... we need you over there. You may think that Britain or France and Germany are outposts of decency, free education and healthcare, tolerance for different faiths... and you'd be right!
But wait a minute. Don't look to Europe for racial tolerance... There are more covert bigots and racists in rural France, Italy and Germany than in the deep south. And forget individual freedom. In many of the class bound societies of Europe there is still no meritocracy. Most Americans believe that, with enough talent and hard work, their children could - at a pinch - become successful, even become President. Few Europeans believe this.
But above all, we Europeans have gotten used to having a well funded welfare and entitlement state WITHOUT having the means to defend our freedoms. Ever since the Berlin blockade we have relied on American firepower (American tax payers money which could have been better spent on health or education) to defend us from the Soviets. After the Berlin Wall collapsed and the Cold War ended, we still were incapable of defending the Bosnians from genocide. We played our petty old games of national interest while 200 hundred thousand died. It took America to stop the siege of Sarajevo.
For all I hate Bush, and loathe military intervention, I still applaud the fact Americans are willing to risk their lives to stop genocide continuing unabated. Democrats have to fight for American involvement in the world - as they did in Bosnia, and to a certain extent Afghanistan.
Iraq has turned out to be a huge bloody mess. But we don't want Democrats to give up the fight. We want them to win. And we don't want them, a la Michael Moore, to retreat into their homeland and disengage in the world. Your military might equals the next eleven nations, combined. One carrier group in the US Navy equals the entire military expenditure of Italy - and you have 17 carrier groups. This power has been won partly through economic strength and technological innovation, But more than anything it has been won through the soft power of support from your allies abroad. America is, and will be for the foreseeable future, the one superpower. We need responsible sane and compassionate people to run your military and diplomatic services. Please sit down, as the eloquent writer puts it in another diary. Sit down and think. Sometimes thought itself is action enough.
There is a huge groundswell for democratic american values. You just have to find the language and policies to recapture the middle ground Bush bamboozled. And they will soon come to their senses. The contradictions in foreign policy (democracy by missile strike) or in domestic policy (cut taxes during a deficit) will soon explode in the Republican's face. Please stay around and be ready for an alternative.
You could also be at a high water mark,. Public opinion is like an oil tanker, it takes ages to turn around, but when it does, nothing will stop it. I have a feeling that though everyone on Kos knows about it, the lies and contradictions in Republican policy have yet to filter through all the shock jock noise back to the bulk of American opinion. But when it does, when the lies and zealotry become apparent to that middle ground, they will turn away from Bush in droves. And you must be there to provide an alternative.
So, from someone who is appalled by this result, but admires America - the America that produced Kennedy and now Kos - please sit down, stay at home, and reclaim your country. The time will come. Believe me.