Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian (U.K.):
If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.
Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.
And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race - that Obama was rejected because of his colour - the world’s verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude that “the United States had its day, but in the end couldn’t put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race”.
Even if it’s not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, “historical decline”. Let’s not forget, McCain’s campaign manager boasts that this election is “not about the issues.”
Couple things about this:
1. First of all, many Americans don’t give a good g**d*mn what the world thinks. And that’s not entirely bad. The United States needs to do what’s right for the United States, ultimately. And I’ve little doubt that there’s a core of conservatives who would vote specifically for a candidate, any candidate, the world doesn’t like.
Oh yeah, bunch’a fuzzy furriners? See how they like THIS!
2. But in an era where international terrorism not to mention the global economy are two of the most pressing issues, it does indeed matter what the world thinks.
3. Let’s not ascribe Obama’s recent struggle at the poll to racism. There may be some of that, and I take Freedland’s suggestion that a lot more people, come crunch time, will vote for the white guy even though they SAID they’d vote for the black guy. But the excitement generated by Palin, and the relatively tepid response from the Obama camp, have much to do with the campaign’s apparent struggles right now. And we have a long way to go, anyway.
4. Finally, we really do seem prepared to elect Palin-McCain on the basis of the hockey mom likability of Palin; and that is a nation in decline.
But that’s merely a symptom. The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle show the degree to which our puppet strings are now controlled by the central banks of other nations. There’s a great hollowing out going on in this country; I don’t kid myself that Obama would actually reverse it, but I most certainly think Palin-McCain would steepen the slide, probably by taking a swing at Iran, by completely ignoring all ideas about alternative/sustainable energy and just giving handouts to big oil.
But we’re not talking about these things with the urgency they require. The decline needs to actually occur before we do; I’ve long said that the country needs to actually go over the cliff before we change our ways. Europe, the world, realizing the necessity of the United States, may be more desperate for change than we ourselves are. Without change, though, we’re soon to catch up.
