That is at least the feeling of the socialliberal left. But the patriotic of the various nations feel a kinship toward the americans, and although we would not call it americanism, we must pick and choose what the US has done right and apply it in the various European countries. Specially things like assimilation (and openness for individuals to become part of the new nation), the reawakening of our old values (Christianity and capitalism) and national pride.
The thing is that european nations are probably nearly as divided in these issues as Americans, but only one voice is allowed to be heard unlike across the pond.
This is a very interesting article, one thing I would say from the UK point of view is that in the 80s Mrs Thatcher drove a bulldozer through the power of the state and the unions bringing Capitalism to the forefront of the Britain. None of this happened in continental Europe.
The question everyone keeped asking in Britain for years after that was "where have all the commies and socialists gone?". The answer was that they appeared in new guises, i.e. left wing think tanks and quangos, politically correct focus groups etc, all working for the state. Such was their rage and anger at being quashed by Mrs T.
They realised that Capitalism in Britain was here to stay and they could do nothing about it, but their vile mindset was accustomed to revenge in a different way like the above and now we seem to be reaping the awful consequences of the liberalists revenge since Tony Blair's New Labour was elected and the state has almost gone back to being as big as it was in the 1970s.
I think from this we can conclude that Britain is much closer to the US in the free market policy area but that we still have the same amount of state worshipping lefty's as continental Europe who keep trying to pull us backwards all the time.
>>and although we would not call it americanism, we must pick and choose what the US has done right and apply it in the various European countries.
I think that because the Left in this country, and abroad, have hammered so hard on what we've done wrong, in an effort to take America down, that it's hard to have a substantive discussion on it, because Conservatives tend to immediately circle wagons when these issues come up.
But you're right, and I don't think anyone, least of all this author, would suggest that all aspects of America need to be picked up and carried across the pond to replace what's in place in Europe.
>>The thing is that european nations are probably nearly as divided in these issues as Americans, but only one voice is allowed to be heard unlike across the pond.
Here, alternate communications for political ideas really got going in the late 1960s/early 1970s with things like Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum newsletter (she was huge in stopping the Equal Rights Amendment), direct mail with Richard Viguerie for Reagan, and then Rush Limbaugh on radio in the late 80s. The Internet really got going for us in the late 90s, and I think we're really seeing the political results of all of this today.
The point is, it takes time, perserverance, and willingness to be painted as "evil", or made as invisible as possible, by your current media elites (as all of the people mentioned above were/are), to build the alternative political communications paths to overcome the existing system.
So get to work! ;-)
Thanks. I hope it is just the 'elite' that feel against America. I think those people have lost their energy, but I am sure there is a lot of it in the regular people. You are right that only some of the news travels across the Atlantic, both ways. I think the only way most of us will learn about each other is places like FreeRepublic. Otherwise, we will all be in the dark and getting what the media people want us to hear.