Politics

I've waited till our return home to write this one, because I wanted to have a bit of distance before trying to articulate it.  I have tried to note what I observed rather than make any particular judgements.

During our three weeks in USA we stayed in 3 very different households, distinguished not least by their very different approaches to US politics:

1. Immigrants to US within the last 15 years, no religion
2. Episcopalian (liberal Christian) and Democrat
3. Conservative Christian and Republican

In the cases of those with Christian faith, their political views were also strongly-held, and completely opposite to each other! Democrat and Republican do not automatically equate to UK Labour and Conservative, and it is important to be aware of the very different contexts in UK and US. Health care is one such issue. For Britons of various political hues, we are used to the NHS, and access to medical care free at the point of use is generally regarded as a good thing if not a basic human right. In the Democrat household, it was felt that paying 6% of ones income would be an acceptable sacrifice if it meant that the many millions of US citizens currently without medical insurance would have access to care when they need it. Our Russian friend was of similar mind - she pointed out that sometimes it is not even possible for doctors to do the initial investigations necessary to make a diagnosis in order to determine what / how much treatment is necessary or what it would cost. In the case of our other friends, there was a feeling that they already give too much of their income to the government. However, their household includes both sets of grandparents as well as 4 children, and we were very impressed by their commitment to care for their family in this way, especially as the older members become increasingly elderly and infirm. It's one matter to say it's a good thing, and another to live it out on a day-to-day basis.

Whilst in Philadelphia and New York we became aware of a certain amount of industrial unrest. There seemed to be several strikes in progress, including one by employees of the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park. One of their tactics was to hand out maps of Central Park showing all the other places other than that restaurant where you could eat! Our Republican friends felt the unions have too much power, and that wage increases are damaging the US economy by costing too much money. A closed shop was outlawed in UK some time ago now, but is still possible in US. We did have some discussion around the situation in China and India, and how much longer it will in fact be cheaper to outsource manufacturing to these countries now that their economies are stronger. Interestingly, our Democrat friend mentioned that when she was a teacher she earned less than someone else she knew who did a blue-collar job.

Republicans are very unhappy about Obama. Not only is he spending too much money and interfering too much in people's personal freedom, he also committed a number of social faux pas whilst visiting the Queen in England. These included giving her DVDs not compatible with a UK DVD player, and trying to propose a toast whilst the national anthem was playing. Our recollections of the visit centred more on the reactions of children in inner-city London to having a world leader visit their schools - pretty inspiring! The anti-Obama feeling is reflected in some of the memorabilia on sale in tourist shops, for example, postcards and fridge magnets etc. saying 'Nobama' or with a picture of George W. Bush and the words 'Missing me yet?' (there were also some pro-Obama souvenirs, but the negativity of the others was quite striking).

Overall, people in both Democrat and Republican households were proud of their country and felt passionately about doing all they could to improve things. In both cases, as with many households, they had the US flag outside their house. As a British person, I would have very mixed feelings about displaying a union jack in this way. Not that I am not proud of my country, but flying the flag is associated in my mind either with  extreme right-wing views or with the more jokey exuberance of the last night of the Proms. The St George flag just says 'football' to me! As far as I could tell, there seem to be no such muddy waters in the case of the stars and stripes.