The US Capitol Building, view from the southwest
However, after a very busy week, with lots of impressions from America's capital and its politics, I am enjoying a slow night in the hotel with some time to blog, in addition to watching my LSU Tigers make a strong case for vaulting to No 1 in the College Football rankings next week and looking forward to the Washington Nationals take on the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park tomorrow afternoon.
The political scene 'inside the Beltway' is both inspiring and exhausting, featuring genuine commitment and weary cynicism in equal measures. The Republican primary contest is dominating national politics coverage in media, and Perry seems to be shifting from hero to zero given his almost astonishingly inept debate performances. Romney is the obvious candidate, although the Republican voters seem mildly supportive at best. Obama is mostly on the defensive and Suskind's Confidence Men the talk of the town.
In addition to my research in the Washington corridors of power I've today had the great pleasure to attend the Front Porch Republic inaugural conference (co-sponsored by The Tocqueville Forum at Georgetown University), on Human Scale and the Human Good, at the lovely rural campus of Mount St Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, near the Pennsylvania border and the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield. Mount St Mary's, established in 1808, is the oldest Catholic college in the 50 US states, given that Georgetown is not located in a state but in the District of Columbia...
Returning to America and heading out on the highways, away from the big cities and into the hinterland one is reminded of just how different the scale of America is to life in Britain and Ireland. The vast distances and great expanses of space means that problems relating to scale and locality are especially complex in America, a country which, outside the older cities, is built around the car. This will require unique American solutions to sometimes overwhelming problems of dislocation and alienation in a somewhat restless society, always on the move.
I was in particular, pleased to see a conference schedule which combined presentations by scholars discussing Aristotelian ethics and Tocquevillian politics with intriguing presentations on organic farming and how you get English literature students to weed gardens, renovate houses and pick tomatoes with a smile on their faces.
Heading out of the city in my rented Jeep Patriot after a busy week on and off the Metro in Washington and the northern Virginia suburbs also reminded me just how difficult it is for a foreigner visiting America to understand the country if confined to coastal cities and public transportation. Enjoyable and convenient for sure, but you need to head out on the American highways behind the wheel of an American-sized car to get a true sense of this vast country.
That, and being reminded yet again just how badly Northern Ireland needs a dedicated Classic Rock radio station!
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