Glenn Reynolds and Virginia Postrel pointed me today to the Reader’s Digest’s Global Presidential Poll. The electoral part of this survey is no surprise. Obama is as popular abroad as everyone says, right up there with such Americans as Marilyn Monroe, JFK and Woody Allen at their peaks. I have no doubt that, if elected, there will be a renewed honeymoon with Europe. Even our Northern neighbors, the Canadians, who hate us most, apparently, may soften.
But the more interesting part of this poll is in the fine print. Some countries where we are most reviled — notably Netherlands and France — are among the nations whose citizens most want to come here, over 50% of them in both instances. Say what? Another instance of the old saw: Burn what you adore and adore what you burn?
Well, maybe. And of course the American Dream lives on, if not in Hollywood movies. As they opine in the accompanying Reader’s Digest article, the US is still regarded as the place of second chances, where a person can reinvent his or her future and start over.
But I suggest there may be something else operative. France and the Netherlands are at the center of the demographic change in Europe and the resistance to the incursion of Sharia Law. It’s not a happy situation. Were you there, wouldn’t you consider leaving?
I don’t know if this is all that new. P. J. O’Rourke wrote 20 years ago that if you go abroad and see half the people turned out for an anti-American demonstration, it’s a good bet that the other half are lined up at the U.S. consulate for an immigration visa.
It was that way 30 years ago when I lived in Germany: right after the part about how awful Reagan was came the part about “how can I get a job in the USA?”
Are you telling me that the same leftists that want us all to be so understanding, non-judgemental, and multi-cultural notice that maybe Islamic fundamentalists aren’t so great when you’ve become an enemy (an infidel) in their midst (which used to be in YOUR midst, but ownership of the midst goes to the most agressive… that had to be a rule in a Seinfeld episode at some point).
Yeah, but they sure need our American money keeping their European world going.
The Europeans love some Americans. Take Woody Allen, please!
Yes, there will be the “thaw” for a while, and at what price? The trope about the financial crisis is that it is a crisis of capitalism. And the solutions will be…? Second, the “solutions” to global warming among the lefty elite all involve central planning and finding ways to herd people. A Democratic president with solid majorities in Congress (especially a filibuster-proof Senate) will push single-payer healthcare. Obama’s new economic plan is a tantalizing give-away to the Middle Class, one that could ultimately be a large bait-and-switch. Will the French really want to move here if we become… France?
Four years of Socialist rule under Obama will so wreck this nation that it will certainly kill the desire of most of these people to come here.
Obama, his wife, his supporters, say that Obama ‘just’ worked with Ayers on ‘education’ of young minds.
Now, I work with people, but I’m a construction worker. You know, lift, cut, nail, and then the day’s over and the wood, metal, concrete doesn’t care what we think.
Obama is an intellectual worker. An idea worker. He worked TOGETHER with Ayers. What are their mutual ideas? Ayers says he is unrepentant. Not about cutting wood, but about ideas and actions.
Did Obama move towards Ayers ideas? Ayers doesn’t seem to have moved on, as they say.
So, wouldn’t it be that Obama has significant values of Ayers?
(And I doubt they were about hotter school lunches, or safety belts on buses.)
Ayers. Wright. Obama President? Are we crazy.?
I used to work for the American division of an English company. (It was cool; we had an on-site after-hours bar for employees.) Of the Brits who were assigned to the USA and given a chance to live here, guess how many stayed?
All of them. Every single one.
Conversely, only one American stayed in England when given the chance (he’d met and married an Englishwoman).
When I hear that so many Europeans/Asians/whoever “hate” America, I substitute “envy” and the results make a lot more sense.
Scott
I have been in France for several weeks each of the past three years. I have never seen the French so friendly in the 35 years I have been visiting. The number of English speakers is astonishing after experiences of 25 years ago. I think the French have figured out the Islamist problem. I saw the manager of a Champs Elysees cafe nearly throw a Muslim woman beggar out into the street one day. I think the French will be our ally after the British have succumbed to the Sharia. They are just arrogant enough about their culture to defend it. I sometimes wonder if we are.
Sure, if I were in the Netherlands or France I certainly be thinking of immigration options. But then, given the possibility of Barack Obama in the US, I would be considering any number of other options. Really, really considering other options. Ever Zimbabwe might have possibilities comparwed to the US!
Told to me at the off leash dog park in the barrio by a French women. I love France, but I don’t want to see the USofA the new country of love become France.
America isn’t just a place where you can invent your future, if you’re liberal, you can also invent your past.
I wonder if there’s any connection to New Yorkers, who are certain they are superior to most other Americans, but at the same time, would like to leave New York. In fact, it’s one of the defining characteristics of the real New Yorker that he or she is actively planning to leave. We usually don’t, but we would like to.
Obama is ‘popular’ because he has bamboozled the Europeans, just like he has a number of Americans, into their projecting all sorts of virtues upon him which he has never actually demonstrated he has.
He has succeeded in fooling a lot of people without having to worry about the press asking all those inconvenient questions about his long history with one of the most corrupt political machines in the US, his long associations with an unrepentant terrorist couple, his lack of actually accomplishing anything while in public office, except getting re-elected, and his continuing to claim credit for the work of others.
I also recall how thrilled the Europeans were about Chavez assuming power, and look at how he has messed up the economy and implemented political repression.
And Obama has no problems with a no-preconditions meeting with that guy.
Thank God the rest of the world doesn’t vote in our elections. Most of the world’s people have created less than ideal societies and governments. Why we should give any weight to their opinions is beyond me.
If Obama wins, America is not going to change in any fundamental way. We’ll still be capitalistic, religious, and gun luvin’. I predict six months after an Obama presidency the world will hate him just as much as they hate Bush. Most anti-americanism is really anger at globalization.
On a personal note, I have a European cousin who was extremely anti-american. She never had anything good to say. After two visits, she wanted her company to transfer her here
Boojum:
Obama will have a rubber-stamp Senate to place Leftist judges in lifetime positions, and THEY will have a much greater impact.
Remember how the Kelo decision came to pass? It was the Left wing of the SCOTUS plus one who ‘grew’ in office, and decided that your local city government could take your house and give it to a third party.
Look at what’s coming up and think how Obama SCOTUS picks would change the law under their interpretation that the Constitution is a ‘living’ document alterable at whim; depending upon the current public opinion, or political climate.
I had a co worker from Indonesia (naturalized). She pointed out during one of the anti American riots on the news that she were a betting woman, she would bet each and every one of those rioters had applied to come to the USA. Rioting in Indonesia seems to be a “hobby”.
I work with a passel of Brits, and you should hear what THEY say about their country. When I say I miss my home country and can’t wait to go back, they look at me like I’m speaking Greek.
And they don’t even mention the Sharia….it’s the crime, the weather, the degraded society, and the cost. I haven’t heard one of them say they plan to go back to retire. This all actually shocked me: I had a firmly planted image of the UK as a damn fine place.