And some are all hat and no cattle.
Posted on 06/07/2008 6:19:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
MONEY can't buy you love.
This week George W Bush flies into Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan - the massive reconstruction effort that enabled western Europe to rise to prosperity from the ashes of the second world war.
The president's European tour, which will include a visit to Belfast, comes on the back of a YouGov poll published last week that reveals the extent of European hostility towards the US.
Asked "Do you think the United States is overall a force for good or evil in today's world?", an astonishing 43% of respondents said "force for evil."
Just 27% thought the US a 'force for good'.
The poll surveyed four western European nations - Britain, France, Italy and Germany - along with Russia.
Unsurprisingly, given the talk of a new 'cold war', hostility was greatest in Russia, where only 16% thought the US was a force for good.
At the other end of the spectrum, Italians were most positive about the role of America in the world, with 49%/27% split in favour of the US. Italy still prides itself on its 'special' transatlantic relationship. Almost 16 million Italian emigrants live in the US. Back home, the older generation still tend to be grateful for the role the US played in liberating Italy during the war and for the rebuilding that came afterwards.
In Britain, which has its own 'special relationship' with the US, the figures were a statistical dead heat at 33% and 35%.
Perhaps the most striking statistics of all are those for France and Germany. Despite the efforts of chancellor Angela Merkel and president Nicolas Sarkozy to rebuild their association with the United States in the wake of the war in Iraq, both countries remain deeply suspicious of what the French disparagingly call 'L'Hypuissance'. Of French respondents, only 28% thought America a force for good, In Germany the figure was lower still at 25%.
The unpopularity of the war in Iraq notwithstanding, it is difficult to take the 'forcefor-evil' sentiment in this data seriously. For the simple truth is that Europeans everywhere, including in Ireland, remain as in love with the American way of life as ever.
For months, the media and public alike have soaked up every last detail of the enthralling US primary season. (I bet more people can instantly recall the first name of Barack Obama's wife than that of Mrs Cowen. ) Check out the European music chart this week and you'll find US stars Madonna and Justin Timberlake at No 1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Sex and the City are the headline films in European cinemas.
Indiana Jones took a whopping $24.1m in UK box office receipts in its opening four days alone.
Lest we dismiss this as 'mere' popular culture, that dominance also comes in the traffic of serious ideas. As commentators such as Timothy Garton Ash frequently point out, Washington has at its fingertips a range and depth of policy analysis, in government, think tanks, universities and the media, which London has not matched for 50 years and no other European capital, least of all the EU 'capital' of Brussels, can begin to approach.
The energy and enthusiasm of that response to American politics, culture and ideas stands in stark contrast to the apathy with which we greet European affairs.
The referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has put Ireland at the heart of a crucial European debate this month, but you would be hard-pressed to know it.
For all the posters and occasional shouting matches on TV and radio, the public reaction has been one of boredom, bemusement and disinterest. Even Matt Cooper, who has been hosting a series of debates on the treaty, says he may not bother to vote.
Eurocrats such as EU president Jose Manuel Barroso would like to blame us for any lack of interest, but the reality is that Brussels consistently fails to engage the public imagination.
America on the other hand always does. And even those who seem to view the current administration as a 'force for evil' can take comfort from the words of that great 19th-century Americaphile, Alexis de Tocqueville.
"The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, " he wrote, "but rather in her ability to repair her faults."
Pull up the drawbridge. Screw em.
Why give a rats ass what they think?!
I took my family to NYC last summer. We stayed about six blocks up from Times Square on 7th Ave. You had to see the Europeans on their shopping sprees to believe it. My son and I were in the big Toys R US in Times Square and there was no English to be heard. Just the jabbering of French, German, Italian and Russian buying the place out. PS3s were flying out the door.
Thanks to our immigration laws here, they won't be allowed in unless they face Mecca five times per day.
If I were living in Australia or Canada, I would be bracing for impact.
[In the eyes of the world, we look like idiots.]
In the eyes of those who watch the liberal media.
.
Yup
It’s amazing
But the media insists on spinning it
Let’s send the media abroad and take in those who love coming here as tourists
Do they care what we think of them? Why the heck should we care what they think of us?
What is the poll result without Russia?
France, Germany, and Russia were getting payoffs from Hussein’s Iraq to stiffle support for the war.
They miss the bribes.
And some are all hat and no cattle.
To hear the black supremacists tell it you should love “the motherland” as much as they love Africa. Of course I don’t see them ever doing much to topple the despots RUNNING African nations but that is beside the point.
And I agree. Our ancestors LEFT Europe for good reason.
Well, if the U.S. had not kept Persian Gulf oil reserves out of the control of a potentially nuclear armed Iraq and Iran, Europe would be begging for oil at any price.
America affects the European Union by allowing it to be able to survive in this hostile World, totally self-absorbed, while the Americans man the ramparts of Western Civilization.
Before Pearl Harbor, the Brits were doing that ...... It was their Finest Hour.
Hank (born Gottlieb Mueller to German parents in Brooklyn) should have also mentioned that Germans make the worst tourists. Whether getting drunk at the hotel bar in Miami wearing only speedos or harassing our womenfolk while visiting Italy on a high school trip all those years ago, Germans make the ugly American look downright charming.
So, umm ... What exactly are you implying about the rest of us that might have been stationed there after the war.
Does that 604,000 only include folks born in Italy? There are at least hundred thousand folks of Italian ancestry who were born in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina living in the US by now.
LOL! I saw that in Orlando about 10 years ago.
Well, coming from a deep-blue area of a highly-unchurched blue state, I'd have to re-word that to "the commitment some of us hold". A lot of folks here, like Obama's SF friends, don't understand either.
I'm afraid to ask but... L'Hypuissance?...anyone know?
Yawn
EUrope=FAIL
>>I do believe this has been a deliberate and planned attack of the DNC, which has paid off for them in spades.
See this article; it’s a pretty remarkable summary on that theme, and more:
The Audacity of the Democrats
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2027484/posts?page=1
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.