22 October, 2008

The British Say It Best

I've always loved the British talent for dismemberment by seeming compliment. Observe:

Boris Johnson, the lavishly Tory Mayor of London ...

However well-intentioned it was, the catastrophic and unpopular intervention in Iraq has served in some parts of the world to discredit the very idea of western democracy.

The recent collapse of the banking system, and the humiliating resort to semi-socialist solutions, has done a great deal to discredit - in some people's eyes - the idea of free-market capitalism.

Democracy and capitalism are the two great pillars of the American idea.

To have rocked one of those pillars may be regarded as a misfortune.

To have damaged the reputation of both, at home and abroad, is a pretty stunning achievement for an American president.

Masterful. I really couldn't have said it better myself.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And as if to prove how insular some Americans are, one place where this is quoted

http://tinyurl.com/5qykts

Accusses The Telegraph, known universally as the Torygraph for its right wing stance, as being "left of the Daily Kos"

As I replied, it is comments like this that get US labeled as ignorant.

My take on the GOP meltdown here- http://tinyurl.com/65gsg6

Blake Stacey said...

"To lose one pillar, Mr. Johnson, may be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose both looks like carelessness."

— Not Quite Oscar Wilde

Weemaryanne said...

"The Americans always do the right thing -- after they've tried everything else." (Winston Churchill)