An opinion poll taken in 1947, just before India and Pakistan became independent, found that three quarters of the British public did not know the difference between a dominion and a colony, and half could not name a single possession. One man even nominated Lincolnshire as a possible colony……….This public indifference to the intricacies of empire was not something particularly new, and neither was it part of some popular backlash against Britain’s imperial mission. Most ordinary voters were not particularly embarrassed by, or unsympathetic to, their imperial inheritance. Instead, like their parents and grandparents, they simply knew very little about it and cared even less. With this in mind, it becomes easier to understand why they were so unperturbed when it passed into history.”
Never Had it so Good by Dominic Sandbrook
But the manual working class in America (those mainly with the pick-up trucks) and the religious in small town America do seem to very much identify with an American empire, or at least they like a robust foreign policy with which they can identify. Brought up to recite the mantra that “America is the greatest country ever in the history of the world”, they like to hear their politicians recite the belief and see them throw their weight about in pursuit of democracy and justice, or the American version of them The British were not really that involved, except for a short time in the 1890s. It is going to be a political problem if and when the Chinese or the Indians challenge the US hegemony. Look forward to votes for even bigger armies and navies and more international confrontations.