From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Monday, April 24th.

Let's imagine for a moment that the historical shoe was on the other foot. It's 1492,

and some Lenape explorers,

people from around here at that time,

set sail across the Atlantic Ocean,

looking for China,

and they land in England,

not knowing where they are.

They assume it's China,

so they start calling the Englanders the Chinese.

They start to set up shop among the natives.

They take some of the Englanders as slaves.

The diseases they brought from here wipe out many Brits.

The native Englanders resist having their land taken by the Lenape and put up a fierce resistance. The

Lenape label them savages, but the resistance is to no avail. The settlers renamed London

New Manahatta. The Lenape settlers declare themselves in charge and eventually declare that

they have a manifest destiny to spread

their political control throughout the British Isles. Eventually that happens. And the natives are

relegated to certain isolated areas they call Englander reservations or China reservations

from the geographical mistake they made. The natives don't have to live on the

reservations, but if not, they're expected to assimilate into Lenape culture and accept the name

New Manahatta for what they used to call London as normal and just. Then all over the country

...