Back From America

BACK FROM AMERICA

I recently returned from a three-week stay in the U.S. I visited not really the U.S., but the Gulf coast of Florida: Sarasota, which is Lexus county and Naples which is Mercedes county. These are the playgrounds of the (very) rich and the old, often both in one. If you make abstraction of the remote trailer camps where the poorer denizens romp or of the hurricane-doomed match-box cottages where the “servants” live, this is a wealthy, radiant and pristine area with Hollywood-style mansions, upscale condominiums and super-luxurious shopping malls. Here, consumerism reigns supreme. The people are, on the whole, quite good- or pleasant-looking, when not afflicted by the national obesity syndrome. I alluded to the fact that you don’t see many American-made cars, the Japanese having cornered the market for our favourite toys. The cost of living (restaurants, clothing, housing, fuel etc.) is quite low, especially translated into Luxembourg prices in euros and considering that, comparatively, Americans pay minimal income taxes. The housing slump has also hit the State and you see many weather-worn “for-sale” or “for-rent” signs, although upscale objects (one and a half million dollars and up) are still moving well.

When I infer that the West coast of Florida is not typical of America at-large, I come back to a perception that the urban areas on both coasts of the continent, east and west, are more civilized, better informed and more cultivated than the inner red states. Sarasota, with a smaller population than Luxembourg City, has an opera house with passable guest performances during the winter season, though for the rest, Florida is pretty much a cultural wasteland.

Relying on the local papers or TV newscasts leaves you completely out of touch with world events, save for sanitized reporting on Iraq, of course. In those circumstances, one is ever so grateful for the New York Times and the internet. You can tune in on a precious few intelligent programs like Jim Lehrer’s or Tim Russert’s, but for the rest you only have odious “infotainment” shows which, during my stay, regularly opened with ‘breaking news’ about the autopsy of Nicole Ann Smith and her baby’s paternity search. You have your PBS station, but the other 40-odd channels serve nothing but trivia and trash. In comparison, television in Europe is decidedly high-brow. Forgive me if that sounds like intellectual snobbism!

Now to politics. As most of you have heard or observed, the mood in America is changing radically. The majority of our compatriots appear fed up with Bush, with Rove-the-Brain, with Cheney-the-evil-Puppeteer and with such nonentities as Condy Rice or Alberto Gonzales (heard of “Gonzogate”?). I met a couple of refined ladies in Sarasota who go out every Friday noon to demonstrate against the war. They told me that the reaction of the passers-by (mostly cars and nary a pedestrian) has completely mutated from red-neckish quodlibets as recently as a year ago to thumbs-up signals and encouraging responses.

As on previous visits in 2005 and 2006, I didn’t meet any neo-cons (except on Fox TV), only Democrats or Republicans on sabbatical time-out. Few people have any doubts that our party will conquer the White House and keep both houses in 2008. For this to happen, however, our Democratic friends must display greater skill and unity in Congress and on the hustings (“support our troops” being the infamous operative words) and refrain from squandering their treasure and their good-will during an exceedingly long campaign. Trust the Republicans to use every Machiavellian trick in their nefarious toolbox during the long 22 months that still separate us from the next Inauguration.

Let me conclude with a very relevant remark by Salman Rushdie: “Rome did not fall because her armies weakened but because Romans forgot what being a Roman meant.”

Looking forward to our next Think-and-Drink at Coshoola’s when we can discuss all this and more.

Robert Simon