere over there. Fairly confident that the one English ancestor that I know of came over from Kent. But it was 1640ish or so, so I have some more paperwork to do to prove it.


Comment from Davem123
Time: April 17, 2013, 1:15 am

He is a source of constant embarrassment and consternation. I didn’t think it could get worse than 8 years of Clinton, but I was wrong. The worst part is that he can be expected to live for decades at the public expense, a non-stop source of anti-Americanism for many years.


Comment from Nbpundit
Time: April 17, 2013, 1:31 am

Thanks stoaty, the whole country is harshed by what is in the white house. Down right shameful, and embarrassing.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: April 17, 2013, 1:47 am

Anyone from magical Englyland who has the courage to exscape[sic] can get a beer out of me (if he sticks his finger far enough down my throat).


Comment from Gromulin
Time: April 17, 2013, 2:03 am

From small men come small gestures. What an embarrassment. I like the idea of the bust of Churchill attending for us, since it was also not appreciated by our little tyrant.


Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: April 17, 2013, 2:22 am

Is anyone surprised? This si the guy who made a point of returning the Churchill bust from the WH. At first I disregarded Dinesh D’Souza’s thesis that Obama was an old fashioned anti-colonialist Anglophobe because it seemed so… reactionary. Hell, it seems so mid-20th Century.

By the way, put this on the list alongside Obama’s suggestion that the UK negotiate the status of the Falklands. Compare and contrast with the support Reagan provided, which got Casper Weinberger knighted.


Comment from Oldcat
Time: April 17, 2013, 3:08 am

I’m not embarrassed because I am not responsible for him. His acting the fool is on his head, not mine.


Comment from tomfrompv
Time: April 17, 2013, 5:52 am

I’m way more embarrassed that my fellow citizens are so STUPID they re-elected the guy. I keep thinking they’ll wake up, but no, not yet.


Comment from Mike C.
Time: April 17, 2013, 7:56 am

I think Obama has been an amazing president to date. When presented with an array of choices, he picks the absolute worst one, every time. Probability would suggest that he occasionally get one right by accident, but not our boy Barry. It really is quite amazing.


Comment from rustbucket
Time: April 17, 2013, 3:00 pm

Obama is a stuttering clusterf%*k of a miserable tyrant.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: April 17, 2013, 3:02 pm

President Amazing has apparently set out to prove Churchill wrong, once and for all. He’s decided to illustrate the error in Churchill’s comment about how Americans will always do the right thing after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives.

Winning!


Comment from Tibby
Time: April 17, 2013, 3:33 pm

At first I was amazed at his ability to choose the wrong action every single time. Now I just expected it and am hunkering down to wait him out. I have come to believe that America will prevail, regardless of little Barry and his friends.


Comment from mojo
Time: April 17, 2013, 3:47 pm

It’s like having your sweet old Aunt Martha marrying a crashing boor – who proceeds to monopolize the conversation at family gathering with a series of moronic non sequitors whilst breaking wind continually.


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: April 17, 2013, 4:18 pm

I’m pretty sure the rampant anti-Americanism we were constantly told about was rare and limited to hard core leftists in cities who always hated America to begin with. The rest of the world probably doesn’t think about the nation much, and is generally positive when they do. America wouldn’t be the number one hot spot to emigrate to if it was so despised.


Comment from Pupster
Time: April 17, 2013, 5:24 pm

I have come to believe that America will prevail, regardless of little Barry and his friends.

Yes, this.


Comment from Aunt Martha
Time: April 17, 2013, 6:57 pm

How dare you criticize Uncle Edgar.
He is much smarter and better read than you would ever hope to be and his digestive scrofulism is being medicated.


Comment from beasn
Time: April 17, 2013, 7:20 pm

Cheney showed up. I wouldn’t expect W, since he’s got himself a new grandbaby.


Comment from mojo
Time: April 17, 2013, 8:01 pm

Pipe down, dearest Auntie. Don’t make me call the home.

And anyway, Scrofulus is a skin disease and hardly ever strikes at the intestines. Possibly you meant Gastroenteritis. But I doubt it.


Comment from Argentium G. Tiger
Time: April 17, 2013, 11:33 pm

Apparently the Preznit[sic] is now stamping his feet, pouting, and damned near throwing a tantrum calling gun rights groups “Willful Liars” (ht: Drudge)

This guy needs serious therapy, Dennis Leary style: Crying and mowing the lawn.


Comment from Dan Patterson
Time: April 19, 2013, 12:04 am

The photo from five years ago of the ConMan and First AngryWomen with The Queen told a story too sad to miss. The Queen was tolerating the pose – being touched and grappled by two idiots unaware of the history between the two nations – and the nominal president and wife were mugging as if to say “Isn’t she so ah-DOOR-able; we just LUUUV her. She’s sooo kyooot!!1!”
A shameful and embarrassing moment in modern American history.

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