A reader in Texas replies to that complaint about America's reluctance to engage with the rest of us:
I read your blog every day. I really enjoy it. That being said, however, I think this idea you have about a "dialogue" across the Atlantic is not going to go too far.
Now, I say this as someone who has lived in Germany a few different times, also lived in Asia and lived in many different areas of the States. Most Americans are not too concerned with the wider world for two reasons. One, it's pretty far away and two, we tend to be pragmatic individuals. Our basic sense of the world is: we all manage to get along, why can't you? We don't like to see people being oppressed. However, we have a great distrust, in some ways a great dislike, for "European Ideas'. I put that in quotes and capitals to show you how it often comes across to us. Honestly, we don't see why we should emulate many of the things that are done in Europe. Your policies often don't work and very often are against the fabric of our culture. We are not Europeans and our culture is very different from yours.
It's also the way it comes across, like a stuck-up professor who is sooo much more intelligent than us hicks. Do we have problems? Sure, we're the first to admit it, but we're working on them. Please! We see a lot of bias and blatant anti-semitism coming across the Atlantic and it's finding a home in the Left here.
I don't think that's the kind of dialogue you were talking about, but that's what most of us see. When Europe can get honest about itself, the Middle East, the UN and us, come back and we can talk. Right now it seems more like Europe wants to do the talking and wants us to listen in silence to "our betters". This is especially true when we read articles written in the newspapers. It's obvious most of these writers have no clue to life in America, much less any understanding of us. Of course, you don't read too many articles in the States about how horrible Europe is. We would just rather get on with our lives. Now, this is from a middle class American, with no ties to any political party or the "elite" ruling class. I think my views are fairly common, however, for what it's worth!
Considering how much moronic anti-Americanism we produce in Europe, I don't blame her for washing her hands of us. That said, I still think she's mistaken. All I'll add is that 90 per cent of the e-mails I've had from the US over the last year have taken the same line.