The U.S.-European Divorce

By Dale Hurd
January 5, 2004

 

Bush's faith has been forced to the surface, accentuating the growing values gap between an increasingly liberal Europe and an increasingly conservative United States.

 

LONDON - Hostile welcomes for President Bush have become a regular occurrence in a Europe increasingly hostile toward the United States. In London last November, the president was called "the biggest warmonger on the face of this earth. The people of London do not want him here." The toppling of Bush's statue in Trafalgar Square by leftists was meant to show that Europeans think Bush is just as criminal as Saddam Hussein.

The conservative Texan has become a lightening rod for hate, on a continent where many view the United States as a rogue state. It is part left-wing politics, part conspiracy theory, but it is becoming mainstream.

A gay man in London commented, "We don't really want Bush here because we are a democratic country. He wasn't democratically elected, and he's ignored lots of international laws."

Another man said, "It's called the war on terrorism, but it's a complete fake. The terrorists themselves, needless to say, hardly any have been caught…whereas, countries like Afghanistan and Iraq have been ruthlessly bombed."

One Indian woman said, "And he thinks he can just walk over the peoples of the world, and I think that's wrong."

Hammer a message long enough and it starts to sink in. The message here repeatedly is that George W. Bush is stupid and dangerous. Most of the media here are dominated by liberals and they don't like American conservatives or George W. Bush.

Jessica Elgood, a pollster at MORI, one of Great Britain's leading market research companies, says surveys show that the Bush-bashing in the European press has also had its effect on the public as a whole.

"On the whole he's seen, to us, as right wing and relatively extreme right wing," Elgood said. "Bush has not been portrayed positively in the British media, but the overall perception we have is, we're not convinced of his intelligence. He's not seen as a person who knows the world particularly well, or is knowledgeable about world affairs."

Elgood added, "He also brings religion in his politics, which, while part of the cut and thrust of American politics, is not the way politics is discussed here."

Prominent British journalist and author, William Shawcross, says religion is key.

Bush's faith has been forced to the surface, accentuating the growing values gap between an increasingly liberal Europe and an increasingly conservative United States. "The European cliche of Bush is that he's a trigger-happy, stupid, Texan Christian. And his Christianity is actually important because Christianity is -- I don't want to say 'dying,' but certainly on the decrease in Europe. Whereas, in America, the churches are full. Seventy percent of Americans go to church. In Europe, most leaders pride themselves on being agnostic if not atheists, like Shroeder of Germany and Chirac of France."

The media campaign against Bush in Europe was on full display during his visit to London in November. At an anti-Bush protest by a small coalition of communists and anti-war groups, there were as many media people as there were demonstrators; a fact not lost on a very pleased female protestor. The woman said, "Even the real state procession couldn't have got this much coverage."

Tessa Keswick, who runs Margaret Thatcher's Center for Policy Studies in London, said, "It certainly seemed that the media liked this message."

Keswick continued, "The media here, in this country, particularly the television media, is becoming increasingly anti-American. It is anti-Republican. And there is very great concern about that."

Two of the most popular American ambassadors in the European media are radical anti-Bush MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, who's been called more popular in Europe than a rock star, and film director and anti-Bush activist Michael Moore, whose movies and books mocking American conservatives, and American culture in general, are very popular here.

Moore says, "Bush is an idiot and Blair isn't. So what is he doing standing next to this guy, what is he doing supporting him? It makes absolutely no sense. For the life of me, I can't figure out what it is that Bush has promised Blair, to get his support."

With Leftists controlling both the governments and much of the media in the largest European countries, it shouldn't be surprising that one survey showed that most of western Europe dislikes American ideas and customs, and thinks their spread is a bad thing. And majorities (68% in France, 63% in the UK and 53% in Germany) wanted their countries to keep an arm's length from U.S. policies. (Source: Ipsos World Monitor)

Displaying a disturbing moral blindness, Europeans rush to support terrorists and dictators, while eagerly snapping up books and playing cards portraying American leaders as war criminals. The Euro Press reports, with obvious satisfaction, that Iraq is a hopeless quagmire for the U.S., while forbidding reporters to refer to Saddam as a former 'dictator.' France's behavior over Iraq has led New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and others to suggest that the French are now the enemies of the United States.

London Times correspondent Richard Miniter, who works in Brussels, says, "I think the Left, the European Left, openly wants to destroy America. For them, the Cold War has not ended, and we were the enemy in the Cold War, in their view."

But Miniter takes a contrarian view of the European-American divide. "To say that most of Europe is against us -- I just don't think it's true. I think about 40 percent of Europe is anti-American, because they've fallen under the spell of the Left. Another 20 percent -- it really depends on the headlines and the issues -- they go back and forth. They're the swing. Then I would say the final 40 percent is actually quite pro-American. Many of them would like to move here."

Keswick disagrees. "It's not just on the left of Europe. It's Europe. It's Europe."

And with the Pentagon looking to move American military bases from Western to Eastern Europe, where Americans are still welcome, and with the European Union now an economic rival of the United States, it certainly seems that the best days for the European-American relationship may be behind us.