A Nuanced View of America
A trip to Spain and Portugal gives me insights about U.S. news
I write this as I return from a three-week trip to Spain and Portugal. My wife and I traveled across time-tested, charming landscapes interrupted only occasionally by our voluntary encounters with news from back home.
There’s nothing like travel to give you some perspective on the issues that fill our headlines and news broadcasts, including the story that intruded on our otherwise pleasant trip: the breathless media coverage of the federal charges filed against former President Donald Trump.
Spain is a beautiful country with a long and storied history that makes America’s seem like an impetuous teenager. Stone castles perched on hill tops to repel hostile invaders now rise peacefully above lush fields and orchards. The Romans poured into Spain in the first century AD and built a massive arched stone aqueduct without using any mortar. The amazing sluice carried water from springs just over ten miles away in the surrounding mountains to Segovia, a town where Moors, Christians, and Jews coexisted in streets surrounding a Gothic cathedral and a medieval castle later used as inspiration for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle. The aqueduct carried water to the town until modern times.
photo of aqueduct in Segovia, Spain by James O’Shea
Standing beneath its tiers of arches and gazing at the aqueduct’s 129 pillars, I wondered how someone standing here decades from now will view the contemporary events that now consume us. We rightfully consider the charges against Trump historic. He is, after all, the first American president to face federal charges even as he seeks the nomination of his troubled political party. But will the issues that now form the frothy headlines become a page of history like the aqueduct or merely a period or comma?
Spain, Portugal, and their European neighbors offer some hints. All have suffered the abuses of dictators and leaders with records far worse than a man who can’t accept he lost an election. Spain had Francisco Franco, Portugal Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. I won’t even get into Germany and Italy. Yet they all survived the corruption of power that undermined or even destroyed ordinary life.
Seeing America from afar made me wonder if we should be more worried about the political resurrection of Donald Trump or the high jacking of American democracy on a state and local level by a minority of a minority party that thwarts the will of most Americans on some of the most crucial issues of our times?
My wife and I made this trip to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. Some well-traveled friends joined us part of the way. We all marveled at how well the people of these countries have weathered the legacies of leaders who filled the headlines of their times.
Although we didn’t conduct any surveys and I resisted my journalistic curiosities, the Spanish people anecdotally seemed happy. Ordinary people — waiters, waitresses, store clerks, artisans, craftsmen, hotel clerks — displayed pride in their jobs and an eagerness to please their guests. One young American who had lived in Spain for the past year teaching English told us he might stay longer. He said he felt safe in Spain and that the nation has a heath care system where citizens don’t face the threat of bankruptcy if they suffer a devastating illness.
Personal safety was a positive trait of Spanish and Portuguese society mentioned time and again. True, you can get your pocket picked or purse snatched in Barcelona. But you are not likely to be shot by some deranged person with an AR-15 rifle or a teenaged gangbanger with a Glock automatic pistol. You’re not likely to get car jacked in Madrid, Granada, or Lisbon, either.
Spain has 7.5 guns for every 100 Spaniards; Portugal has 21.3 guns per 100 people. The U.S. has 120.5 guns for every 100 Americans. Is it any wonder why people feel safer in Spain and Portugal?
Health care offered a similar contrast; it’s free in Spain for every citizen. Portugal has state-provided health care, too, although citizens can incur some fees in extraordinary situations. Both countries significantly outrank the U.S. on a range of health care quality yardsticks even though Americans spend far more.
Nonetheless, we still encountered a desire to emigrate to the United States. One young Uber driver, who had taught himself fluent English by watching American films with Portuguese subtitles, said he wanted to move to Newark, New Jersey so he could make more money.
“The salaries here in Portugal are too low,” he said. “I want to go to Newark and get a job in construction.” He said he had relatives in Newark’s substantial Portuguese community, and he felt he could earn a better living. Another Portuguese couple lamented the country’s high taxes for residents and poor wages. But they also couldn’t understand why Americans tolerated so many guns, had such poor health care and would even consider electing Donald Trump to the White House. They, too, seemed happier with their lives.
Ironically, I saw a hint of the historic fate that might await Trump as we were about to leave and return to the U.S. the former prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, an abusive Italian media and political powerhouse, passed away. In many respects, he was like an Italian Trump. He was a billionaire and thrived for years under the cloud of charges that ranged from media manipulation, mafia ties, and consorting with underage women. He was convicted of corruption and defied political conventions, scoffing at charges of scandal. The Economist magazine once referred to Berlusconi as “The man who screwed an entire country.” Yet by the time he began to meet the fate that awaits us all, he was yesterday’s news.
My wife and I were glad to return home. We both love our country. As a veteran who served in the U.S. Army, I am angry at the way Trump handled some of the nation’s most sensitive national security documents. And I don’t buy the line that the charges are a political witch hunt hatched by President Joe Biden. A panel of Trump’s fellow citizens indicted him. My travels gave me some needed perspective about the issues of our time, though. Trump, I believe, will have the legacy of a Berlusconi. I returned far more worried about the Republican Party undermining democracy in America.
—James O’Shea
James O’Shea is a longtime Chicago author and journalist who now lives in North Carolina. He is the author of several books and is the former editor of the Los Angeles Times and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. Follow Jim’s Five W’s Substack here.