I am fully aware of that, and hence the main reason European issues are not debated that much, and I fully accept it.
That's OK. Perhaps I should spend more time in the European Forum, to learn more about what's happening over there.
Not that different. Political party has a candidate who gets voted in .. same principles. Only real difference is the EU, which I admit, even most Europeans dont even understand (or want to understand), and there are quite a bit of missinformation out there about the EU. Both are democratic states, and both have issues (some greater than others) with maintaining those democracies.
Truthfully, though, to many of us Americans, it
is more complicated, when you talk of several political parties, coalition governments, and how liberal and leftist, and conservative and rightwing don't always match up. Volker and Maximus gave me a couple of links that were somewhat helpful.
One thing that is clear though, Americans hate "goverment" while Europeans see it as a needed evil at worst. If Americans could define what they hate about goverment, then we could at least debate that.
Some Americans say they hate government. What they mean is that they hate the current government. Government is necessary to avoid anarchy and chaos. Most Americans recognize this. Often, dislike of governmental policy is expressed in overly strong terms. If you read posts by Americans here, I think you'll find that nearly all, even if they dislike the current administration, do not advocate the abolishment of government nor are anti-American, though there are some on this board who would claim that disagreeing with the government equates to being anti-American. These are foolish extremists that represent a small, irrelevant minority.
Good to hear. One reason is probally that there is nearly no US involvement in both situations and hence most dont give a damn
Agreed. Certainly the 'African World War', should receive more interest.
I agree fully. However I think that americans suffer much more than Europeans on these boards. We constantly see the use of "EU", Europe and other generalizations, when the person(s) are actually discussing situations in single nations in Europe (most often France).
But that does not mean we Europeans dont generalize on the US, just not the same if you ask me. Spain and Denmark are very different politically, culturally and socially, as is the UK and Greece, Italy and Sweden and so on. While there are differences between the states in the US, its no where near as different as in Europe. For one thing, with a few exceptions, all states in the US speak one language...
I know, for myself, I seldom initiate any debate around the EU...I tend to address individual countries. Any statements I make about the EU are responses to European posters. I think that the generalizations that each 'side' makes is different. Americans often generalize what happens in one European country happens in another. Europeans seem to generalize that what the American government says is what all Americans adhere to. Neither of these statements are accurate.
As for generalisations by Europeans on America.. care to name any just for the hell of it? We might not see them as generalisations off hand.
All Americans consider terrorism to be the only world problem worth addressing.
All Americans support each and every action by Israel without question.
All Americans believe that everything in America is vastly superior to everything anywhere else.
Lots of absolutist statements, that are often rendered either because of stereotyping or because of what our media says.
Always take American media with a grain of salt.
I agree, however you have to understand the distrust and hatred among the peoples of the world towards Bush and his allies in the US political system and among the American people. And this is has all to do with Iraq and the so called War on Terror. I know Europeans are horrified and shocked when they see the bastion of democracy, rule of law and fairness, the USA, break basic human rights and international law, not to mention "bend" domestic laws, just because of a "war" that is not a conventional war.
Add to that, the usual double standard of American politics, both internationally and domestic, and well you got a nice breeding ground for issues.
Its natural for americans to rush in defense of its leaders (everyone does it), but when that defense is not warrented or justified, then frankly it shows a population that is brainwashed or at best dont give a rats arse.
I understand what you are saying here; I don't agree, fully, however. It's true that Bush policies have been a major reason why there has been a negative reaction towards America. Yet what Europeans don't seem to get is that doesn't necessitate a negative reaction towards
Americans. We here do not, necessarily rush to the defense of our leaders. Contrarily, there is a tremendous amount of dissent towards the Bush administration. We do, however, rush to the defense of
America as a nation.
Yes we do, but in our defense we do not blindly defend politicans just because we are at war, something Americans were guilty off after 9/11. If our politicans do something that we find is a problem, then they mostly pay the price politically if not legally. But then again, we have way more political parties to choose from here than in the US.
As for being closed-mindedness... yep we Europeans have that problem too, but often the debates focused on Europe on these boards dont even remotely touch the areas which Europeans ignore but should not ignore.
Things that Europeans ignore are among other things, power of unions and organized labour and issues of work mobility. These 2 alone account for a big part of the European economic issues, but are rarely touched in the debates in Europe.
I believe that 9/11 was an special situation. National security was thought to be at risk. Weakness or disunity could have made the situation far worse. My big beef with the US is how partisanship often creates bottlenecks and blame-quicksand...offering no solutions.
Then saddly you are one of the few.
I accept the views of Americans quite often, and even resepect them when those views are formed in a logical and informed manner. I am open to quite a few american opinions, as they are often not far from my own. I agreeed fully with the US policy of going after Al Q and Osama in Afganistan and I still support that action. I also agree about US policy of arresting terrorist suspects, I just dont agree on how they do it and what they do with said terrorist suspects. Often the overall idea I agree on, but the method of achieving said goal is often the sticky point.
I also dont accept illinformed and clearly biased chest bashing based on if its American or European. For example I do not respect people touting the American healthcare system as better than the European. An American system that has 40% uncovered, lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than that of European nations. Unless those comments include some very serious self analysis on the American part, then they are nothing but flag waving and patriotic bullshit. The same goes for most issues on all sides.
I fully admit that Europe has its problems, and issues and I even admit that we sometimes ignore those problems and issues, but what we do not do, is go around taunting our systems as the "best" when they clearly are no where near that. For example is our healthcare systems the best? Hell no, but it is way better than the American version if you ask me.
I absolutely agree on the healthcare issue. The US healthcare situation is horrific. Working in the healtcare industry, I see what hardships lack of universal coverage cause.
I agree.. ME is a whole other ball game, but saddly very similar in some ways.
Agreed.
