A Tale of Two Americas

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Based on rhetoric and actions, one would think that the U.S. is actually two distinct countries.

There is apparently a rapper who goes by the name “Macklemore.” I know nothing of his music, how his voice sounds or what his personal history is. I have seen headlines showing him to be an antisemite and taking a very pro-Hamas view of the current conflagration in the Middle East. This fellow whose name reminds me of mackerel told a crowd recently in Seattle “F*** America,” to which the crowd roared in delight. The fish-rapper apparently comes from Seattle.

Now when a person tells another or his own country to f*** off, it would mean that he hates the other and wants nothing to do with it. But this antisemite and all of his crowd enjoy numerous advantages of living in the United States. Whether it be the huge selection of goods that they can buy relatively inexpensively, the vast trove of foods available at all price levels, police and army protection of their rights and safety from foreign attack—there are endless ways that they benefit from living in the U.S. Imagine a surly teenager cursing out his parents who just fed him dinner, paid for his schooling, provided him with free room and board, and worry that he has every want and need. If the teenager hates his parents so much, then he should leave home and strike out on his own. The rapper and his ungrateful crowd should have left the venue and driven nonstop north to Canada to continue their hatred of the horrible, terrible, no good, miserable, bad United States. The fact that he and they all went to bed that night in comfortable homes or hotels within the borders of the U.S. means that they are all a bunch of frauds. Their hatred is real but it is a hatred that is taught in school and through this guy’s music. They don’t hate the U.S.; it simply is cool to claim to hate the U.S. while benefiting from every facet of the country.

While Mr. Haggerty (his real name) was telling off the country of his birth and where he had made his name and money, several Israelis returned home after their very first visits to the United States. The people in question are friends of one of our sons. He relayed to me that their reaction to their visit almost went beyond words. All of them wished that they could have stayed longer. All of them were amazed and overwhelmed by the size, beauty and offerings that the country presents. They could not stop praising their experiences in their first visits to the U.S. and look forward to coming back again. This response is very typical for Israelis but I would imagine it is the same for many others from countries all over the world. The U.S. has generally very friendly people, amazing parks and attractions, clothes and goods at prices and quality that you will not find anywhere else, and plenty to see and do. Whether Israelis go to New York or Miami or Las Vegas or San Francisco, the ones I’ve met tell me that they can’t wait to go back again. You can find a Hilfiger shirt in Jerusalem; what costs $35 at a mall in the U.S. runs over $120 here. You can find cheap goods in eastern Europe but don’t expect them to make it past the second wash.

Do you know what it is like for a highly taxed Israel to stroll through Costco? If he does not have a heart attack, he will stand in amazement at the selection, the huge size of goods sold and the low, low prices. When one wants to return an ill-fitting article of clothing to Amazon, he goes to Whole Foods and drops it off. Before he gets back to his car, he will get a notification that his money has been returned. My wife bought a dress recently online via an American store. They don’t ship to Israel so the item was sent to a cousin in the U.S. She found someone going to Israel and sent it along. My wife received it and the dress was the wrong size. By the time we tried to get a refund, we learned that over 30 days passed and it was too late. If we had been in the States, she would have dropped it off at a UPS store for a free return.

When I was doing my doctorate in Madison, I had two experiences that first gave me an inkling to the euphoria felt by visitors to the U.S. Several Iranian Jewish women had fled Khomeini’s Iran and landed in Madison. They did not speak a word of English but one could see from their expressions that they were mighty glad to be in the U.S. and safe from the secret police and torture. Around the same time, a young Russian couple escaped the collapsed Soviet Union. I remember their shock at the size of the house that had been given them upon reaching Madison. I had only wished to go with them to one of the mega-stores to see their reaction to 22 types of ketchup in place of one Kremlin Ketchup in two sizes. I would have wanted to see them calculating the prices in rubles and not believing how cheap the food is in the U.S.

So how do we have an American-born rapper telling his country off while foreigners can’t get enough of the same country? I think that the answer lies with our lying “elites” who threatened to leave when Trump was elected and are threatening again. In the end, they never leave. They know that nowhere in the world would they have it so good. Sure, there are plenty of wealthy countries where they could live like kings, but there is no place that offers everything that the US does: freedom of expression, access to goods and services at reasonable prices, beautiful places to live and visit, and a relatively low tax burden. They can go live in Canada and have the government shut down their bank accounts if they say the wrong things. They can go to France and live without air conditioning and get used to having a smaller car. The U.S. to these people is like a yo-yo: they can badmouth it as racist, trash, bigoted, too white, but they never take their stated anger and hatred of the U.S. to the point of action in leaving the place. The Hamas lovers who have infested universities and big blue cities and enjoy tearing down American flags wear American-designed clothes, often drive American cars, enjoy American-made iPhones, eat relatively inexpensive American food, and enjoy American legal protections. They are ingrates and I wish that they would leave, and if they are foreign ingrates, I hope that President Trump gives them the boot if re-elected.

When one lives, breathes, and experiences America every day, it is sometimes hard to appreciate how amazing she really is. Yes, the Democrats are doing their best to destroy the America we know with millions of illegal immigrants, an overbearing government in cahoots with tech companies, and DEI destruction of the successful American meritocracy. Still so, I would hope that each American appreciates the greatness of the country as foreigners do on their first visit. LBJ once commented that when he arrived in a foreign country and passed through the line of dignitaries assembled to meet him, he always felt that there was at least one person there who would switch with him in a second, not to be president but just to be an American. God bless America and the American people. One can travel the world and see beautiful things and meet amazing people, but in the end, there is no place like the United States.