A recent poll echoed in my noggin as I groggily deplaned off a trip from Europe on Thursday. A growing majority of earthlings report that the US cannot be trusted to act responsibly in the world. No surprise there, but the implications are clearer now. Curious Europeans had been politely but firmly askance: "How did things get so bad in the USA?" I was giving a talk on how to improve organizational climate, when one woman snarked: "Look, an American that actually believes in climate change!" The resulting tangent of discussion(s) showed just how confused and disappointed world citizens have become since W-the appointed transitioned to W-the elected.
The folks I met were more informed about US politics than my sibliings and neighbors. Despite daily doses of Kos, Olbermann, Jon Stewart, and Colbert, I struggled to bring balance to the conversation given how informed they were. Still, the Nov '06 optimism that has served to lift our spirits till the implosion last week was completely absent.
There is a sense that they have given up on us, and this was hard to endure. They are still in that ugly place where each of us were in the weeks after Kerry '04 conceded. The difference is that we bounced back to the point where parking next to a car with a faded Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker gives a warm sense of recognition, appreciation, and triumph. Other global citizens, however, still fester in the fog of disappointment after abandoning enthusiasm.
Bush is at 28% here, mocked and disrespected like few before him, but he survived. Imagine if Sanjaya had won American Idol - viewers would have lost faith (or whatever you call the bizare emotion around that show) in the concept, the fairness, the justice, and the associated logic/reason. This is how much of the rest of the world views us!
I lived in Europe in the 1990s and have no recollection of having to justify the actions of the Clinton administration, even as a proud Democrat. But here I was in 2007 being asked to justify the actions of the Bush administration. They don't see this as a "Bush" administration, they see it as our collosal and collective failure to vote appropriately - there is a lot of subtle and pernicious blame there. They saw 2004 as the time to redeem ourselves and we blew it, for us, and for them. I just haven't felt that additional sense of responsibility till that moment. It didn't matter if I had a D or and R after my name - the problem was that we permitted the villiage idiot to REMAIN, and that isn't easily forgotten.
Here is a sample of sincere querries:
"Is recycling really that hard for Americans?" "Does a faith-based program mean that evidence is not needed?" "Why do you doubt global warming, but promote abstinance only education." "With a war against religious extremists in Iraq, how do you justify religious extremists in your government."
The bottom line is that as much as we blame Bush/Cheney/Rove, citizens of the world blame the articulate, the passionate, and the informed - us. Party affiliation is moot at this point - they see us as complicit. Perhaps the "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" headline deserves a revisit. The half of the country that failed to remove W(orst president ever) from office, is another half of a whole failure. The war funding supplemental paid homage to that failure last week.
Emotional and cathartic as it may be to rate Madame Speaker, her 52% kossak approval Friday (of almost 20K votes) is down slightly from 92% (of over 20K votes) four short weeks ago. So let's acknowledge that Mr 28% is pathetic, and let's be realistic and honest about our disapointment in Speaker Pelosi, but let's also continue to own our failure in '04. This is where there is more than just guilt, there is blame. The take home from this anecdotal experience is that they blame the GOP for being wrong, whereas they blame Dems for being ineffective - and that blame is still raw.