Our name has confused a few people already. So what does it mean? “My fellow Americans” is a phrase commonly used as the opening of a Presidential address. It has great symbolic resonance – enshrining the idealised American version of democracy, where the President is but one of many equal citizens.

Here’s Gerald Ford addressing his fellow Americans after taking the oath in 1974, in what he described as an “hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts” – following Watergate and Nixon’s resignation.

And in case it’s not already clear, Tom and I are not American. Not in any traditional, being-born-in-the-country, having-American-citizenship sort of way. It’s more of a spiritual affiliation – one that has been born of the flickering pixels of The West Wing and The Simpsons, the words of Dave Eggers and PJ O’Rourke, and the artwork of Joe Sacco.

The British people indulge in many lazy cliches and generalised assumptions about the United States and its inhabitants, and we are bridging the Atlantic in a perhaps naïve attempt to correct this. Feel free to poke me if I refer to ‘big sky country’ or make a hollow joke about George W. Bush’s diction at any point, because this isn’t that kind of blog.

Nor do we have the slightest intention of telling Americans what we think about the election. We’re not making that mistake, especially after seeing what happened to The Guardian’s little ‘experiment’ in Clark County in 2004. We are just observing, and listening. Like the UN without the silly hats.

Furthermore it seems fair that, as two presumptuous Brits, we ought to pay a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T to those who have taken the name ‘My Fellow Americans’ before us: this book about significant Presidential speeches from history, this blog, and this mediocre mid-90s odd-couple movie about two bickering ex-Presidents. (An odd-couple movie with Jack Lemmon in it? Someone was thinking outside the box there…)

Of all the Presidents who have uttered those three imposing words to the American people, Ronald Reagan unquestionably made the most of them, famously saying the following in 1984 when he thought a radio mic was switched off:

“My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.”

What a joker.