Euro-clowns and US politics

Last Friday, GI Jane at The Foxhole wrote about a European lady in the “Die Staandard” who declared that Europeans should be allowed to choose our president in the next election with this specious reasoning;

American presidential elections are not “home affairs.” American decisions have repercussions all over the globe. The American mortgage crisis affects banks in Europe. The insatiable American demand for oil makes the Arabian sheiks rich. The American refusal to care for the environment causes the North Pole ice to melt and coastal areas in Asia to flood. A weakened dollar and an immense budget deficit affect the global economy.

Well, aside from the fact that we have a Constitution that precludes non-citizens from voting, there are cases like this story in the International Herald Tribune proclaiming German support for Barack Obama, which is all well and good, except for their reasoning;

An editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau went one historic president better with a headline that read simply: “Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama,” adding that “hope and optimism” are “the source of the nation’s strength.”

Obama’s newfound popularity among Germans underscores not only the breadth of his appeal but also the opportunity he might have as president – though he is still far from the White House, much less his party’s nomination – to mend fences abroad as well as at home.

“There are similarities between JFK’s time and today,” said Karsten Rossow, 49, of Berlin, who was visiting the small Kennedy Museum by the Brandenburg Gate on a dark, snowy afternoon Sunday with his wife. “People are ready for the politics of change.”

The Germans like Kennedy because he said “Ich bin ein Berliner” – that’s sweet except that the whole reason the Soviets built the wall around Berlin and across Europe was they knew Kennedy and the West were so weak, they wouldn’t stop the Soviets from erecting that 30-year scar that imprisoned half of the European world.

But the Germans don’t stop at the comparison of Obama to Kennedy – they have another reason for supporting him – he’s Black;

Despite the fact that Obama is not associated with Europe in general or Germany in particular, he has “a cultural record that the rest of the field does not have, a better international and intercultural record,” von Marschall said.

His race also plays well here, according to Uwe Andersen, a professor of political science at Ruhr University in Bochum: “In Germany, there is great sympathy first for Native Americans and second for black Americans.”

You’d think the Germans would be a bit more sympathetic to Jews, the French and Eastern Europe since they’re so sympathetic to Indians and Blacks. What the Germans did to Europe from the Franco-Prussian War until 1945 should give them more shame than what they think happened to Blacks and Indians in the US two centuries ago.

But having said all that, I hope this serves as a reminder to Europeans as to why we don’t allow the effete snobs of Europe to choose our President. Maybe if they put a little effort into reforming the UN that might wean them off of wanting to tell us how to vote.

Update: Welcome Flopping Aces and Sparks from the Anvil readers. Thanks for hooking me up, Wordsmith.

Category: Foreign Policy, Politics