At the end of the Trump era, a word to our European friends.

This is not intended as a slam in the UK; in fact, I'm something of an Anglophile. But it's a matter that keeps coming up from Europeans at times like this. I just reencountered it on Facebook from a Greek who saw himself as being in a position to lecture us about not being the folks who invented democracy. Well, I suppose if anybody has that right, it's the Greeks.

If not the Greeks, perhaps, descendants of the native Americans who comprised the Iroquois Confederacy, who employed it pretty darned effectively in their pre-Columbian day.

Look, British cousins: Magna Carta had nothing to do with democracy or rights for the common man. It was an instrument of oligarchy. It was an assertion of the rights and privileges of the nobility over and against the king. And in fact, the UK was an oligarchy until the 19th Century. Universal male suffrage wasn't even a thing in the UK until Disraeli's time. Until then, Parliament was still a collection of representatives of the wealthy and aristocrats, and Parliamentary constituencies often "rotten boroughs" with no basis whatsoever in actually representing the populace. I grant that slaves were only two-thirds of a legal human being throughout our early years, and the first Parliamentary reform acts predate the 13th and 15th Amendments. But if slaves couldn't vote for Congress members, they were, in theory, at least represented there. The same could not be said of British working people!

I am grateful for Yanks' heritage from the Mother Country in politics and law, and culture. But the United States has been a democracy considerably longer than the UK has. Just sayin'. And again, I raise the point only because I keep encountering Brits and Europeans who want to lecture us on how young and inexperienced we really are in employing a system of practices and values we boast about- and frankly, have every right to boast about.

Hey, Frenchmen. How many Republics have you had so far? We're still on our first. Germans, your ancient democratic heritage goes all the way back to the end of World War II. I have to admit that the Greeks invented the idea and have held it (along with others conflicting with it) for a great deal longer, although they don't have all that much experience in actually using it. But as counterintuitive as it is, the United States is by far the oldest and most stable (yeah, even that) constitutional republic on the planet. Our soon-to-be President-Elect is a member of the oldest political party on Earth, even though it was only founded in Jefferson's day.

Donald Trump has done unconscionable damage to the Atlantic alliance, and it's my deep and heartfelt prayer that President Biden can undo at least most of it. That damage is part of the reason I've been so anxious to see him go. But that said, it's fitting to use the tail end of the Trump era to get this off my chest. Some of the sneerings that folks on the other side of the Pond do is irritating even to the least Trumpy among us-and not very historical, either.

Irrational and arrogant anti-Americanism among our friends isn't cool. I look forward to our having an administration in power that respects our allies. I hope that somewhere along the line, they might decide to return the favor in ways in which they, themselves, have been a bit Trumpy toward us.