Euroamericans to Europhobes, or "Who's Afraid of the French?"

Ronald Brownstein, writing in the National Journal (subscription required) while Barack Obama was still out of the country, proved quite prescient when he opined:

All that is left for Obama is to enjoy cheering crowds during his trip's quick European leg, which began with his Thursday speech in Berlin. Yet that very adoration--which is reflected in polls showing that the European public vastly prefers him to McCain--may represent the trip's sole remaining political danger for the Democrat. U.S. conservatives are poised to argue that Obama's popularity with audiences abroad ought to raise doubts among Americans at home.

And he cites the precedent of candidate John Kerry being skewered in 2004 for his claimed support from foreign leaders--and for being French, though Brownstein doesn't refer to that at this point.

Of course, anyone who's been paying attention during the last few decades can't have missed the promise of the New World Order and the Project for a New American Century, which would enable the leaders of the new world to finally tell Old Europe, as Rumsfeld called it, what to do.  But, it seems to me, what prompted these aspirations and fueled the apparent belief that the European Union was on the verge of collapse has not been considered enough.

The word xenophobic surfaced just today as a question about whether John McCain might be accused of fueling the fear of foreigners.  But, while there's a long history of antagonisms against one group or another (some foreign and some domestic) being used to foster social cohesion among disparate populations, it was never, and doesn't appear now to be, so all-inclusive as xenophobia suggests. Europhobia, on the other hand, might explain a lot.

I was, frankly, startled the other day when a conservative gentleman standing in line for a McCain event asserted that Justice Anthony Kennedy should be considered a traitor to the cause because of his reliance on "European laws" to support the right to due process in our legal system.  He seemed entirely convinced that the principle of habeus corpus was what Americans rejected in declaring their independence.  The affirmation of human rights didn't even enter into his consideration.  As far as he's concerned, the laws are wrong because they are European.

What prompted that?  Perhaps because I'm European by birth myself, but never had a strong connection to a war-torn continent I left as a child, I really hadn't given much thought to the apparent ambivalence that still exists in the Euroamerican psyche towards the old country.  (Though that might explain the apparent intent to reject Europe, once and for all, by locating the homeland here in America).

At some level, I've long realized that the "land of opportunity" which Europeans ostensibly sought in daring to cross the oceans, was largely a myth and created after the fact by those who actually realized some success.  Because, prior to the age of modern communications, it wasn't really possible for people in Europe to know where they were going or what they would find there.  All they could do was hope that it would be better than what they were more or less eager to leave behind.  

I say, "more or less," because, although rarely admitted, it's quite probable that emigration was prompted by the fact that some people simply couldn't make a go of it at home.  That is, the huddled masses America welcomed to her shores were a bunch of misfits (not necessarily criminals like those transported to Australia), whom their families could well do without.  So, it was only in retrospect that those who survived and prospered were keen to proclaim that they'd achieved what they wanted all along. Although a myth was born, a bit of resentment remained.

It would be logical for a sense of resentment at having been rejected to persist and even to be passed on from generation to generation, if only as an attitude of bravura they adopted to counter the insecurity they naturally brought with them.  For, when you come right down to it, the fear that they hadn't made the right choice, after all,  would likely still lurk to raise it's head whenever the economy or the social environment took a turn for the worse.  On the other hand, coming to the aid of the old homeland, especially in World War II, was no doubt a grand adventure, seeming to make the diaspora and deprivation all worth while.  Europe recovering and doing much better by every measure--not so much.

I guess what I'm suggesting is that many Americans suffer from a recurring Europhobia which is potentially very self-destructive.  Because, it suggests that, just as the conservative gentleman was willing to sacrifice his human rights to avoid being tied to European values, we may be depriving ourselves of workable solutions to real problems for no other reason than that Europeans have already solved them.  Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.