Tea Party Movement Is Europe’s Latest Anti-American Bogeyman
European anti-Americanism is coming back into vogue. It reached a fever pitch during the presidency of George W Bush, but was held in temporary abeyance after Barack Obama pledged to recreate the United States in Europe’s image. Now that the American Tea Party movement is poised to dash elite hopes for a more Europeanized (i.e., sophisticated) America, a prolonged new wave of anti-Americanism seems inevitable.
In the run-up to the American midterm elections, European newspapers and magazines as well as radio and television programs have been chock full with sensational reporting, disparaging editorials, and derogatory commentary about America, American voters, and the American political system.
European news media have been especially obsessed with the Tea Party phenomenon, evidently worried that a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” might be replicated on European soil and thus upset the big government/high taxes status quo of European politics. (In fact, European Tea Party movements have already emerged in several European countries, as have popular uprisings against multiculturalism and runaway Muslim immigration.)
Rather than commend the Tea Party movement as a refreshing and enviable display of American political energy, European media elites have launched an all-out propaganda assault on the movement and its supporters. The main tactic has been to seek to discredit Tea Party sympathizers as poor, uneducated, unsophisticated, bigoted, and right-wing, i.e., the exact opposite of ideal European citizens and their elite masters.
Over the past several weeks, for example, European media have used the following adjectives to describe Tea Party supporters: ill-informed, wacky, dangerous, incoherent, lacking in manners, intimidating, anarchic, buffoons, charlatans, irrational, jackanapes, confused, inclined to committing malapropisms, extreme, perverse, fruitcakes, nutters, nutcases, nutbags, wingnuts, frightening, mad, bad, juvenile scaremongerers, pandering to the lowest common denominator, easily influenced, prone to artificially-created righteous anger, cartoonishly evil, religious extremists, sociopathic, weird, climate vampires, stupid, ignorant, gullible, angry, poor, drooling imbeciles, poorly-educated, unwilling to think critically, little capacity for logical thought, making ignorance heroic, Nazis, ill-educated, driven by propaganda, idiotic, morons, incompetent, sucking the life out of the world’s ecosystems, Taliban, rednecks, backwoods, end-of-the-world culters, absurd, bigoted, duped, intolerant, ugly, toxic, grumpy, losers, utterly beyond comprehension, bad spellers, ridiculous, insentient, smug, gaffe-prone, of dubious integrity, dimwitted, populist fanatics, dangerously eccentric, and a traveling circus of fools.
What follows is a brief selection of some European media coverage on the American Tea Party movement:
In Britain, the left-wing Guardian has been obsessed with the Tea Party movement all year, but the newspaper recently has ratcheted-up its verbal attacks to levels that betray a mixture of contempt and paranoia. For example, a typical story titled “The Tea Party: On the Road with America’s Right-Wing Radicals” is laced with sarcasm, ridicule, and mockery. “These are ordinary folk from the American heartland on a mission that will take them into the heart of enemy territory – Washington D.C. America’s Tea Party is on the move. … Never much thought about politics or even much cared. Now they’re riled up and fully signed up to the Tea Party. … Tea Party activists approach the constitution the same fundamentalist way they approach the Bible: literally. The words are sacred and must be taken at face value. They should not be reinterpreted for modern times. … The Tea Party is obsessed with myths about America’s past. The Founding Fathers are revered as gods, the constitution is sacrosanct, America was uniquely established to be the land of the free.”
Another article titled “The GOP’s Coming Tea Party Hangover” mocks the “inherent weirdness” of several Tea Party candidates: “[A] candidate who views global warming as a ‘hoax,’ equates homosexuality with addiction, suggests that an alleged rape victim was suffering from ‘buyer’s remorse,’ and does not believe in the separation of church and state. … [A] global-warming sceptic whose other idiosyncrasies include apparent approval of armed action against the government, and a desire to dismantle Medicare, social security and public education.”
An opinion piece titled “Tea Partiers Keep Low Profile Shock!” asks: “Could it be that Republican handlers don’t trust their gaffe-prone candidates not to screw up?” The article reads: “Over the past week or so, many Tea Partiers have been forced to conduct one, and in rare cases two, debates with their opponents. The effects have ranged from the embarrassing to the downright farcical. … But apart from those rare moments, the political consensus in Washington is this: Tea Party candidates themselves are ducking. They are avoiding conducting campaign stops; they have noticeably reduced or even pulled out of debates with their opponents at the last minute; they don’t publicize events they are conducting until the very last minute — so the other side doesn’t get a chance to put a camera in the audience. … The reason is simple. Tea Party political handlers have little if any trust in their candidates not to screw up public appearances.”
Other Guardian headlines include: “Tea Party Climate Change Deniers Funded by BP and Other Major Polluters,” “US Veteran Who Killed Unarmed Iraqis Wins Tea Party Support,” “America’s Toughest Sheriff Rallies Tea Party Troops Against Illegal Immigrants,” “Guns, Palin and Washington (George, not DC): A Few of the Tea Party’s Favourite Things,” “Why Tea Parties are Perfect for a Disgruntled, and White, Middle Class,” “The Tea Party Movement: Deluded and Inspired by Billionaires,” “US Midterms: Change without Hope,” and “Report Links Tea Party Movement to White Supremacist Groups.”
It’s easy to see that the academics who have labored at brainwashing entire generations on behalf of their fascist democrat bedfellows haven’t an original thougt in their heads. They simply slavishly mimic the Europeans who have an inbred dislike of the US and the citizens therein. If they’re upset now, they’re going to have a collective stroke sometime during the next decade while we restore the country to the Constitutional Republic it was founded as.
When Putin begins to help them adjust to the reality they’ve managed to avoid behind our shelid for sixty years lets send them copies of these articles along with a note, “You’ve forgotten who took this country back. Give Vlad our warmest good wishes”.
Just read a piece in our leading intellectual newspaper, “Die Zeit”. In their opinion, the tea party is full of hatred, bent for an intellectual civil war, pre-democratic amateurs, hate-preachers, fanatic demagogues, distorts the facts and is all in all an unconvincable horde.
Yea, leftist tolerance and civility in the mainstream media.
The Guardian is indeed recognised here as a left-wing newspaper (and proud of it), but it hardly represents British public opinion generally. If you read the Daily Telegraph you get a very different picture, also where the Tea Party is concerned.
As for Germany’s Der Spiegel, I have been reading it (irregularly) for 15 years. It is not so much specifically a left-wing magazine as one that tries, opportunistically, to confirm what it perceives to be the biases and prejudices of the general German public (for the obvious reason of remaining in business). So it publishes lots of articles saying that US education, living standards, economy (etc etc) are in worse shape than Germany’s because that is what a lot of Germans like to hear. That it is opportunism – rather than ideology – that drives Der Spiegel is clear from the way their editorial line shifts like a weather-cock (by contrast, the Guardian is very consistently left-wing). That also applies to German domestic issues, by the way, far more obviously than to foreign affairs. Interestingly, when Gerhard Schröder was chancellor in the 1990s and both Britain and the US were clearly out-performing Germany in job creation – to the point that even German public opinion was accepting that – Der Spiegel was quick to shift gears and praise American “job-creation machine” as a role model. And so on and so forth.
Thanks Pete. People who love freedom have got to stick together.
>>”So it publishes lots of articles saying that US education, living standards, economy (etc etc) are in worse shape than Germany’s because that is what a lot of Germans like to hear.”
Well, the Germans did invent Schadenfreude, after all…
Peter B
Im kinda glad you brought up the points you did. We do realize that the marxist leaning media in Europe isnt the mainstream. We are used to being belittled, insulted, hated and accused of all the worlds woes. Most of America can care less what Europe thinks, especially when its our domestic politics. Youd never see us jumping into your internal political issues. The general feeling is that, if Europe is upset with the US for whatever reason, means we are doing something good. The irony is that, we are the non-conformists and idependent thinkers. Not the other we around. Your leaders know this and are able to pass all of their failings on us. They cant come to terms with the fact that socialism has failed everywhere, without exception, thus blame capitalism. The sad part is that noone there sticks up for us, so the elites keep indoctrinating youger sheep. I hope you people follow our lead, but I know you wont. When the sh#t hits the fan for you, your leaders are the blame. not us.
Sir:
I admire the predictions you have made because this story of course is another one ignored by most media in the USA. Why I wonder? Mostly because the media and elites of the USA are attached at the hip to the media and elites of Europe. Fortunately the tea party and other conservatives in the USA understood where Obama was taking us early on. This light weight hack was a closet marxist communist socialist community organizer. Who does this remind you of? George Washington or perhaps Che? Obama’s fundamental change turned out to be massive turn to the left. This would have worked well for our european elites and their enablers since they are “like a 2 year old” constantly seeking reinforcement for their stupid utopian ideas that never succeed. Now look at the continent of Europe. Even the so called conservatives have turned into weenies. David Cameron believes in global warming, mulitculturalism, the national health service, and barely can muster any negativity relative to the most worthless institution in history which is the indefensible EU.
Europe is rapidly heading down the tubes. Too bad for them. The USA is waking up. Our rise and their fall might acutally prompt the existing non-brain dead of Europe to perhaps question– WHY?
Thanks for the update.
What always strikes me about these stupid and superficial analyses of America is that they are made by the same people who claim superior insight into other cultures. They can’t “get” America despite their freedom to travel throughout the country and talk with whomever they wish, despite all of our political and legal debates being available online, and despite a supposedly similar cultural background. Yet they expect us to trust their portrayals of tribal culture in Waziristan and to follow their lead in dealing with these people. After all their year long negotiations with Iraq were so successful.
These people loved Obama’s election because the could show that they weren’t racist like the stupid Americans who elected him. The ignore the fact that Merkel defied his economic lectures and now has a growing economy with a projected 9 billion Euro increase in revenues in 2011 over previous projections. The more the Europeans can be outraged about America’s “right,” the more their own leaders can implement commonsense policies that work without drawing too much attention to themselves. In Germany, for instance, there are limits on medical malpractice suits, no partial birth abortions, civil unions instead of gay marriages, and strickter laws about stem cell research.
OMT, per Yahoo.de: The German public health insurers have just stopped paying for dental care until 2011. I guess they ran out of someone else’s money.
What always strikes me about these stupid and superficial analyses of America is that they are made by the same people who claim superior insight into other cultures. They can’t “get” America despite their freedom to travel throughout the country and talk with whomever they wish, despite all of our political and legal debates being available online, and despite a supposedly similar cultural background.
If an American goes to Europe, say Germany, and only visits Berlin, he has not seen much of the country nor had the opportunity to meet a representative cross section of the people. The same is true if a European comes to America and only visits New York City or perhaps Washington DC. That person will not see much of this country nor meet a representative cross section of the people. The same is true for those media personalities who distain the vast “fly-over country” in favor of their beloved liberal enclaves. They live in an echo chamber where the people they meet and associate with think the same as they do. Anyone who disagrees must, in their minds, be stupid, evil and probably racist.
Have you ever read a mass media article about a subject you’re knowledgeable about? How accurate was that article? In my experience, unless the reporter has some experience in the area, he’s really ignorant and the article is full of errors. Now, knowing that, how can I take seriously any of their work on other subjects?
Sure, America will take advice from the people who gave you Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, World Wars I and II, Bosnia, Kosovo, and have such economic “successes” to brag about as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and France, which all are about to collapse economically in the very near future. Yep, those sure are people to copy.
The Europeans have been wrong on so many things on so many occasions. I care precious little what they think. I only care about what fellow Tea Party members think, and what they’re thinking today is that this will mark the first day that we put America back on the path to success and individual freedom. Back in 1898, the Europeans thought that this upstart nation called the United States was filled with a bunch of cowboys and politically immature barbarians. That was just before we defeated a European nation for the first time in the Spanish-American War. Since then, this nation has never looked back and has remained a world power.
Time to be great again. Americans will NOT fade into obscurity like the Europeans. We will vote and send a message to the rest of the world that we will overcome our problems our way, the American way, and will always remain that “Bright shining light on a hill” for the rest of the world to envy and marvel at.
Excellent post! Thank you.
Europe: KISS MY ( Y )
How about we take advice from the European states that are cutting 500k gubmint jobs (Britain) and raising the retirement age (France) instead of pretending that we have an unlimited war chest for Making the World Safe For Democracy and providing every feckless loser with comprehensive healthcare?
Stalin is missing in your rogues’ gallery.
You forgot KARL MARX – a monster competing only with Islam’s Muhammad for the man responsible for the most death and destruction in human history. Communism was worse than Nazism by at least one order of magnitude for the sheer oceans of blood and misery it has caused – and multiculturalism, also known as social Marxism, is responsible for encouraging millions of enemy Muslims into the West, enemies who threaten all the West has accomplished over the millennia. Muslims and commies are united in their determination to see the West dismantled and destroyed.
Aw, the poor Euroweenies. Their feelings are hurt. Not enough of us want to be like them. We are ambitious, hardworking, independent, and want to stay that way. We believe in equality of opportunity, not of outcome. How offensive and naive. So the make up stories, exaggerate, and reveal their ignorance. The outright factual errors are laughable (from the minor “George Bush, Jr.” – to the major “tent cities’). And these clowns call us prejudiced. Guess its been too long since they required American military and economic might to preserve their freedom to look down us us. Would the Nazis or Soviets have tolerated such criticism?
What happenned to the smart and ambitious Europeans? They emigrated.
LOL thanks for the laugh Adam, your comment is awesome
Thanx, Linda. Your appreciation has brightened up my day. Hopefully it will get more brightening as the results pour in and give the euro-elite even more reasons to look down on us unsophisticated freedom loving Americans.
If you ever visited Europe you must have been spending your time looking for a hamburger, surely not talking to Europeans. I am American living in Europe and can tell you it makes me ashamed trying to explain Americans like you to Europeans.
I just got out of your blog. The reason you have a hard time explaining Americans to Euros is because you don’t understand us either. When I read the term “fanatical Tea Party”, I had enough. By the way, your post is pretty bad. Very vague. So, educate us. Tell us how you explain Americans to Europeans.
Maybe you should learn to read before you judge others? I did not say “explain Americans” but those of you who pretend that we are better than people from other countries.
Romarin, you don’t have to explain Americans to Europeans. We don’t give a damn what they think of us.
My best friend is European. I have plenty of European friends who love me and visit me in the States. So….maybe you are just a lonely American in Europe who deludes himself into thinking he fits in….Or perhaps I am down to earth and not a smug arrogant Liberal and that is why my friends in Europe and very best friend love me…hmmm….
P.S. All my European friends long to live in the States and have tried hard to get visas, green cards, etc…
Why? American exceptionalism….same reason my Czech grandparents on my maternal side came here.
I’ve lived and traveled extensively in France, and I speak the language. It is hard to even convey the gulf that separates man-on-the-street opinion from the policies of the elites. If my experience can in any way be generalized to the rest of Europe, then it is small wonder that the Continental powers that be should fear an American contagion.
How many times did the Europeans vote against the EU constitution, only to see it adopted anyway? The day of reckoning will come someday.
then it is small wonder that the Continental powers that be should fear an American contagion.
The opinions of the European “elites” regarding the Tea Party movement don’t seem much different than that of our “elites”.
I suspect the European who isn’t living off a trust fund or government paycheck isn’t that much different than the average USA tea partyer.
Win here and infect Europe and everywhere else. Put fear into the “I wanna be boss” crowd.
The problem often is that Europeans believe they have no power to make any changes. They just shrug and mutter. Unless of course they are burning cars in the streets and demonstrating (not including vacation days.)My European mother-in-law was here for 2 weeks in October when I was spending many days as a volunteer doing get-out-the vote calls. She was utterly fascinated that Americans did anything like this. This is only a small example of how different Americans’ relationship to their government is from that of Europeans to theirs. They think they understand us, but it is true, very few of them have a clue. And if you try to explain how it works here to them, some will tell you YOU ARE WRONG! (In my experience the French are particularly prone to do this….)
Striking, isn’t it, the similiarity between the MSM of Europe and America( I dont include Russia or former communist-ruled countries). I wonder if li’l georgie soreass is pouring money into der Spiegel and other rags?
A little bit of cheer, from an otherwise bleak landscape-the Israeli Tea Party was inaugurated in Tel Aviv-at the ZOA House,Zionist Organization of America,in Tel Aviv, this past Sunday night.
Will keep you all posted…..
Apply Codevilla’s ruling class/country party analysis to Urope, and you won’t be too far off. Only in Urope, the M$M is actually in the direct pay of the ruling class (e.g. French subsidies to newspapers), as opposed to the US, where the media are owned by large multinational corporations (can you say Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world has a nice piece of the NYT? I knew you could. Ditto GE and NBC.).
Reflexive “pro-Uropeanism” on the part of our credentialed (as opposed to educated) bien-pensant “elites” is actually quite revealing. As an American who has followed Uropean affairs off and on for 30+ years by having been to school there, and by traveling and reading/watching their media in their native languages (French and Spanish both) I have a very different picture of the situation in Urope. The casual visitor from Manhattan has never had a conversation with a French farmer, or rode the train while having a long chat with a Belgian working man, nor been invited into the home of a middle-class Spaniard. The view from the beach at Cannes, or the hotel in La Rive Droite is not the same as the average Joe Uropean enjoys. Perhaps it’s my native American naivete, or pure cussedness, but after the architecture and the art (which can be stunning at their best) I never really got the notion the the Uros do life better than we do. They get up and put their pants on in the morning just the same as you or I. And as far as economics or their social system, they’ve had worse unemployment than we have for a generation. The Uros just about blew each other off the map multiple times in the last 100 years and if not for us, they’d be speaking Russian. Their politics are corrupt (e.g. Chirac’s personal greed or Mitterand’s bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior). Maybe John Kerry sees something to emulate because he’s in the same class of people who graduate from Ecole Superior Normale. For the rest of us “Ricans” we’re underwhelmed and with good reason.
Coming from the UK, I have to agree with Peter B. In selecting the Guardian, you have chosen a particularly bizarre newspaper that I would not class as representative of the majority British view. It even has its own watchdog in the form of ‘CiF Watch’ which monitors and exposes anti-semitism in the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ blog and also corrects its biased reporting on issues relating to Israel. As Peter says, the Telegraph and many journalists’ blogs tell a different story.
Don’t let the media be the standard by which you judge us, though. It’s impossible to speak for all, but amongst those I personally know and who initially supported Obama, the disenchantment has been exponential.
If euro-socialists hate us so freaking much, then we must certainly be doing something right.
Heh heh heh. well said.
The same is happening here in Canada. CBC cannot help to show its sadness that conservatives are coming back in the US. And they follow the same rhetoric about Tea Party, Fox News, etc. Disgusting.
it’s fun to read articles and comments which see Europe as a single State, with one government (always socialist) and one culture. The European federalists would be proud of you.
Europe, we’re so sorry to disappoint. Tell ya what — next time some totalitarian monster overruns your ancient, effete world, we’ll just stay home and not pollute your sacred lands with our filthy greenbacks or confuse your bright little snowflakes with dangerous & troubling ideas regarding personal liberty and restricted government.
Lafayette, we are . . . sitting this one out.
Well said.VERY WELL said.
The little dogs will always resent the big dog. The day the rest of the world stops disliking America is the day Americans should start to worry.
However, with a line-up like that against you (particularly the weirdo and poisonous Guardian here in Britain), you Americans must be doing something right.
It would be hard to overestimate the importance of this election; here’s to a good outcome. I hope to be celebrating the enthusiastic removal of left-wing Democrats from coast to coast — especially by the women candidates they seem to have such an issue with.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40662.html
Decent if brief view on the us by a Australian comedian.
Being one of those millions of uneducated, unimportant, Bible thumping extremist hicks in the heartland, and having never been fortunate enough to travel to the UK or Germany, I’ll assume that the average Brit or German sees things far differently than their representative “elite” media?
If I’m wrong, then it might go a long explaining why I am witnessing Mohammed now the most popular baby boy name in Britain, and why Chancellor Merkel refers to multiculturalism as utter failure.
Hopefully, today Americans will prove to Europe and the world that the New York Times, Washington Post and CBS do not fairly represent the opinions of the majority of the American populace, and that 2008 but an anomaly.
Well, apparently now the rest of the world thinks you’re crazy too. Big honking surprise.
If the Europeans weren’t such political cretins, the US would not have had to send its armed forces there twice in the 20th Century to sort out that gang of fools. Ef them all. This time around a Europeanized US will not be able to save them.
‘If the Europeans weren’t such political cretins, the US would not have had to send its armed forces there twice in the 20th Century to sort out that gang of fools.’
Like the U.K did with Afghanistan and Iraq because the U.S needed our help.
Not so fast, mags….remember the NATO agreement.
The treaty in itself shows other countries wants to help or save the U.S when needed.
You signed it as well showing that you wanted /needed help.
There is not many Nato left im Afghanistan besides us(British).
I don’t think NATO covered Iraq.
But still no one is interested in our losses and role by standing ‘shoulder to shoulder’.
Are really saying that the British are not helping in Afghanistan, or helped you with Iraq?
Charlie, it’s the constant ‘we saved you/you would of speaking German/Russion’
rhetoric i am objecting to.
I am confident that i am speaking on behslf of the whole of the U.K.
The quote again,
‘If the Europeans weren’t such political cretins, the US would not have had to send its armed forces there twice in the 20th Century to sort out that gang of fools.’
Our old soldiers can’t belive your old soldiers think that.They know the hero’s are the ones left behind no matter where they came from.
You only joined after pearl habour.
Germany declared war on the U.S not the other way round.
We had to pay you and we have only recently finshed paying the debt off. repayedhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/britain-pays-off-final-instalment-of-us-loan–after-61-years-430118.html
Is there a statute of limitations on the ‘we saved you’
World war 1 started in 1914, nearly a HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
What European elites fear is the Constitution; they hate the God-Fearing founding Fathers and they hate the God that provided us a Constitutional framework of freedom that embodies the Christian principles through which we can all achieve our destinies. America and Israel are God’s gift to the world…it’s no coincidence that the elites that penned the EU constitution left God completely out of the picture; ‘cos they somehow know better – heard that before?…Real freedom is at stake in these midterms; we have enemies both within and without and our defense is the Constitution and the God that inspired it.
The “man-on-the-street” in Europe and folks everywhere are counting on us to lead the way…so let’s do it…it’s the reason that we were given the priviledge of the Constitution, ‘cos freedom is for everyone.
We need leaders that revere the Constitution, so let’s elect some and get things rollin’ and quit wastin’ time griping about Europe, the bozos on the Left, the Islamists and all the anti-Semite and anti-Christian hordes that want our demise.
Today is a turning point in the history of our country…the results will literally be earth-shaking. Vote, vote, vote.
Enough of your blasphemy. The Constitution was the work of men, and not “multi-cultural” men either. God’s works are quite distinct from the works of men.
‘it’s no coincidence that the elites that penned the EU constitution left God completely out of the picture’
Which God do you think should be in it?
I am in the U.K and we want separation of ‘church’ and state.
We think peoples faith is a private issue.
I have no idea what religion Cameron and Clegg follow,it’s none of my buisness.
Tom Swift…Whereas I agree that the Constitution was penned by men; my point is that it is inspired by God whom they revered and from whom they sought guidance. Freedom is a gift from God, as I said, a gift for all men. I simply believe that this gift has a framework through which the necessary government of men can be realised. Why? Because the U.S.A. has an eternal purpose, and the Constitution is no accident in that regard.
Mags…the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gave us liberty, as Thomas Jefferson himself noted, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.”
–Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.
“I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.”
–The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.
How about this one from President George Washington,
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”
This is why I would question your understanding of church and state…it’s not the same as my understanding. These men were men of faith; leaders and champions of freedom (among many others); looks to me like they were God fearing men who would exhort others to take the high ground of Christian character by their example, but never force anyone into it.
The U.S can do what it wants.
Are you really saying we should base our opinion on another countries(yours)
history and events?
Even quotes?
We have to learn from our own past, our own beliefs.
Reading your comment shows it is a good thing to leave God out of it.
I find it interesting to read the opinions of the European “experts” and citizens in which they repeatedly deny that the opinions of the MSM and political elite are reflective of the “average” European resident.
That the press is out of step with the people, is quite believable simply based on our own experience with the domestic media, but those same people continue to elect governments and support policies which are far to the left of those in America.
ONe is forced to the conclusion, unfortunate though it may be, that the people posting on this website are the exception, not the rule. People get the government for which they vote and in Europe, they continually elect elitist, paternalistic governments that promote reliance on the state rather than independence and individual responsibility.
There is a disconnect somewhere.
Europeans still have not grasped or embraced the basic truths set down by our American Founding Fathers. Perhaps they need a vacation from our protection so that they can fully understand the dangers associated with total reliance upon the state for their needs.
“Perhaps they need a vacation from our protection so that they can fully understand the dangers associated with total reliance upon the state for their needs.”
If they had to spend 23% on their defense, as we do, they would have millions more unemployed and their taxes would be much higher. Knowing that, that’s probably why their lefty news media kicks us in the teeth whenever they can.
‘People get the government for which they vote and in Europe, they continually elect elitist, paternalistic governments that promote reliance on the state rather than independence and individual responsibility.’
Like the U.S has done with Obama?
He represents you all.
True enough, but I think the point of the original commenter was that in Europe this is a far more ingrained mindset. Voting for the holistic, paternalistic state is a generational trend in Europe. The Tea Party aims to make this leftward tack we took with Obama an historical anomaly, a statistical outlier.
I thought the U.S had a democracy,has Obama been deposed?
No matter what the results are he is still your leader who represents you on the world stage.
We are not a democracy; we are a republic — for several, good reasons. It would be a disaster if we became a true democracy; hence our founders shied away from it, wisely.
I don’t believe he thinks he represents us all. Who do you suppose he was calling “enemies?”
Hint: it wasn’t people trying to, you know, actually kill us and destroy Western culture.
Wrong again, mags….review the election results to see more accurately just who Obama represents.
However factually or unfactually the European press reports on the Tea Party movement, there is one fact none of them seems to have included: That concern among Tea Partiers about European opinion in general or European press opinion is rather like a Higgs boson. It might exist in theory but nobody’s ever seen it.
I read French newspapers and it’s the same, left-wing, even right-wing newspapers all explain to the public that the Tea Party is a racist, fascist, crazy, weird bunch of nazi lunatics, more or less.
They are really afraid.
Doesn’t surprise me – they learned it by watching our media. Europeans that enjoy the blanket of protection Americans provide should be rooting for the tea parties. After all, if our economy stagnates like theirs, which appears likely without a major change of direction, our military budget (and by extension theirs) will have to be slashed at some point. The more I hear, the more I wouldn’t mind cutting them off even if our economy rebounds. We’ll see how long their welfare state lasts when they have to start footing the bill for their own defenses.
In Austria, the center-left Der Standard published a story titled “In Despair Over Democracy,” which asserts that democracy often leads to economically destructive decision-making: “If Obama made a mistake, it was that he should have spent even more and increased the deficit further — even if it is already at ten percent of GDP. But politically, that was simply impossible. … Any halfway-intelligent citizen should realize that the populist resistance of Tea Party leaders Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, as well as the opposition of a great majority of Democrats to Obama, is nonsensical in terms of economic policy. … The majority of Americans will probably vote against their own interests and those of their country in November. Unfortunately, that’s not unusual.”
I’m assuming that was written in Austrian?
Western European anti-Americanism is a chronic condition, which, at its core, is simply penis envy. Having efectively castrated themselves, they resent anybody with testicles. No biggie. Basically, it’s their problem. Central Europeans, on the other hand, are becoming reliable friends.
Too bad we don’t deserve them, because we’ve listened to the Western Euros for far too long.
A lot of this gets back to the fact that America is predicated on a rejection of Europe. It’s a foundational rejection of the Old World, so the powers-that-be over there mock and ridicule the American experiment in an effort to reinforce their perceived superiority of the European statist model.
“David Cameron believes in global warming” -
Recently the Royal Society of Britain has modified their position on global warming by issuing a statement that global warming is debatable, after pressure from many of their members. Their top officers previously claimed that the science of global warming was settled, without input from their rank and file.
Sorry. This post seems off subject but is actually a reply to @4.tommy gunn.
No need to apologize, I’m sure most readers knew what you were referring to. Not many elitists here so the short term memory is intact.
All those International Socialist are afraid that their push for their evil ideology in America is back firing. And their messiah(BHO) turned to be an empty
suite. Is anyone forgat the Berlin rally — citizen of the world rubbish — .
Remember most of us – including me – fled continental Europe because of their
evil socialism. Let them call call us anything they want. They are only fooling themselves in search of utopia. In the final analysis they are the one who will be the losers. Their future is playing right now in Greece with socialistic economy and in Germany and England with their multiculturalism disaster.
Enjoy let them squirm.
Tout va bien, we weren’t quoted in the lot ! that makes a change
VDH could do a far better job of drawing the parallels as well as the differences, but the present situation among the western nations reminds me very much of the Greek World of Thucydides. Every Greek Polis had its democratic and oligarchic factions, focused on Athens and Sparta respectively, with the Persians waiting in the wings and stoking the flames when they had the chance. As the political conflicts degenerated into war the fissures widened, savagery erupted. But it wasn’t just a matter of city against city. Just so now in the West. The Tea Party in the U.S. may well be a harbinger of things to come in Europe and so the established empire of the Eurocrats is at risk. And Iran is standing by in the wings.
A truly great man said it so well a long time ago:
“Old Europe will have to lean on our shoulders, and to hobble along by our side, under the monkish trammels of priests and kings, as she can. What a colossus we shall be.”
Thomas Jefferson, 1816
And they are still hobbling along, with a different set of priests and kings. And the colossus is getting tired of being leaned on.
Elites hate the Tea Party movement and always look to Europe because they love the fact that Europe has much more ridged class system then America. the resent that the fact the common people are daring to speak up and go against the elite vision of the world. In Europe people are still awarded titles and many nations still have Monarchs. Most of the elites in America probably think they are deserving of some title and the special privlages that go with it.
Well, aren’t key editorial board members of these European “lamestream media” outlets also members of the Bilderberg Group?
No surprise then, they all write stuff in sink, slightly modified to fit each of the EU countries’ idiosyncracies.
I know this to be the case for a bunch of them (example, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece) as well as Turkey.
I am an American conservative living in London. Everyone here seems enamoured with President Obama, even when they are complaining that Obama is anti-British (e.g. BP, the Falklands, the Churchill bust, etc).
There is a “type” of American expat you often see. The American living in Europe who goes out of his way to be so uberEuropean, tries constantly to degrade his fellow Americans (especially tourists) and tells everyone who listens he did not vote for George Bush. Most of my American co-workers (and I have a lot) are on the left and wear it openly. Most Americans I come across here are the same. So Brits are surprised to meet an American who did not vote for Obama.
Last night, as I was receiving our grocery delivery, the delivery man asked if I was American. When I said yes, he said that he was just heard on the radio that “Your president is having a tough time — is that true”.
“Yes” I said.
“That’s too bad” he replied.
At which I shrugged my shoulders, shook my head and said “Not really, no”.
The look of incomprehension on his face was delicious.
I am not ready to celebrate — too many things can go wrong still. In any event, if the GOP gets the House I have little hope they learned anything from the past 4 years and will either spend the next six months debating DADT or else the GOP establishment will run down to the K Street lobbyists shouting “WE’RE BACK!!”
The other day I read an article in a German newspaper that blamed the Tea Party for the gay teen’s suicide at Rutgers and the torturing of a gay man by gangbangers in NYC. A political world affairs show showed a feature on Sunday that parroted the Democratic Party spin claiming “experts say Obama did everything right”. There definitely is some sort of derangement syndrome in the European media.
With regards to the media representing the masses, they don’t on many questions, but the European masses are absolutely addicted to entitlement programs and government subsidies and will vote for politicians who promise to keep them and that’s why they elect these governments.
MissAnthropy, right on !!!
“A lot of this gets back to the fact that America is predicated on a rejection of Europe. It’s a foundational rejection of the Old World, so the powers-that-be over there mock and ridicule the American experiment in an effort to reinforce their perceived superiority of the European statist model.”
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40662.html
is a interisting oveerviw for those nt famlliar with America’s political system
The french medias describe Tea Party as a movement by white, ignorant, racist, bigot. The good news is… they discovered this week Obama was not the messie
Europeans see America as sort of a big, strong and resourceful cousin with a drinking problem: when he’s sober — i.e., run by Democrats — he’s a great guy to have by your side; but when he’s drunk — i.e., run by Republicans — he becomes a bully and a danger to others.
Hic!
What can you say about a continent that is being overrun by Muslims who have notions of what a proper country should be that makes Tea Party types look like Ultra Liberals? The journo-flakes over there need distractions like the Tea Party in order to pretend that this ominous development is not really taking place.
Europe, you can kiss my American behind.
Who cares what these decadent,impotent little dhimwits think about us?They are the sterile remnant of a moribund continent.One thing though;pull out of NATO NOW!
I’m living in Norway at the moment. Last night, on the eve of the election, the state-run media again reported the Sara Palin once said she could see Russia from her house. If the state media can’t be bothered to do a 1 minute internet search to find the truth I can’t see many citizens doing it either. It was both shocking and dismaying.
Europe’s ship is sinking faster than ours is.
One would think they’d take more interest in saving their own societies.
I think we Americans should care much, much less what the Europeans think of us. Why waste our time on their opinions of us…aside from their eager receipt of our money in myriad forms since 1945, at the same time of their hypocrisy and disdain of things American. Yes, a prosperous Europe was/is in our interests, and our cash infusions surely had this in mind….but it’s past time for us Americans to bring home our huge military payrolls in Europe and Central/West Asia. We badly need this money here at home. Example: We’ve given billions of “AID” to Pakistan…..they play us as “useful idiots”. Why continue this folly?
In an age of Intercontinental ballistic missiles with who-know-what loaded in those nose cones, including cyber warfare, why have massive land forces stationed anywhere outside of the United States. Our Navy and very remotely controlled unmanned drones in association with small elite and very mobile ground units should be the way America’s defensive actions of the future are fought.
It now seems increasingly evident that maintaining our massive ground force presence in overseas theaters is a logistical and financial drain.
Let us Americans avoid the “entangling alliances” wisely decried by our Founding Fathers.
While Europe has had bouts of corporate-insipred genocidal atrcoities such as Nazism, fascism, and colonialism, they also have much love and compassion. Their people are not left of the street to die of treatable conditions. By contrast, genocidal racism based on corporate greed is America’s quintessential, defining characteristic. American history has been a series of holocausts againt Native Americans, Blacks, Koreans, Vietnamese, and now Hispanics and Muslims. This only happens becuase corporate propaganda keeps American White workers blaming People of Color for the fact their cupboards are bare and they have no health care.
……yer noggin is certainly throbbin’ with over-simplicity syndrome.
Please give me some specific details of where there has been any holocaust on American soil — no generalizations, specific moments where America participated in a Shoah type event (yes, even against the Indians).
Your completely mistaken. First, American charity is unequaled. http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/a-nation-of-givers I’ve never seen a person dying “on the streets” here in the USA. Secondly, if we were as racist and homocidal as you portray I’d be knee deep in blood right now since there are over five hundred million firearms in private hands in our republic. Thirdly, my cupboards are as full as I’d like and so are my healthcare options. You see not only can I choose from a smorgasbord of medical providers I can leave the local doctor’s office, and on my way home, and hunt some game or fish to feed my family. Not because I have no grocery, but because self-sufficiency is the quintessential American quality.
He is your head of state.I am talking about him being your figure head around the world.
A head of state is to represent their country and it’s interest’s.
If he doesn’t represent you overseas who does?
That was a reply to unknown jane
November 3, 2010 – 11:16 am
Yes, he is our head of state as elected, and thus a figurehead for our country overseas (that is one of the roles a president has to play due to the nature of the position) — but that certainly doesn’t mean he is immune to criticism from his countrymen (I notice that American criticism of Bush did not seem to bother Europe so much…why the difference for Obama?). Also, he is a figurehead for our country by our leave — if he does not adequately and properly express the will of the people as a whole, then he will be voted out. There, in a nutshell, is the problem our president is having: he is not deemed to be adequately and properly expressing through his office the will of the people on some very important subjects and by a majority of the people.
So, yes, he is a figurehead…for now.
However, I notice that not many Europeans (or any country for that matter) would care to be generalized and regarded solely by whoever is leading their government at the moment — they would protest it as a crude generalization of the very complex nature of their society; that it is impossible to consider an entire country summed up in one elected head of state; that the people are more complex and nuanced in their individual outlooks.
So why does this rule not apply to America as well?
‘ but that certainly doesn’t mean he is immune to criticism from his countrymen ‘
When did i say that? Nobody cares about you domestic issues it’s how it effects your foreign policy
I am in no way saying who you should vote for,it’s obviously up to you.
Nobody thinks that you should keep Obama if you all think he’s crap because
‘we’ like him.That is not true.
‘I notice that American criticism of Bush did not seem to bother Europe so much…why the difference for Obama?’
Jane, Here in the U.K Obama has been widely criticized from the beginning.
For,
1 Not making a comment or a view on Israel attack on Gaza,claiming ‘one president at time’ but commenting on the Mumbi attack.
2 All that crappy gift thing and ignoring Gordon Brown.
3 The most serious criticism was over the oil leak.
He constantly referred to British petroleum implying that the British people were responsible.
We nearly invaded.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/10/tories-condemn-anti-bp-obama-gulf-oil-rhetoric-is-bigoted-against-britain/
4 Not having a clue about Afghanistan.
5 The rhetoric given about the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
I could go on and on.
‘ I notice that not many Europeans (or any country for that matter) would care to be generalized and regarded solely by whoever is leading their government at the moment ‘
.’Europe’ is not one big country talk about generalizion.
This thread is all about believing that if media outlets around the world protray the U.S in a bad way means that is how all the citizens feel.
Posters then heeped abuse and want to break diplomatic relations beacuse they are not happy with what they read .
‘consider an entire country summed up in one elected head of state’
We know how divided your country is. Of course not everybody in the U.S voted for Obama but he got a majority to govern.
Not everyone voted for Tony Blair,was his role only for the people that elected him or was he seen representing the U.K because he was democratically
elected ?
It was the same with Bush,Americans were held accountable for his action’s nobody thought, well only the ones that voted for him.
Most Europeans couldn’t care less about this tea party. The left elite and media is more worried about the rise of the European “far-right” all over the continent.
Its funny how Europeans like to mock Americans as geographically challenged and claim Raleigh is the capital of South Carolina. Perhaps they will figure out, someday, why we role our eyes at their ridiculous superiority delusions. We will have to wait awhile for that.