Cities in Ireland and Great Britain continue to move away from giving the automobile a central role in the life of their city centers.

Both countries have extensive roadway systems linking their cities and suburbs full of vehicles operating on 1.50 Euro per liter gasoline, about eight dollars a gallon, which seems to have plenty of takers in their generally smaller and more efficient vehicles. However walkable, transit enabled city centers were functioning in Dublin, Cork and Cardiff.

All of these cities bear the bruises of the massive global economic crash which originated in the United States in 2008. Dublin has an entire edge city unfinished and apparently in receivership full of condominium blocks. Cork has an over scaled hotel complex for crowds of Euro tourists who may never arrive. Cardiff's massive bay redevelopment has slowed. There are plenty of empty storefronts everywhere.

The only news making it to the UK from America regards the possible national default. The reporting on it here is remarkably consistent from the tabloid press to the BBC. Everyone here has begun to regard American politics as dysfunctionally polarized under the influence of the tea party. The Teaparty's view of the old world though their lens of American exceptionalism may be a negative one tainted by "socialism" and "multiculturalism." The old world's view of the tea party is that the movement is deluded by a feedback loop of tainted news information which reinforces a march towards insanity, where it is okay for the Government of the world's largest economy to skip paying its bills. The contest is symbolized in the video by President Obama, very popular here, on one side and Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin on the other.

This view is largely shared by the people here, who have apparently begun to regard Americans as people who may have something wrong with their heads.

The more grounded and longer view of the world being held here has its partial origin in the way their cities are working. All three cities we have visited have large, walkable city centers with robust transit systems. Cars are largely relegated to parking facilities at the edge of these city centers.

Dublin's most popular entertainment street has been blocked to traffic entirely and an entire street nearby has been taken over as a transit center for the new Luas street level train system. Many other nearby streets are partially closed to traffic. Street musicians and vendors help create a lively scene. Elsewhere in the city, car traffic has been choked down to a single lane.

Cork's remake of it's city center was much more ambitious with miles of street repaved in local stone, fully closed to traffic and illuminated at night by elaborate lighting masts. The central bus station joined local and regional services a few blocks from the city center. The busy train station was just a walkable bridge across the river.

Cardiff city center also had miles of walkable streets and Arcades. The train and central bus station were just outside the pedestrianized city center. Bus service was frequent and provided access to the entire city, including the massive Cardiff bay docklands redevelopment project.

All three cities boasted an active life on the sidewalk with bustling cafes, street performers and shops. Locals simply ignore the misty weather here and take their Guinness and coffee as if it is a sunny day in what Southerners would regard as a drizzle in March. The action and the people are on the street.

All this human contact appears to buffer the alienation which enables polarization in America. People walk around their communities, see their historic structures and socialize. They meet each other on the bus and train.

It all amounts to continuing instruction that there has been a lot of history up to now, they are in it together and one has to mind making a big mistake.

They have the Germans and the Chinese on their minds here. America is not regarded as central the future. As we choose to live in communities disconnected by the automobile which enable a disconnected politics, the world is disconnecting from us.

William Hamilton (www.wjhamilton.com) is an attorney who lives in I'On Village.