The European View of the United States
Posted on 10 September 2008 by Lisa Pawlowski
My husband, Kevin, recently came home from a European business trip. Over the course of a week and a half, he visited Poland, England and Ireland. Even though he was across the Atlantic Ocean, he knew exactly what was going on in America because of the constant European news coverage of the Democratic and Republican conventions.
Given the time frame and the pervasive news, the first question everyone asked him when they found out he was an American was, “So, who are you going to vote for in the election?” Kevin honestly answered, “I don’t know, yet.” And then usually the inquisitor would go off on Bush. They love Obama and they see McCain as another four years of what we’ve had for the past eight.
And it wasn’t like 75 percent liked Obama and 25 percent preferred McCain. No. Of those Europeans who were vocal about it (which was nearly all of them) a hundred percent liked Obama and think there is no way he can possibly lose in November. In fact, Kevin surprised most of his colleagues when he informed them that the American election is most likely going to be another close race, and that while the media coverage they see over there has all but anointed Obama as president, the Europeans aren’t seeing any coverage of the Americans in the red Republican states.
We’ve all heard the news tell us that Americans are hated everywhere, but my husband found this to not be the case. He said that while the Europeans hated Bush, they didn’t mind Americans so much. They were able to separate American citizens from the things our government has done. Everyone he encountered was respectful, curious about us, and surprised that the image of America that they see on TV isn’t necessarily true.
Popularity: 11% [?]
September 10th, 2008 at 9:21 am
While spending several months in Denmark, I learned that the Danish people loved Bill Clinton. They hated George W. Bush. I was told that in Denmark, Clinton would be the ultra conservative, and there is no one anywhere close to as conservative as Bush in the entire country’s political scene.
The Europeans I’ve met reflect an entirely different world view than what you would have living in the Bible Belt. Denmark’s state church is so impotent that it doesn’t affect the nation’s moral system at all. It’s a token. Almost no one attends and no one really talks about attending. It’s just not important.
In the southern states, we have at least one church for every square mile of populated space. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, attend church on at least a monthly basis. And we are the states that vote Republican on a routine basis. You can look to a dozen other reasons involving old agriculture, oil, ranches, and guns.
Still, I consistently hear from visitors that Texas is the friendliest state they’ve ever visited, and I can’t help but wonder how much of a role faith and faith-based values affect the social culture here. As “liberated” as New York may be, it’s also not the friendliest place in the world to live, which affects its desirability for me.
This may seem like a tangent, but I think it’s all part of the same conversation. Europeans like liberal American politicians. I like some of them too. But I don’t look to European or Northern American lifestyle and culture as the evidence of a superior worldview. Despite the lack of clear cut solutions, I still say there is a balance / compromise somewhere between liberal and conservative that would actually be the healthiest standard for America’s future.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:31 am
They do love Clinton. One guy in England asked my husband if Bill Clinton would win if he were running for president today. It surprised him when Kevin told him no.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I’d disagree with the notion that Europeans *hate* Bush. They’re bemused by him, and simply can’t understand how someone so unprepossessing, so gauche, so lacking in critical curiosity, can have won two elections. As one acquaintance put it, “I used to think Reagan was stupid, but at least when he cracked a joke, you knew it was deliberate.”
Actual hatred is reserved for the more intelligent neocons who are widely seen to be pulling his strings: Bush may actually believe the crap he spouts about Iraq, etc, but Cheney et al are surely bright enough to realise what they’re saying ain’t so.
Clinton, like Gorbachev and Thatcher, will always be far more popular outside his homeland.