The American People and the American Political Zoo

Americans were a People. They were the first self-constituted, self-created People in the history of the world.

Archibald McLeish (1892-1992),  The American Cause

Q: If you find so much that is unworthy of reverence in the United States, then why do you live here?

A: Why do men go to zoos?

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956),  Prejudices, Fifth Series

May 30, 2012 – If a foreigner were to visit the United States during this presidential election season,  he might compare its politicians and its citizens to inhabitants of a zoo.

There are:

--         Donkeys and elephants who wallow in the mud and wild kangaroos who jump from one trough to another and from  one cause to another and back again;

--     Elites who fly above the rest of us and who inhabit isolated bird cages and nests  of their own making in New York City,  Boston, Washington, D.C. and Hollywood;

--   common, ordinary, and extraordinary species who live and roam free in the wilds and prairies  outside the Beltway;

     --- idealistic creatures who think people in the US are no different than the rest of humankind and who have no right to hog 25% of the world’s energy and 27% of the world’s GDP;

     ---  them who regard Americans as an exceptional people, who comprise only 5% of the world’s people, but who supply 50% to 80% of the world’s movies, radio programs, Internet sites, innovations, and Nobel Prize winners- mostspoken and written in English,the world's diplomatic, telecommunivations, and broadcast language.

 --  the intelligentsia in  academis, policy making, and journalism who look askance at Tea Party Animals ,  assertive wild  creatures who make no sense but keep on  winning elections;

---    those who insist the American Constitution is a living document that ought to revered as the guiding beacon for American freedom while others say it is dated, even dead, and ought to be revised or ignored.

 --   those who respect,  even worship,  the zoo keepers while others shout – “Jeepers! Creepes! Get them out of there!”;

--- those who insist that Americans have the best health system in the world, the wonder of the world, while others maintain the system is a moral disgrace and stigma because government does not cover all.

Welcome to the American Zoo!  May its diversity, productivity, energy, and inventiveness  continue to lead and astonish the world.

Tweet : America is a zoo, composed of diverse people with different opinions, united in its belief in individualism  and free expression.