I’ve written before explaining that the term expat is short for expatriate, simply meaning to live outside one’s country of citizenship. It does not mean ex-patriot, that being someone who no longer loves the country which formerly claimed their allegiance. Everyone has heard the saying, “you can’t tell the forest for the trees,” meaning you’re too close to a problem to really see it. Being an expat gives one distance to observe one’s homeland, and just as importantly, gives one experience with other cultures for comparison. The more well-traveled the expat, the clearer their vision should be.
We’ve lived in three countries (Germany, the US, Mexico) and traveled to about 50 others (not counting those airport transfers). We choose to live in Mexico because the climate, the culture, and the lifestyle suit us. Is it possible there is an exact match somewhere in the US for us? Almost certainly. As World Cup visitors have learned (much to their amazement), America is a huge and diverse place, in all the important ways. For us, we found the right fit at the right time in Mexico, and stopped looking. It’s still working for us.
From our distant perch, abetted by our frequent travels, we watch our homeland struggle with itself, like some adolescent on the verge of adulthood. Two-hundred and fifty years may seem like a lot, but in historical terms, America is precisely a young adult. There are many legitimate criticisms of America, and far more over-wrought and ridiculous ones.
Inequality of outcome and opportunity to succeed are opposite sides of the same coin. Communism promised absolute equality of outcome (in theory), and no sane person still favors it. If everyone is free to rise or fall, some will do so spectacularly . . . in both directions. That doesn’t mean we label one group “losers” and leave them to their own devices! It also doesn’t mean we take from those successful the fruits of their success to give away at our whim.
Many countries have less-costly, even guaranteed national health systems. None of them have the dynamic pharmaceutical and medical technique development of America. America is an outlier here, and one which serves that function for the entire world. Canada’s health system leads the world in one category: Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Free care in many western democracies involves months- or even years-long waiting lists, and government boards which have to approve some care against standards of overall utility (“no, I’m sorry, you’re too old for a hip replacement.”) Could the US use some form of guaranteed basic health, and perhaps maternity and early childcare coverage? Yes, but not at the cost of the lifesaving drugs and treatments it produces.
I’ve heard Americans complain about the state of corruption in government, and I can only shake my head. Trump’s seedy dealing with his pardon power is unsettling, and his crypto fortunes are outrageous . . . and both are completely legal. They need to be addressed through legislation, not outrage. But you haven’t experienced corruption until you sit across from a petty bureaucrat with the power to approve or deny your status and they demonstrate an “itchy palm.” Or get pulled over by a policeman who wants your “license, registration, and wallet.” Or businessmen shaken down for protection, or government leaders using foreign investors as convenient punching bags when things aren’t going well economically. Most of the world functions on a level of corruption off the scale of anything in the US (especially FIFA!).
I used to think Americans were too loud in public, wore inappropriate attire when traveling, and were rude to locals. Having seen Russians in England, Germans in Spain, and Chinese anywhere outside of China, I have re-evaluated my former judgments. Almost all European travelers adopt American-style athleisure attire when outside their home areas, and don’t get me started on the Greeks (or Turks, or Italians, or Ukrainians) shouting at each other in public spaces. Judy and I like to joke that the conversation is entirely normal. “HOW’s THE WEATHER?” “IT’s GREAT!” “NO, IT’s BETTER THAN GREAT!” “YOU’RE WRONG!” As to rudeness, we witnessed German children walking around a restaurant and attempting to take food off your plate (no, they were not begging), and now the French are having a debate whether parents need to discipline their children AT ALL in public. Much of American tourists’ “rudeness” stems from a lack of foreign language capability, and the vane hope talking LOUDER and S-L-O-W-E-R in English can work.
How can I say that, when anybody reading this has probably experienced an American being genuinely rude in a foreign country? Because every culture has such people. If you see as much foreign press as I do, you see the stories of Europeans defacing each other’s monuments, or Chinese tourists mobbing a store, people taking “souvenirs” from some protected site. It happens all the time. And let’s return to those World Cup visitors for a moment. YouTube and Insta are full of stories of foreign visitors being given free tours, meals, rooms, and gifts by those same Americans. They didn’t suddenly learn manners, people.
America remains the standard in so many things. Freedom of speech? It’s no contest. You can be arrested for silently praying in public in China, . . . and the UK! We call our President Hitler and see Nazis hiding all over the place, but don’t use those words in Germany. In fact, criticizing public officials is a crime in Germany, even if you don’t invoke he-who-shall-not-be-named. Business opportunity? There are ten times as many black millionaires in America as in all of Africa! While Americans are currently engaging in a round of self-flagellation over $4.00 a gallon gas and 4% unemployment and inflation, in Europe it’s equivalent to $7.00, 3.3% inflation and almost 6% unemployment, and America’s statistics will improve faster than Europe’s (or anybody else’s). America is well-ahead in the race to Artificial Intelligence, space exploration, and energy production, areas likely to be key sources of economic dynamism for decades to come.
But we’re so divided, and the country is about to fall into fascism! I’ve ranted enough in the past about the silliness of the fascism argument, so I’ll focus on the division part. We’ve always been so divided. Adams vs. Jefferson beats Trump vs Clinton by a landslide. The 2020 election (which was not fraudulent) has nothing on the 1876 election, which indeed was hashed out in a smoke-filled room full of trade-offs which would make Tammany Hall blush! Everybody knows that the country survived–barely–the great divide over slavery and the resulting civil war. There’s a new book, Been There, Done That, by Professor Greg Jackson (he of “History That Doesn’t Suck” podcast fame). In it, he recounts the story of partisan divides in the War of 1812.
Now most Americans know little about this conflict, other than that the Americans failed to capture Canada, the British burned the White House and General Andrew Jackson won the battle of New Orleans (days after the war had been settled by a treaty in Ghent). But at the time, it was an issue of white-hot partisan hatred. A Federalist (anti-administration) newspaper in Baltimore published a strong denunciation of Republican* President Madison’s war, and a partisan (Republican) mob attacked the building, tearing it down and destroying the presses. The publisher relocated and continued to criticize the war, resulting in another mob identifying its new location and surrounding the building with newspaper employees and supporters trapped inside. The head of the local militia, Major William Barney, was himself a Republican and a candidate for local office, but he stood athwart the Republican mob and refused to let them attack the building. He literally stepped in front of a cannon that had a burning fuse and dared the mob to kill him! It worked, and he negotiated for the men in the building to be transferred to a local prison for protective custody.
Alas, the mob later re-grouped when Major Barney was gone, attacked the prison, took the Federalist supporters and tortured and killed them. Among those attacked were General James Lingan, a Revolutionary war veteran and friend of George Washington, and famous General “Light Horse” Harry Lee, also of Revolutionary war fame. The former was tortured and beaten to death despite reminding the mob of his service; the latter suffered brain and other injuries from which he never recovered. No one was ever held accountable for the violence, as the local population was sympathetic to the Republican position on the war.
We’re nowhere near that level of vitriol today, but as Jackson reminds us, we only need act as we claim to be: honest, law-abiding, and peaceful to restore balance to the partisan environment. I have no doubt we will do so. We all know how the other version of the story ends: each side finding new lows to explore, more falsehoods, more violence, civil war.
So on this fourth of July, I encourage you to celebrate all that America is: warts and all. The young Sam, not yet really an uncle, is impulsive and insecure, but full of promise. He has made tragic mistakes in his young life, but overcome them. He needs your support if he’s going to make it. Happy 4th of July!
Image generated by AI.
*For those wondering, the Republican party mentioned here are the Democratic-Republicans, who later shortened their name to just the Democratic party. I wouldn’t want anyone to think only Republicans are capable of violence such as happened on January 6th.