Anti-Europeanism flourishes on U.S. right
Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:48 AM ET
By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Bush heads to next week's Group of Eight summit in Scotland, one of his main tasks will be to try to mitigate anti-U.S. sentiments in Europe -- but he may also need to look at growing anti-Europeanism in the United States, political and foreign policy analysts say.
"There is a strong strain of anti-Europeanism coming from sections of the Republican Party, related to and sometimes encouraged by the White House," said Jan Kubik, director of the center for comparative European studies at Rutgers University.
"Connected to that is the anti-Europeanism of the religious right, where Europe is seen as a place without God that has become too secular and lost its values," he said.
Many Americans were outraged at the refusal of prominent European nations, especially France and Germany, to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Now, some analysts fear that European anti-Americanism and U.S. anti-Europeanism may have become mutually reinforcing.
"Negative opinions about the United States in Europe have affected attitudes toward those countries here," said pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center.
A Pew survey last week found for instance that only 43 percent of French citizens viewed the United States favorably, while 46 percent of Americans had a favorable view of France.
There is nothing new about anti-European sentiment in the United States. But sour feelings on both sides, largely masked during the 40 years of the Cold War, have widened into a chasm in the past three years.
"As an American, the characteristic that is particularly troubling to me is the virulent anti-Americanism I experience every time I visit the continent," said Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican from Oregon who describes himself as a strong champion of the traditional U.S.-European alliance.
'DEMONIZATION' OF BUSH
In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, Smith said he particularly objected to the "gross anti-American reporting and demonization of President Bush," in much of the European media.
He said that made it difficult for leaders like himself to champion the continuation of the traditional Atlantic alliance. "A lot of Americans would like to see that relationship chipped away at," he said.
Among Christian conservatives, who form a powerful bloc in the Republican Party, criticism of European secularism has become a standard theme, said University of Akron political scientist John Green, an expert on Christian fundamentalism.
"It's also a useful way for them to attack American liberals who admire Europe, especially the relative absence of religion in public affairs. The Christian conservative response is to say that Europe has become a basically decadent place and an example of what America would be if liberals had their way," he said.
Among Republicans, especially in the U.S. House of Representatives, who travel overseas much less than U.S. legislators did a generation ago, hostility to things European has blossomed in recent years, Green said.
Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay began one speech to fellow party members last year by saying, "Good afternoon, or as John Kerry might say, bonjour" -- a contemptuous reference to the 2004 Democratic presidential challenger's ability to speak French.
continued...............
today.reuters.com |
