"I lo-o-o-ove you ma-a-a-an!"
"Yer, (urp)... yer not so-o-o tough!!"
Posted on 12/01/2004 5:31:56 AM PST by Clive
A poll done just before U.S. President George Bush's first official visit to Canada yesterday informs us that nearly three-quarters of Canadians view America as our "closest friend."
But the same poll also indicates Canadians in equal number dislike Bush.
There is something wrong when Canadians proclaim friendship for their most important trading partner and traditional ally, then distance themselves from the democratic choice of Americans, with whom their common continental destiny is joined.
The answer lies somewhere in the reality of an America that challenges Canadian self-identity, is unnerving and, hence, many Canadians indulge in caricatures of an America that Bush supposedly represents -- bellicose, simple-minded, uncouth, reactionary.
Following last month's election, with Bush winning his second term and Republicans making gains in the Congress as the majority party, it is time Canadians showed maturity in appreciating the reality of America as it is, rather than seeking comfort from the polemics of self-loathing Americans such as Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore and their followers.
In a recent New York Times column, David Gergen observed, "George W. Bush is emerging as one of the boldest, most audacious presidents in modern history."
Gergen is not an uncritical fan of the president, yet he is an astute observer of his nation's politics as a media person and academic who has also served four U.S. presidents, Republican and Democrat.
Gergen writes that Bush "believes he has a mandate for a revolutionary agenda."
This can be frightening to those who are afraid of altering the status quo in domestic or international politics.
But no American president -- whether a Franklin Roosevelt or a Ronald Reagan -- can lead a revolution without the people's electoral support.
American politics is ultimately the people's business, or its representative majority, and Americans are arguably the most revolutionary of all people in the world.
This fact gets obscured due to the noise and images surrounding the term "revolution," associated with violent uprisings or repression.
But the modern American revolution at home, and by extension abroad, is the unceasing quest for expanding human freedom to constantly reconstruct the world. It defies past norms and skepticism of the faint-hearted everywhere.
A generation ago, Jean-Francois Revel, an uncommon French intellectual, wrote: "The revolution of the 20th century will take place in the United States. It is only here that it can happen."
In his most recent book, Anti-Americanism, Revel discusses once again how much of European antipathy towards America is driven by hostility to Jeffersonian democracy, rather than any rational analysis.
Europe, Revel reminds us, is the cradle of the two great criminal ideologies of the 20th century -- Communism and Nazism -- and it is America that rescued her from both, as it will most likely again from the perils of Islamist fascism.
Canadians' desire to be different from Americans, or be more European, makes us imagine rhetorically a value system more compassionate and more abiding of UN principles than that of Americans.
Americans decided after 9/11 to take their revolutionary principles of freedom and democracy into the heart of Middle Eastern darkness and, accordingly, gave Bush a second mandate.
Victor Davis Hanson, a historian at Stanford University, California states in a recent essay: "We are living in historic times, as all the landmarks of the past half-century are in the midst of passing away ... as the United States is proving to be the most radical engine for world democratic change and liberalization of the age."
Canadians are not required to join Americans in this venture, but at least they need to soberly understand the historic forces at play, rather than indulge in caricatures.
I know you are rushing to learn Canadian history. Let me save you some footwork.
Canada never fought for her own freedom.
Then we agree.
What is it, exactly, are you claiming I am ignorant about?
I haven't read this book, but Robert Kagan also made great points in his book Of Paradise and Power. Kagan, beautifully summed up Europe's (and Canada's) ignorance like this: "...the paradise of peace and prosperity Europe now enjoys is made possible, quite simply, by American power. Provided with security from outside, Europe requires no power of its own; yet protected "under the umbrella of American power," it's able to delude itself into thinking that power is "no longer important" and "that American military power, and the 'strategic culture' that has created and sustained it, is outmoded and dangerous."
European leaders see themselves as inhabiting a post-modern world in which war has been rendered obsolete by the triumph of international "moral consciousness" and international accords...ala their reverence for the UN; yet most of them do not see or do not wish to see the great paradox: that their passage into post-history has depended on the United States not making the same passage.
Because Europe has neither the will nor the ability to guard its own paradise and keep it from being overrun, spiritually and as well as physically, by a world that has yet to accept the rule of "moral consciousness," it has become dependent on America's willingness to use its military might to deter or defeat those around the world who still believe in power politics.
In short, though the U.S. makes Europe's "paradise" possible, "it cannot enter the paradise itself. It mans the walls but cannot walk through the gate...stuck in history, it is left to deal with the Saddams and the Ayatollahs, the Kim Jong Ils and the Jiang Zemins, leaving most of the benefits to others." And when it does address those threats, furthermore, it feels Europe's wrath, for "America's power and its willingness to exercise that power-- unilaterally if necessary--constitute a threat to Europe's new sense of mission."
If Europe's intellectual and political elite was briefly pro-America after 9/11, it was because America was suddenly a victim, and European intellectuals are accustomed to sympathizing reflexively with victims (or, more specifically, with perceived or self-proclaimed victims, such as Arafat). That support began to wane the moment it became clear that Americans had no intention of being victims." The fact remains...Europe's paradise only exists because of America's power...and its ability to use it. And as with most Lib/Leftists, their fruits are the product of other people's labor.
I flew the U.S. flag along with my Canadian flag.
The summer that Canada decided to be "tolerant" and made it clear they were allowing "gay" marriage, I removed my Canadian flag. Sometimes I will put it back up, depending on how annoyed I am at the time with the liberal government.
Liberalism is tolerance...
Stand for nothing and you will fall for everything.
Or, are you just another name-calling Canadian?
(cuz we sure need more of those)
Yet, you blame Canadas problems on Americans infesting and controlling your country.
Your country is what you have made of it.
I know Canadas history well. As good as it apparantly makes Canadians feel to insult Americans; I am not ignorant or simple. Please, show me there is one Canadian different than Parrish.
"I lo-o-o-ove you ma-a-a-an!"
"Yer, (urp)... yer not so-o-o tough!!"
What is it, exactly, are you claiming I am 'abysmally ignorant' about?
Ah, we're just Americans who talk like Fargo.
Do urban Canadians think non-urban Canadians are stupid, like the American red states?
If I may, I believe this is true. I moved from the Maritimes to Toronto to work there for two years. I gotta say, they looked at me sometimes like I was their long lost cousin from the mountains.
Except in 1812, WW1, WW2...Korea...
Was that the only family that reacted that way?
You keep saying "we" did this, or "we" did that. It's not really a "we" thing. It is a "they" thing, meaning liberals (both Canadian and those from the south that migrated here and the MSM).
Must be bad up there without NHL Hockey. So now the blind up there have to beat up on the President.
Oh well......
Did you watch the KanuKs sitting on their Kollective hands while Bush spoke to them today? The only thing they seemed to think worthy of note was the mention of the NHL.
I will remind the dead members of my family pushing up daisies in foreign lands from two world wars and Korea that they died for nothing. I will remind the families of the dead French and English soldiers that died carving a Country out of the frozen North American leftovers that they died for nothing and I will remind the families of the dead patriots that thwarted two invasions from our southern neighbours that they died for nothing. Your knowledge of Canadian history has corrected these myths.
If by America you mean the USA, I don't remember . Explain it to me.
Yes, you are correct.
When I say "we", it is just because that is how our discussion is framed, we being the government of Canada, liberals. I am speaking of what we did as a nation.
I am not aware of any other cottagers' opinions. They still are very kind to me. I think it is just this one who has contracted the Michael Moore virus.
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