Second Twelve, 24th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): There is a street in downtown Atlanta named Marietta Street. It's one of the main streets downtown, and it's one of the principal north-south arteries for traffic to and from the city. If you follow the road long enough, you will eventually arrive in the town of Marietta, Georgia. The street name is logical - it is literally the road to Marietta.

But there's one thing - then you're in Marietta, that same street is called "Atlanta Road," because when you're in Marietta, it's the road to Atlanta. The road changes name at the county line.

It's all relative. No one in Atlanta feels slighted that the road leading out of town to Marietta isn't called "Atlanta Street" here.  

When you stand on the western coastline of Florida, or the southern coast of Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana, or the eastern coastline of Texas, you're looking across a great body of water. If you sailed far enough across that water, you'd eventually land on the opposite shore in Mexico. For that reason, it's called the Gulf of Mexico. 

If you applied the Marietta Street/Atlanta Road logic to the Gulf, you'd call that same body of water, when viewed from the Mexican shoreline, the Gulf of America, as from there it's the sea that separates you from the United States. But because of American exceptionalism and international recognition, no one calls it that. The U.S. point of view is accepted across the world, and everyone calls it the Gulf of Mexico.

To insist on calling it the Gulf of America is to give priority to the Mexican viewpoint. It's the opposite of "America first." 

One other thing: the distinctive shape of Mexico is largely defined by the shape of the Gulf coastline. The shape of United Sates is affected by the shape of the Gulf, too, but to a much lesser degree. The shape of the United States is primarily defined by the two adjacent oceans - the U.S. is the nation that extends from "sea to shining sea." The northern boundary is the Canadian border and the southern boundary is defined in part by the Gulf shoreline, sure, but also the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. The shape of the country is not nearly as dependent on the Gulf coast as is the shape of Mexico.

So, what I'm trying to say here is if you think the Gulf should be called the Gulf of America, you're an idiot, and if that offends you, I don't care. If you're an idiot and think it should be called the Gulf of America and are offended if others point out the idiocy of that proposition, I'm not writing here for you anyway and  don't want or need to have you here. Go away!