November 19, 2003
RED AMERICA, BLUE EUROPE?:
How George can really help Tony: As a European country, Britain is torn over Bush. But so is America (Timothy Garton Ash, November 20, 2003, The Guardian)
Will any change of tone by the Bush administration be enough to bridge the present gulf between America and Europe? Almost certainly not. Most Europeans now have such a settled negative view of President Bush that it's hard to see what could change their minds. This view may be unfair. The Banqueting Hall speech actually contained a lot of very good sense, although one suspects it was much less the speaker's personal work than are Tony Blair's big speeches. In private, Bush can be warm, engaging and pretty sharp. Unfortunately, none of that matters tuppence. Or two cents. In such cases, the image is the reality.But here's another reality: half of America agrees. What's happening in London today is a meeting between the prime minister of one divided country and the president of another - and I'm not talking about Korea or Cyprus. As the patriotic unity that followed the 9/11 attacks has faded, and American soldiers keep dying in Iraq, so the great divide that was apparent at the time of Bush's election has reemerged.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Centre showed a country split down the middle, 50-50, and never more polarised. This is not just the pre-electoral posturing of Republicans versus Democrats. It's a deep cultural divide between the more liberal coasts and the religous, conservative interior and south - sometimes called, rather confusingly to our ears, "red" America (for the conservative part) and "blue" America (for the liberal coasts).
Blue America has attitudes that are much closer to those of Europeans. For instance, in the Pew poll, 72% of Democrats said government should do more to help needy people, even if it means a larger deficit, against just 39% of Republicans. So you could say, according to taste, that half the Americans are Europeans, or that most Europeans are Democrats.
That seems a low blow. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 19, 2003 10:29 PM
"The image is the reality."
Until reality takes over. Which must occur sooner or later.
So they should have as fun as they can before they hit the brick wall.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 20, 2003 1:43 AM
THE ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY: ISLAMOFASCISM, JUDEOFASCISM AND CHRISTIANOFASCISM
Thanks to the desperate, failing war on "terror" vindicated by an "ideological" clique made up of hysteric neocons mixed with oil-smelling corporate satraps & poorly waged by the pathetic George II The Appointed -a caricatural christianofascist, everybody's aware of islamofascism, ie: Oussama & Co.
However not everybody realises that judeofascism is islamofascism's perfect double. In the youess, for instance, judeofascism is not even identified by the average youessan due to massive bushist brainwashing delivered by Pravda-like media: FoxNews, CNN & al.
Still the threat is known to France which has been the victim of a fastidious, two-year smear campaign pretending this country was the latest embodiment of nazism raised from the dead.
The slander has been pervertedly articulated thanks to false assumptions & naked forgery. True there have been SOME anti-Semitic acts of violence on the French territory, almost all of them related to Palestine-Israel-patterned hatred imported from the Middle East over to France's muslim & jewish communities. That kind of radicalisation HITTING BOTH SIDES is conjectural by nature: it will disappear once Palestine is given its elementary status & rights in compliance with UN resolution n° 181 (29 November 1947) (1), among an endless litany of similar resolutions.
First bit of intellectual dishonesty displayed by France-hating judeofascists: anti-Semitic violence only is worth their selective indignation, not racist violence as a whole & certainly not anti-Arab or anti-muslim violence. Closed-up in their bigotry, judeofascists won't hesitate to count all kinds of alleged disputes reported by angry neighbours or jealous competitors as a deed of anti-Semitism, as long as the "plaintiff" claims to be jewish… Anti-Arab acts of violence perpetrated by radicalised jews is of no interest, of course. It goes without saying that acts of violence are an Arab or muslim monopoly. Far-right jewish militias as the Bétar (2) are not denounced, not even mentioned.
Even more vicious is the odious amalgam aiming at making any Palestine supporters feel "guilty" of anti-Semitism. Anyone who sincerely thinks that it is the lack of a Palestinian State (for Atheist, christian & muslim Arabs) is the very root of intercommunitarian tensions, is automatically deemed to use a convenient alibi to spit out their anti-Semitic pulsions. If a Palestine supporter happens to be jewish or originates from a jewish background, then the guy is a "self-hating" jew !!! If a Palestine supporter happens to be an Israeli, then the guy is a traitor... One dare not think about a synagogue-going Israeli who'd be advocating a Palestinian State…The Union des juifs français pour la paix (French jews united for peace), a French jewish, Palestine-supporting organisation, are fought with ultimate adamancy before they could actually advocate their ideas; they are systematically attacked by the self-appointed ayatollahs of the most extreme fringe of the French jewish community. Even worse: Eyal Sivan, a French jewish, Palestine-supporting film-maker, was sent a 22-mm bullet in an envelope with a letter reading: "the next one won't be sent by mail" !!! French jewish extremists -called sharognards in France (sharognard is homophonous with charognard, ie: carrion-eater ("carrionard"), vulture etc) due to Sharon's credentials as a mass-murderer- feel now forced into ever increasing violence (verbal & physical) as the world finally acknowledge Israel's foreign policy to be what it is: an unhuman occupation of Palestine & a very ominous portent for world peace (3).
Paradox: pointing out that neo-anti-Semitism DOES originate from Sharonist EQUATION of judaism with Israeli foreign policy, SHALL have you stigmatised by judeofascists as they refuse to acknowledge that their VERY behaviour is reinforcing that EQUATION. The most ridiculous instance of that paradox was brought by Jean Kahn -a former head of the CRIF (Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France: Representative council of France's jewish institutions)- as he demanded that any French jews "should identify themselves to Israel" (4) !!! No less… Israel's colonial policy in Palestine must therefore neither be questioned nor even debated. If you do, then you will have to endure the wrath of Jean Kahn. If you are a pro-Palestinian jewish French, be prepared to face Monsieur Kahn's fatwa & to be excommuniated by the CRIF. You will lose your jewishhood immediately & return at once to the simple state of vulgar Frenchhood. Judeofascists' fatwas notwithstanding, many people refuse to associate the entire Hebrew people with a militaristic and greedy nation like Israel. They do not represent all jews by any means. Albert Einstein, a jew "by blood" (Agnostic by religion), deplored zionism and hated all forms of warfare and violence. To associate the entire jewish people with the police State of Israel and call it anti-Semitism to be anti-Israel is ludicrous & is insulting to non-Israeli Hebrews (whatever their religious obedience) -and is a form of outright racism. Monsieur Kahn & the CRIF are both concept hijackers & love to revel in their Stalinian shariah.
More witch-hunting: since "hippies", "leftists", "socialists" & "communists" are "the only ones" daring to claim that Israel's policy in Palestine is a colonial one, then anyone disagreeing with ultralibéralisme in French (read: neoconservatism in English) is necessarily anti-Semitic. As a "consequence", any greens, altermondialistes (another-world-is-possible activists), socialists & communists are labelled anti-jewish or jew-haters or judeophobes or even neo-nazis . Nice ideological wizardry, isn't it? Now, according to that kind of "intellectual" imposture, christianofascists (Bush) & judeofascists (Arab-haters, Francophobes, Europhobes etc) all stand united in a new form of Stalinian McCarthyism which is actually their common shariah.
Welcome to the twenty-first century.
(1) UN resolution n° 181 - 29 November 1947
Palestine three-zone partition plan:
1. a 14.000-km2 "jewish"* State with 558.000 "jews"* and 405.000 Arabs
2. an 11.500-km2 Arab State with 804.000 Arabs and 10.000 "jews"*
3. an international-status zone (corpus separatum) including Jerusalem and Bethlehem with 106.000 Arabs and 100.000 "jews"*.
Resolution enforcement deadline: 1 October 1948. For the the First Arabo-Israeli War broke out on 15 May 1948, resolution n° 181 could never be enforced.
Votes of the UN General Assembly sitting in 128th Plenary Session.
1. Approval: 33 States (including France, the USA & the USSR).
2. Refusal: 13 States (Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen)
3. Abstention: 10 States (Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, the UK**, Yugoslavia).
*Please note that the brackets and the lack of a capital J for "jews" and "jewish" is a sign neither of anti-Semitism nor of antijudaism. For I don't see why Atheists should be the only ones to be granted the privilege of being written with minuscules only, I've chosen not to use capital letter for religious obedience: jewish, christian, muslim, buddhist etc.. As for the brackets, they simply mean that the word "jewish" is utterly irrelevant to name the non-Arab population settling in Palestine: some "jews" were absolutely secularised, hence the contradiction.
** the UK was seeking -in vain- to maintain its declining influence thanks to disorders wreaking havoc upon Palestine.
(2) The Bétar is a bunch of cowards whose favourite hobby is beating up Arab-looking people in Parisian streets at night.
(3) In a recent poll, 60 % of the Europeans claimed Israel to be the most dangerous threat to world peace. Iran, North Korea & the youessey all rank second: 53 %. Fifth: Irak 52%. Sixth: Afghanistan 50%? Seventh: Pakistan 48%. Eighth: Syria 37%. Ninth: Libya & Saudi Arabie 36%. Eleventh: Chine 30%. Twelfth: India 22%. Thirteenth: Russia 21%.br>
(4) in Le Monde, 6 October 2000.
Wow Orrin, you seem to have attracted an exotic troll species with this post. I would never have expected it, given the topic!
Posted by: jd watson at November 20, 2003 2:37 AMYup, mankind just keeps on getting more and more enlightened in our progressive era.
Posted by: Peter B at November 20, 2003 5:12 AMAs I read the first few sentences of "The Enemies of Democracy" I thought our old friend Phil Shropshire was loose. Nope!
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at November 20, 2003 6:51 AMBEWARE THE EVIL JEAN KAHN!!!! HE WILL DESTROY YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Greg E. at November 20, 2003 7:50 AMI love the phrase "Stalinian McCarthyism". It's like a paradox wrapped inside an enigma.
Posted by: Greg E. at November 20, 2003 7:53 AMThere are other similarities between Europeans and BiCoastal Democrats. And I am sure these will not be mentioned in polite company: Polls show both groups to be less religious, less believers, more anti-semitic, (in the past) more tolerant of communist expansionism,...Truly, having lived in both blue enclaves I can tell you there are a lot of similarities. What the Europeans can not understand (beyond the nature of the peoples who loilve in Fly By states) is how this troglodytic party can still produce people like Rudy, Arnold, Mitch, George Pataki, etc., who are far more likely to also like GWB than his closest Dem rival, and who manage to get elected in the Blues own home fields.
Posted by: MG at November 20, 2003 8:00 AMOJ: With respect to your question: To whom?
Posted by: Chris at November 20, 2003 8:52 AMIt's the red states and the red cities, generally speaking. Therein may stem the coincidence of opinion between Democrats and Europeans, reinforced by the city's ethnic population's delayed assimilation into the culture as a result of ethnic coalitions encouraged by proximity.
It all eventually works out as they realise the reasons they, or their forebears, left Europe in the first place and with the recognition of what they themselves or children have gained. With the exception of Johnny Depp and Gore Vidal, I haven't heard of any mass emmigration to Europe; but some seem to wish to bring Europe here. At least Depp isn't a hypocrit, but I wouldn't extend that to Vidal.
The diatribe from France was reminiscent of what one might have read in the Daily Worker in the 40's and 50's; and other parts of it written in an extreme Bundist publication during the 30's.
Posted by: genecis at November 20, 2003 10:52 AMFreudian slip: Meant the red states and blue cities.
Posted by: genecis at November 20, 2003 11:00 AMIf I didn't know better, I'd say the rant was from Kodiak. Got banned from samizdata.
Posted by: Sandy P. at November 21, 2003 12:33 AMAs the dead McDonald's people say " I'm Lvoin' It" ( sound of knuckles cracking):
Let me first comment that this post was indeed posted by a hippie/leftist. let's get that tiny piece out of the way just to make someone mad. what is a hippie ? well a hippie, or a
realist" is someone delves into the utmost thought provoking issues in the world, studies them till the bone and then uses his so called knoledge to kock down anyone who seems to be hurting someone smaller or weaker than him. ever seen a 50 year old stoner use really long wrods with "ism" at the end of them, well that's a hippie.
now since i am a very enlightened person i don't mind hippies at all, hell who doesnt like the odd dose of pot? however my problem lies a little deeper: hippies, generally live thousands and thousands of miles from the subject of their conversation. am i saying they're not allowed to talk about it? hell no, talk aboiut all you want. but bringing up UN resolution numbers and details doesn't help to solve the problem now does it? if i thought the UN was capable of anything in this world right now i'd probably agree, but i don't. and since i've seen UN people ,with my own eyes, acting like they're playing poker so soldiers get kidnapped and tortued, i dont like the UN too much. tell you the truth, if they were lying around playing poker so a palastinian can get caught, i wouldnt like them either.
come sit with me friend. come sit in a coffee shop and look at the body parts fly, come with me to a quiet stroll down the street and look at the parts of 3 years old babies smeared on the wall.but you what ? you're right, that's different. because that 3 year old is going to be a soldier anyway, so it's fine. it's fine because it's a colonial empire. of what empire shall i ask ? who own this colony? who sent it ? and let me let you on a little secret : the fact that a people worried about it's own preservation (which has been threatened once in a while, mind you) is being called fascism in 2003 is a pretty good reason to colonize. hell, even if Israel is the most cruel and unfair colonizing country in the WORLD, it still has better reasons to do it than the land you're sitting on right now typing at your, yea, hippie computer.
if anyone in the world feels true sympathy for the palastinain problem it's Israel. since it's not a patrinizing,holier than though kind of sympathy. it's the kind of sympathy that a people that has been through that kind of suffering can understand, not a people of walmart shoppers.
made up you say? fascist you say? consider the dact that the EU has conducted a large report on modern european anti-semitism, discovered that it's run by mostly islamic factors and then put it in a safe little closet and threw away the key. why bother the sweet and weak palastinians, those mean ole israelis are bothering them enough. and when the report was discovered, that there IS a reassurance, of something that i knew long ago, of european anti-judisim, who head about it? did you ? i only heard about since i care.
since this is a very lengthy discussion, and although i havent proven to be the great quoter, who ever posted that piece of MISINFORMED garbage , did i think iut;s enough fo now.
oh and by the way, get a, life and take down your little cute "stop US funding to Israel: sticker on your fridge. it;s not funny anymore
As the dead McDonald's people say " I'm Lvoin' It" ( sound of knuckles cracking):
Let me first comment that this post was indeed posted by a hippie/leftist. let's get that tiny piece out of the way just to make someone mad. what is a hippie ? well a hippie, or a
realist" is someone delves into the utmost thought provoking issues in the world, studies them till the bone and then uses his so called knoledge to kock down anyone who seems to be hurting someone smaller or weaker than him. ever seen a 50 year old stoner use really long wrods with "ism" at the end of them, well that's a hippie.
now since i am a very enlightened person i don't mind hippies at all, hell who doesnt like the odd dose of pot? however my problem lies a little deeper: hippies, generally live thousands and thousands of miles from the subject of their conversation. am i saying they're not allowed to talk about it? hell no, talk aboiut all you want. but bringing up UN resolution numbers and details doesn't help to solve the problem now does it? if i thought the UN was capable of anything in this world right now i'd probably agree, but i don't. and since i've seen UN people ,with my own eyes, acting like they're playing poker so soldiers get kidnapped and tortued, i dont like the UN too much. tell you the truth, if they were lying around playing poker so a palastinian can get caught, i wouldnt like them either.
come sit with me friend. come sit in a coffee shop and look at the body parts fly, come with me to a quiet stroll down the street and look at the parts of 3 years old babies smeared on the wall.but you what ? you're right, that's different. because that 3 year old is going to be a soldier anyway, so it's fine. it's fine because it's a colonial empire. of what empire shall i ask ? who own this colony? who sent it ? and let me let you on a little secret : the fact that a people worried about it's own preservation (which has been threatened once in a while, mind you) is being called fascism in 2003 is a pretty good reason to colonize. hell, even if Israel is the most cruel and unfair colonizing country in the WORLD, it still has better reasons to do it than the land you're sitting on right now typing at your, yea, hippie computer.
if anyone in the world feels true sympathy for the palastinain problem it's Israel. since it's not a patrinizing,holier than though kind of sympathy. it's the kind of sympathy that a people that has been through that kind of suffering can understand, not a people of walmart shoppers.
made up you say? fascist you say? consider the dact that the EU has conducted a large report on modern european anti-semitism, discovered that it's run by mostly islamic factors and then put it in a safe little closet and threw away the key. why bother the sweet and weak palastinians, those mean ole israelis are bothering them enough. and when the report was discovered, that there IS a reassurance, of something that i knew long ago, of european anti-judisim, who heard about it? did you ? i only heard about because i care. and yet all those lies told by all those paranoid Jews ! Dammit! i wished they stopped whining about their burnt bibles and start using them to bandage their dismembered civilians...
since this is a very lengthy discussion, and although i havent proven to be the great quoter, who ever posted that piece of MISINFORMED garbage , did i think iut;s enough fo now.
oh and by the way, get a, life and take down your little cute "stop US funding to Israel: sticker on your fridge. it;s not funny anymore