..or, hey, Rush, the cheese-eating surrender monkeys are now seen as better alternative than the United States as a leader in world affairs.
But, no problem, we've got Tom DeLay and the Talibornagains to bring us back to Jeezus, if they can get overthrow the Constitution with their unconstitutional "restoration act."
A new poll (new as of April 4th, sorry if I missed it here) notes that France, not America is the most highly regarded nation across the world.
Here's how bad it is: even China rated higher than the United States in popular assessments of its global conduct. The United States also took the top prize as the country most widely viewed as having a negative influence on the world (in 15 countries), with Russia coming a close second (14 countries). And this in a poll that did not include countries in the Middle East, who would have likely put us way ahead of Russia.
The most astonishing fact revealed by the new poll is that 34 percent of Americans agree that Europe should be running the show. Let me repeat this: one-third of Americans want Brussels, not Washington, to be calling the shots on the global arena.
Why is this astonishing when you look at who is calling the shots in America? Tom DeLay? Mr. Torture-Justifier Attn Gen? Cheney? Bush? The tali-born-agains who are telling moderate republicans to get on their knees and...genuflect?
The Iraqi war based upon lies, the lack of accountability for those lies...
The secret of Europe's appeal becomes even clearer in a comparison with the United States. As Tony Judt recently pointed out in the New York Review of Books, Americans work more hours, live shorter lives, and are much more likely to be poor than their European counterparts.
Gee, and if Grover Norquist has his way, we'll be even worse off than we are now! Hey, thanks moderate Republicans, for voting this bunch of wankers into office!
From the poll, in the first link:
Looking at variations by age is especially significant, as the attitudes of young people compared to older people suggest possible future trends. Indeed, all the striking findings of the study appear to be more pronounced among young people. Young people (18-29) are more supportive of Europe becoming more influential than the US (60%) than those 60 or more (51%). Excluding Europeans, 56 percent of young people are supportive, as compared to 45% of older people.
Education is also an important variable, as those who are educated are likely to be better informed. Here too, the striking findings of the study are more pronounced at higher educational levels. Those with relatively high levels of education are more likely to have a positive view of Europe becoming more influential than the US (63%) than are those with lower levels of education (53%).
...another reason Republicans seem so dedicated to dumbing down America?
This report backs up what popularizer Richard Florida has been saying about The Flight of the Creative Class.
Obviously, this shift has come about with the changing of the political guard in Washington, from the internationalist Bill Clinton to the aggressively unilateralist George W. Bush. But its roots go much deeper, to a tectonic change in the country's political-economic demographics. As many have noted, America is becoming more geographically polarized, with the culturally more traditionalist, rural, small-town, and exurban "red" parts of the country increasingly voting Republican, and the culturally more progressive urban and suburban "blue" areas going ever more Democratic. Less noted is the degree to which these lines demarcate a growing economic divide, with "blue" patches representing the talent-laden, immigrant-rich creative centers that have largely propelled economic growth, and the "red" parts representing the economically lagging hinterlands.
So, is the corporate class in America so stupid that they cannot see beyond their next quarter earnings statement?