UK special relationship with America. Is it real?

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

For a "special relationship" between countries to endure, both leaders have to be committed to the good of the nation they represent. In the case of Trump and Johnson, I'm not very sure that's the case. There likely is a special relationship between the men, like two kids in the same class, sitting near to each other, or like father and son, or master and slave...
Fighting to get out of a semi-secular economic agreement, which is the largest and most stable union of human history, doesn't look to be "in the best interests of a country and the people living in it", not even close. But that's a completely different topic.

[RegisterMe]

But the "special relationship" is not just embodied in the form of the leaders of the two countries - it includes economic ties (purchaser supplier relationships, foreign direct investment, central bank agreements etc), industry ties (joint projects, senior staff moving between companies, significant workforces based in the two countries working together etc), long lasting military ties (training, interoperability, command and control, awareness of each other's capabilities etc), cultural affinity and so on.

The "special relationship" will outlast Trump and Johnson, but it will evolve to reflect the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be.

[Mightysword]

Politic is like playing the stock market in term of building a porfolio for your retirement. You don't really want to look at it with every up and down of the market. I bet many people doing it had seen their gain wiped out a few times when the economy hits the down turn. The thing despite that, you invest in the belief at the end, you will still come out on top, otherwise you just give yourself unnecessary heart-attack.

Also another rule in politic is you don't hold grudge long term, especially when dealing with democratic governments. As good as it is, the down side is democratic government is very X2 sagt Bussi auf Bauch, ESPECIALLY the US. Don't like the current administration? Just wait until the next one. Isn't the EC last week already flat out said they want to have a summit with Biden as soon as possible if he wins? I think that's a rather ... indiscreet statement to make given the election hasn't concluded yet but it does show 2 things: the EC already writes Trump off as a lost cause in term of someone they can work with, but are more than eager to work with the next person.

Again, I don't think much about "special relationship" itself as a word. Churchill is a great orator and when he said it, it makes perfect sense given the context of the time. I doubt he meant for it to be used/criticized over half the century later. People started out giving it too much meaning only so they can complain how it has too much meaning, weird.

If anything, I would say Australia has even a more special relationship if you go by a certain metric. It seems they always unconditionally go with whatever crap we drag them through the mud with.

Edit: that part in green ... what the !?!? (I typed this word and somehow the forum turns it into that)

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

Politic is like playing the stock market in term of building a porfolio for your retirement. You don't really want to look at it with every up and down of the market. I bet many people doing it had seen their gain wiped out a few times when the economy hits the down turn. The thing despite that, you invest in the belief at the end, you will still come out on top, otherwise you just give yourself unnecessary heart-attack.

Also another rule in politic is you don't hold grudge long term, especially when dealing with democratic governments. As good as it is, the down side is democratic government is very X2 sagt Bussi auf Bauch, ESPECIALLY the US. Don't like the current administration? Just wait until the next one. Isn't the EC last week already flat out said they want to have a summit with Biden as soon as possible if he wins? I think that's a rather ... indiscreet statement to make given the election hasn't concluded yet but it does show 2 things: the EC already writes Trump off as a lost cause in term of someone they can work with, but are more than eager to work with the next person.

Again, I don't think much about "special relationship" itself as a word. Churchill is a great orator and when he said it, it makes perfect sense given the context of the time. I doubt he meant for it to be used/criticized over half the century later. People started out giving it too much meaning only so they can complain how it has too much meaning, weird.

If anything, I would say Australia has even a more special relationship if you go by a certain metric. It seems they always unconditionally go with whatever crap we drag them through the mud with.

Edit: that part in green ... what the !?!? (I typed this word and somehow the forum turns it into that)

Google tells me you need to uninstall the previous driver before unistalling the new one. It's a good metaphore about the (hopeful) transition between Trump and Biden, because it's going to need some time to have a new government in the USA, I think we're going to see Biden's mark not before the summer (so many patches needed to properly erase the old, buggy driver...).

I like your point of view on "just wait the next administration", but I've got the impression that, somehow, it's not really the case anymore. But in a way it is. Politics nowadays is faster and more emotional than in the past, but for the same reason is volatile, meaning that you can have something and the exact opposite just in a few months. It was more "stable" toward the centrism before internet (just to give a time span, I don't know if it's internet's fault): now, even in large and old democracies, it looks like extremism has a lot more space, because there are a lot more reasons (some of them are just "fake" reasons) to follow reactionary ideas: salary gap is one, media focus on certain arguments (e.g. immigration, which is something that's not changed this much in the last decades, but still media gives it a lot of emphasis), a global pandemic helps a lot specific political views, ... Just some example, but I don't know if the "wait the next administration" motto works like it worked in the past.

[Vertigo 7]

There’s a pretty big difference in waiting for an administration to give you things like paving roads and whatever magical tax break you’re hoping for and biting your tongue while the current one legalizes murder by the police and asks for neo-nazis to murder elected officials while pretending a disease that’s rampaging through your country isn’t a problem, or real.

[Chips]

There's plenty of comment upon what is special about it, and often indicates the depth is led by the leaders of both nations. In reality is that there's daily cooperation between the two in areas which involve a shared global opinion and interest - essentially military + intelligence.

We may view actions and what is said at a leader level, but that doesn't mean under the surface where we have no idea what's going on that, based upon a Trump tweet or Johnson gaffe, that each side is sending home various employees from various roles or welcoming them back with open arms. The "special" part is just a definition that it's beyond normal cooperation between nations. It doesn't indicate preferential treatment in trade, or in every sector. Surely both will act in their best interest for their own country and citizens first and foremost.

As for military action and allies, you don't have allies by only helping when it's a specific interest for yourself and refusing at all other times. Why? Because when you then have a need to call for aid you won't get a reply. It is sub-optimal to get called into a war, but there's a very specific reason allies respond positively when called upon.