Something A Whole Lot of People Forget
Over at Ghost of a Flea the poster notices an excellent comment found on a story about how it’s important for America to find ways to appeal to Europe.
I’m always slightly amused by these inane popularity polls. Anyone who knows just a bit of the history of this country knows that our forefathers thought very little of Europeans. Europeans were considered as corrupt and effeminate (little has changed in 232 years). America was by design the “anti-Europe.” The fact that Europeans hate us today means we are doing something right. John Adams must be smiling in heaven.
This is a good point. One that I never really considered before. Many on the left like to use Europe as the benchmark for the US to aspire to. However this country began by rejecting most of what Europe was about. One might argue that our success, at least for certain amount of time, was directly correlated with our rejection of Europe. The next time someone suggests we are behind in health care because European nations provide it for everyone I’m going to remind them that our country started out by rejecting the way Europe does things.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
I’m not sure you want to yoke your wagon to an argument that nothing relevant has changed on the international scene in the last 500 years. if we’re trying to distance ourselves from Europe in the 1400-1500s, most of Europe had an interventionist and colonial military policy around the globe, so clearly we shouldn’t be interfering with or occupying foreign nations.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Correct me if i’m wrong but we revolted in the 18th century.