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surprise is not that he came, he saw, he conquered, but that the
European press, abetted by the leftward hang of American political
reporters, had thoroughly misled European elites about the essential
guts, vision, and brains of President Bush.
Intelligent European reporters in Washington and New York have told
their readers for years that Bush is a hick from Texas, unworthy
of the attention of true elites, ignorant, invincibly misinformed,
a rough rider over the views of others. Evidence: Bush unilaterally
rejected the intelligent environmentalist's Kyoto Creed, they said.
Yet, after his wise, eloquent, and far-sighted Warsaw University
Address, however, the tone in Europe visibly changed regarding President
Bush. Even Ms. Amanpour, though it choked her to say it, commented
on Bush's classic balanced cadences and large-minded vision, concluding
that Europeans would have to revise theirs reviews of President
Bush upwards and quite suddenly.
Corriere della Sera in Milan ran a front-page cartoon of
Bush voicing that deft image of a "House of Liberty" from Ireland
to the Urals, while at his knee newly elected Prime Minister Berlusconi
tugs at his coat, whispering about his own copyright upon that symbol
for his own coalition. A nice touch, Mr. Bush.
Vladimir Putin is being reported as warmed and gladdened by the
American's ability to listen closely and to speak plainly and directly,
and his willingness to explore the tacit presuppositions behind
earlier (and newer) viewpoints and positions.
Suddenly, European elites are grudgingly admitting that Bush's thinking
is ahead of theirs. They have some catching up to do intellectually,
even if they end up disagreeing with him.
When, standing with European Commissioner Prodi, for instance, Bush
replied gently to a reporter, "I would like to hear your [nodding
to Signor Prodi] answer to that." The question was, Why are Europeans
blaming Bush for his position on Kyoto, when not a single government
in Europe has yet moved to ratify the Treaty, and the U.S. Senate
under Clinton voted 95-0 against it.
Commissioner Prodi hemmed and hawed, saying it was the announced
aim of all European governments and in the future steps would be
taken…but the hypocrisy was now out in plain sight.
European elites have an infinite capacity for cynicism, stating
fine words that reassure their allegiance of radical utopians, while
having little or no intention of actually providing any action further
than lovely words. Plain-speaking President Bush violated their
code by matching his words exactly to the U. S. Senate's action.
(Few have noticed the resemblance between Harry Truman of Missouri
and George W. Bush of Texas.)
The problem of European foreign reporting in the United States has
deepened to disastrous dimensions; a chasm yawns between its reporting
and American reality. A minor cause of this incomprehension is the
incorrigibly social democratic limitations of the European mind.
European journalists just don't understand such elementary American
realities as the building of communities where five generations
ago virtually empty plains and valleys blew in the solitary wind.
They do not understand that such communities were built through
a love for risk, enterprise, cooperative labors, and religious faith.
They don't understand that, without capitalist enterprise, such
communities would have perished long ago, and that is why among
us capitalism remains a good work. Our survival hinged upon it.
But the major cause of the problem of the European press is the
irreligiousness and modernistic, amoral sophistication of the tone
of voice favored by the European press. In such a tone, sympathy
for the piety of students in Oklahoma, who insist on praying to
Jesus at football games, is not an option. The writer's superiority
to such benighted behavior in Oklahoma must be indicated, in order
to preserve the complacence of his readers back home.
For European elites, American conservatives are a species worthy
of amused mockery, not intellectual deference. Outside the U.K.,
no ideas but social democratic ideas get a thorough hearing in the
European press.
Social democratic illusions about the world are suffocating Europe
at its roots. An immense social crisis is descending rapidly on
Europe, while its elites pride themselves on their superior culture.
A chain of demographic time bombs has already begun to go off. Europe's
population base is melting away like ice in July. The premises of
welfare benefits for the elderly and other non-workers made so greedily
by social democratic governments depended on a growing population,
not a shrinking one. These promises will never be honored. In social
democratic Europe, illusions rule. Where illusions rule, realities
erupt with suddenness and force. For the future, unless there is
an awakening, Europe is a worry.
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