Posted on 06/30/2005 9:40:19 AM PDT by nypokerface
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Bush heads to next week's Group of Eight summit in Scotland, one of his main tasks will be to try to mitigate anti-U.S. sentiments in Europe -- but he may also need to look at growing anti-Europeanism in the United States, political and foreign policy analysts say.
"There is a strong strain of anti-Europeanism coming from sections of the Republican Party, related to and sometimes encouraged by the White House," said Jan Kubik, director of the center for comparative European studies at Rutgers University.
"Connected to that is the anti-Europeanism of the religious right, where Europe is seen as a place without God that has become too secular and lost its values," he said.
Many Americans were outraged at the refusal of prominent European nations, especially France and Germany, to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Now, some analysts fear that European anti-Americanism and U.S. anti-Europeanism may have become mutually reinforcing.
"Negative opinions about the United States in Europe have affected attitudes toward those countries here," said pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center.
A Pew survey last week found for instance that only 43 percent of French citizens viewed the United States favorably, while 46 percent of Americans had a favorable view of France.
There is nothing new about anti-European sentiment in the United States. But sour feelings on both sides, largely masked during the 40 years of the Cold War, have widened into a chasm in the past three years.
"As an American, the characteristic that is particularly troubling to me is the virulent anti-Americanism I experience every time I visit the continent," said Sen. Gordon Smith (news, bio, voting record), a Republican from Oregon who describes himself as a strong champion of the traditional U.S.-European alliance.
'DEMONIZATION' OF BUSH
In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, Smith said he particularly objected to the "gross anti-American reporting and demonization of President Bush," in much of the European media.
He said that made it difficult for leaders like himself to champion the continuation of the traditional Atlantic alliance. "A lot of Americans would like to see that relationship chipped away at," he said.
Among Christian conservatives, who form a powerful bloc in the Republican Party, criticism of European secularism has become a standard theme, said University of Akron political scientist John Green, an expert on Christian fundamentalism.
"It's also a useful way for them to attack American liberals who admire Europe, especially the relative absence of religion in public affairs. The Christian conservative response is to say that Europe has become a basically decadent place and an example of what America would be if liberals had their way," he said.
Among Republicans, especially in the U.S. House of Representatives, who travel overseas much less than U.S. legislators did a generation ago, hostility to things European has blossomed in recent years, Green said.
Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay began one speech to fellow party members last year by saying, "Good afternoon, or as John Kerry might say, bonjour" -- a contemptuous reference to the 2004 Democratic presidential challenger's ability to speak French.
Some U.S. commentators, echoing the critique of the late Pope John Paul II, point to falling European birth rates as a sign that European societies have given themselves completely over to the pursuit of pleasure, to the point that they are committing demographic suicide.
On the economic front, the United States has produced consistently higher growth rates and lower unemployment than many nations in Europe. Some U.S. commentators blame the excessive regulations imposed by the European Community. Others say Europeans are plain lazy.
"French voters are trying to preserve a 35-hour workweek in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day," wrote New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman earlier this month.
Funny, most of my lefty friends hate Europe too.
When the Eurotrash quit bad mouthing and stabbing America in the back, we might decide to lay off of them.
while 46 percent of Americans had a favorable view of France.
Now there is a depressing statistic for you. Besides, we dislike Americans who think like Europeans too.
For Christ Sake...Rueters, of all media outlets, should know exactly why there's disdain for Europe within the U.S....considering their reporting, or lack there of, is one of the causes.
Hey, don't forget about us anti-Euro atheists. We hate ya too!
LMAO! Was wondering if any atheists would lend their voice!
We must be doing something right if they hate us....I would be concerned if they liked us because then we would be commie leaning left....
Besides, we dislike Americans who think like Europeans too.
Is there a poll for that somewhere? If not there should be.
I think you'll find that if you travel to Europe what the people think about Americans differs radically from what their media says about Americans.
Et Tu Bruti????!!!
That's about it, pilgrim.... We have learned to hate Europe again.
I cannot imagine why the crapweasels think that we don't like them. Was it something I said?
So what the leftist press sees as a sexist, racist, anti-semitic, and xenophibic attitudes among conservatives are often simply anti-leftist attitudes which, if the press bothered to look at them more closely, have nothing to do with sex, race, religion, or country of origin. Are there sexist, racist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic conservatives? Sure. But, shhhhh, there are sexist, racist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic liberals, too. And they are hardly the mainstream.
"That's about it, pilgrim.... We have learned to hate Europe again."
They've taught us well.
France is the enemy - France has always been the enemy.
Funny, Europe takes a crap on the US for 6 years and we are suppose to like them....
Well said QA. Also, European Right wingers share the same disdain for European Left Wingers.
As for newspaper reports - these are not the voices of the people in America - why would they be in Europe? I don't believe that US-ophobic front pages are telling us the truth about what people think in Europe.
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