I’ve been all over Europe and visit friends there regularly. In the cities, there is far more racial and ethnic mixing both at the lower and upper social demographic than in this country, but you do have the usual middle and working class level grousing and blaming “others” when things are not working out. If the crime levels are low, there is not much to complain about even among the more poor — their public housing is better, their transportation system is laughably better, their health care overall is also much better especially for the poor and elderly, and their political leaders generally go to ridiculous lengths to do what the right wing in this country calls “being PC,” which considering the alternatives, is not so bad.
I have to say, though, that there is one ethnic group that is much better off in this country than in Europe in general — the Jews. You spend enough time over there, especially on the mainland, and you do pick up on a level of Antisemitism and being against Israel that’s far beyond than what’s typical even in the redneck sections of this country. That seems pretty loopy, but if you look at how Jews have been treated in Europe over the centuries, it’s almost like it’s been embedded too deeply into the culture over there to be dealt with quickly.
As far as Europeans in general hoping for Obama to win, well…all you clueless bozos who voted for Bush, especially during the last go round, are pretty much to blame for that. Bush’s disastrous term has made the world a worse place, and there is absolutely nothing about McCain to indicate that there will be much if any improvement given the same old, same old low quality of people he’s brought on board already, like Randy Scheunemann and Rick Davis.
