America and Europe
Bookworm on Oct 12 2008 at 8:28 pm | Filed under: Barack Obama, Europe
It’s short, so I’ll quote this post from Power Line in its entirety:
America: Last Refuge for the Left?
Mark Steyn makes a good point:
If Obama is elected in November, at G7 meetings, for the first time since time they began, America will have a more left-wing leader than any other member of the group – Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Britain (and that’s before Gordon Brown loses to David Cameron). Right-of-center government throughout the western world – except Washington.
American liberals have yearned to match Europe’s supposed sophistication as long as America has existed. Maybe someone should give them the news: adopting Euro-style leftism in 2008 would be a bit like having a go at European fascism in 1945.
Related posts:
- Tired of America-bashing?
- Immigration and other European ideas for America
- The view from across the pond
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3 Responses to “America and Europe”
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Fascism is only a bad thing if it threatens the Communist paradise of a Stalin or Obama, Book. I believe you know this by now.
I would not call these leaders right-of-center by American standards but there has been an uneven trend back to sanity and sound third way policies. I know that Germany (where I have worked for several years) had drastic cuts in welfare and unemployment benefits. Unemployment (which had been creeping up for 25 years) went promptly down during the economic upturn in recent years (which is now crashing to a halt).
What Americans often do not understand is that Europeans do not always believe their own words. They are by and large not as green or red as you would think. On both sides of the Atlantic we have subsidised marxists on tv and in the theatres, but when Sweden´s corporate tax rate is lower than America´s you know they can´t overcome reality.
On the other hand both the left and the right are more statist here and there is less emphasis on personal freedom and opportunity. In fact, America is almost impossibly liberal by comparison, in the classic sense of the word. Let me put it this way: both an entrepreneur or a terrorism suspect are better off in the US than in France.
The Germans I know may like Obama from afar but they would never, ever take a chance on an unknown quantity. In fact, until Helmut Kohl was replaced by Schroeder in 1998 after 16 years (!), no chancellor since WW2 had ever been voted out of office. The country is currently ruled by a grand coalition of both major parties. No desire for change here!
By the way, now Germany has its own 500 billion financial rescue package.