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

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If you are an American who wants to get a glimpse of your culture through the eyes of the British, Jon Sopel’s If Only They Didn’t Speak English: Notes from Trump’s America might interest you.

Much has been written about the latent anger among the white working class men, badly affected by globalisation and the transfer of their jobs overseas, and Donald Trump's genius for tapping into that anger and exploiting it. I found the content insightful and informative, with good illustrations and occasional humour, and it shed some much needed light. 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. I could turn that right around and say the same of some people in the US, of course, but being a Brit myself, with family in the USA, I find our attitude more arrogant, superior and wrong-headed than I'd really like! You can almost hear his incredulity at some of the points he makes here as they crackle off the page.

I’d say most of his observations are fairly accurate, particularly when he discusses the hypocrisy of politics and politicians and the dangers both Americans and the British people face regarding the new reality of “fake news. Sopel also highlights the mixture of anger and anxiety that suffuses the 21st century American psyche and includes a chapter on the post-truth world where the electorate prefers to be “informed” by fake news on Facebook rather than listen to educated and reasonably impartial press professionals such as Sopel. Interestingly he comes accross as quite sympathetic to Donald Trump, which is a bit odd given that he makes the case for the 45th president being unhinged. If any CIA agents are reading this, I'm not implying that Hillary pushed for intervention in Libya (because I don't want to be added to the Clinton kill list).

This anecdote is covered in the opening Section of this book which goes on to reflect on Sopel’s time in America and his thoughts on Trump and the country he now leads. I teach A Level Politics and will definitely be recommending this to students as a brilliant modern introduction to the politics, and more importantly, the psyche of the USA and its politics. Every time you need public to face any sort of artificial problem, the media involuntarily bring up that notion.

On page 285, Sopel describes how pleased he was to be invited to play tennis with the British Ambassador to the US.

Then it would be obvious that Americans are not just Brits who incorrectly say fries, when it’s chips; chips when it’s crisps, cookies when it’s biscuits; and clearly do not drink enough tea (with milk! 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. I suppose hindsight is a marvelous thing, for many a time while reading this book I would look at something and just go that makes sense. This reminds me on an old Norm Macdonald joke: “Earlier this week, Marlon Brando met with Jewish leaders to apologize for comments he made on Larry King Live, among them that “Hollywood is run by Jews.They are not in the job of opposing Trump, and it should not be necessary for the journalist corps to have police protection. Although this would be a good read, I have to say that Sopel was good company, reading his own work, during my weekly commute.