US Edition During the nearly eight years that I served in the Royal Household there were days when it didn’t feel very royal. Working at ground zero of the disintegrating marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, high principles too often gave place to grim necessity. However, there was always the compensation of remembering that at the head of our devolved organisation stood the Queen, the personification of all the virtues so badly needed in our unhappy corner of the royal garden. Those virtues – selfless hard work, charity, duty, faith, authenticity – are at the heart of the Jubilee celebrations.
So it’s reassuring – and sometimes surprising – to find those same qualities revered an ocean away in my new and very different workplace in Texas. For 10 years an independent republic, “The Lone Star State” is perhaps the least royal place on earth but the qualities symbolised by the Queen are cherished here as core American values.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is not headline news in America. Not yet, anyway. However, the US media didn’t really focus on last year’s Royal Wedding until the last minute, and then it became very big news indeed. The TV viewing figures speak for themselves: in the end some 2 billion people worldwide watched the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge kiss on the balcony.
There is one element of the celebrations, though, that is garnering early attention, and that is the star-studded Jubilee Concert. Television networks are vying to outbid each other for the privilege of beaming our wrinkled knights of rock into the homes of middle America. This is fertile ground for such coverage, and not just among fans of Sir Tom Jones.
The elites of the east and west coasts may have loftier things on their minds but “flyover” America (so called because it’s the bit you see out of the plane window when flying between New York and Los Angeles) seems rather readier to enjoy the simple appeal of a real-life royal fairytale. That’s not because citizens of heartland America lack sophistication; it’s just that they often appear blessed with a clearer appreciation of some defining principles.
That is a trait that they share, perhaps surprisingly, with the Queen. In the words of the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres: “Our Head of State stands for common human values”. So, too, does the culture associated with the great swathe of America lying between the Appalachians and the Rockies. This is country largely unknown to British visitors, and that benign ignorance is mostly reciprocated. But those visitors who venture off the well-trodden tourist tracks will find societies still guided by ideals associated with devout early settlers.
For instance, hard work and self-reliance are still watchwords in traditional America. In the run-up to November’s presidential election they have become identifying labels for small-government conservatives. With nearly half the population now not paying any Federal income tax (Heritage Foundation Index of Government Dependence February 2012), the debate about the direction and amount of government spending eclipses virtually every other consideration.
Middle America knows where it stands on such matters: any political map of the country roughly divides it into blue (Democrat) for the coasts and red (Republican) for the rest. Current projections put the handful of decisive swing states very much in play. Contrary to what many hoped, this ideological divide has widened rather than narrowed under President Obama who now faces the real possibility of being a one-term leader.
Another traditional ideal still alive in small-town America is the old sense of duty to one’s neighbour. Philanthropy is practised on a vast scale. It doesn’t just reward the rich donor with useful tax breaks, it sets the tone for a habit of giving which permeates society. Just as well, you might say, given the absence of a comprehensive welfare system. However, private charity very often responds with a speed and precision that slow-moving government machinery can’t match. Nowhere is this more evident than in the wake of natural disasters when volunteers, churches and community organisations frequently provide first-response services – and to an extraordinarily high standard. Add the fact that most Americans only get two weeks holiday a year and their willingness to devote time to helping others just gets more saintly.
On the subject of churches, faith remains the cornerstone of – to British eyes – an astonishingly high proportion of the population. In Houston, for example, it is routine for just one pastor to pull in a congregation of 30,000 to each of his two Sunday services. Nor is this some kooky bible-thumping red-neck but a clear-eyed, transparently-wholesome exponent of common-sense guidance for a happier life.
Many of those worshippers will be familiar with the local saying that describes any blow hard as being “All hat and no cattle.” That Texan emphasis on authenticity may strike Telegraph readers as odd but probably only if their views were formed by watching too much Dallas. The British expat population of this city – a surprisingly-large network – would probably list their American friends’ sincerity among their most appealing attributes.
Middle-America’s scepticism about anyone and anything overblown is nicely demonstrated by the response to the Facebook flotation fiasco. It seems that the greater the distance from Silicon Valley and Manhattan, the harder it became to sell the hype. Media commentator Jon Friedman welcomed the reality-reminder delivered by ordinary American investors who proved less easy to impress: “We all know that you — the heartland, the people we fly over, Main Street — got it right and Wall Street got it wrong.”
Given this list of traditional values, it should be no surprise that heartland-Americans still (generally) practise courtesy and good manners – except, perhaps, when at the wheel of their battleship-sized pickup trucks. As a matter of course strangers are addressed as “Sir” and “Ma’am” and most children show their elders a healthy respect. Respect is a habitual element in almost all day-to-day interactions, a welcome civility which can’t entirely be due to the fact that the bearing of arms – as guaranteed by the Constitution – is a right widely exercised.
It should be no surprise that the inland states provide most recruits for the US military or that a military ethos permeates much of society. Alongside the stars and stripes fluttering on many suburban front lawns fly flags for the individual services. Trees sport yellow ribbons for family members serving overseas; SUVs proudly carry “Support Our Troops” bumper stickers and airports don’t just give serving personnel priority boarding but provide lounges and assistance too. It’s not the British way, of course; but the sunburnt soldiers in desert boots certainly seem to appreciate it.
Lest this appear some newcomer’s rosy-tinted view of an idealised society, it must be remembered that all the faults of modern western civilisation afflict middle America too. There isn’t space here to explore the plight of the very poor, the underclass of undocumented immigrants, the lingering racial tensions or the blight of economic uncertainty. But if the mark of a society is how it faces its challenges, it takes a lot to beat the decency and unaffected generosity of citizens of the US heartland.
Consider again those identifying American traditional traits: hard work, charity, duty, faith, authenticity. The descendants of those who fled English oppression and won their independence from a British king might enjoy the irony of glancing back across the Atlantic and finding those same qualities embodied in our present Queen. We can assume few of them would swap their flag or their overwhelming firepower for what we could offer today. Yet as we celebrate the Jubilee we can still look our American cousins in the eye: not just because so much of what we admire in them can be traced to our shared culture but also because in Elizabeth II there survives a leader who commands respect beyond the Commonwealth of which she is Head.
At Windsor Castle last week the Queen reviewed several thousand men and women of her armed forces as they paraded to honour her Diamond Jubilee. They carried assault rifles and events concluded with a hint of air power but this was not a time for military machismo. The real power on display resided in the little grey-haired grandmother who nodded dignified approval at the march-past. Not for nothing has Her Majesty been described as the world’s most effective weapon in the projection of “soft power.” Americans would be quick to salute the victories she has won for peace and goodwill, most recently by going to Dublin and – so it seemed – just watching with mild interest while a man poured a pint of stout.
In billboards in Texas there’s a simple slogan used by a candidate for local office which encapsulates the spirit of traditional America but which might also serve as Elizabeth II’s Jubilee strapline: “Works hard. Gets results.” I’ll drink to that.