They'll Never Understand

Murray Rothbard (PDF) speaks for America as much now as when he wrote these words in 1982:

“No, dammit. For why should the British taxpayer be forced to pay for this nonsense, for the maintenance of this godawful rock, for the fleet and the munitions to go to war to defend it, etc? The fact that the Falklanders want to be British does not suffice; for why should the British, 8000 miles away, be stuck with the welfare-imperialism of supporting and defending them?”

They genuinely cannot comprehend that paying to maintain and defend our fellow-Britons on the Falkland Islands is something that we taxpayers in the United Kingdom actively want. Very, very strongly indeed. By the fundamental nature of the American Republic, that Republic's citizens can never, ever understand this. If anything, those most devoted to the Founding Fathers are even less likely than their compatriots in general to understand it. For George Washington speaks for America as much now as when he spoke these words in 1796:

“A passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists,and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.”

Just as well for America that she has never been so attached to us, although her attachments to Israel and to the Gulf monarchies, especially Saudi Arabia, are a different matter, with results that would not have surprised Washington in the least. And how much better it would be for Britain if we stopped deluding ourselves, on no grounds and for no apparent reason, that such a relationship with America really existed on our part. It never will. It never should, from either perspective. As much as anything else, it never can. "Specially related" to Britain is exactly what America was set up not to be.