Is It Cool to Be an American Abroad?

[Crabtownboy]

I have not experienced any personal verbal attacks in Europe, but I have been told how dimly G. Bush and our government looks in their eyes the last four years.

No one has kissed me since Tuesday for being an American, but I have been told how happy the people here are with Obama's election. As a friend, who has always been very negative about the US, said in an e-mail to me this morning concerning Obama's election, "America gives us all hope." This is an amazing statement coming from this person.

Interesting article:

VIENNA, Austria (Nov. 6) - She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American.
It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory. I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English.

Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop.
Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans.
For longtime U.S. expatriates like me — someone far more accustomed to being targeted over unpopular policies, for having my very Americanness publicly assailed — it feels like an extraordinary turnabout.

http://news.aol.com/article/is-it-c...d/238998?icid=100214839x1212915409x1200781116

 

[rbell]

Oh, we'll be popular for a few weeks.

Then it will get back to normal, and we'll be reviled the world over.

This is the umpteenth cycle of it.

IMHO, the key is to find that middle ground: Americans need to watch the cultural insensitivity when abroad, for instance. But when it comes to our policies making the world happy, we don't need to worry about it much. Most of the time, the world is ticked at us...until they need us.

Everyone will love Obama...until he does something they disagree with. Then we'll be the great satan again...

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Oh, we'll be popular for a few weeks.

Then it will get back to normal, and we'll be reviled the world over.

This is the umpteenth cycle of it.

IMHO, the key is to find that middle ground: Americans need to watch the cultural insensitivity when abroad, for instance. But when it comes to our policies making the world happy, we don't need to worry about it much. Most of the time, the world is ticked at us...until they need us.

Everyone will love Obama...until he does something they disagree with. Then we'll be the great satan again...

In some ways I think that, but Clinton was loved here to the very end, as Bush was despised.

I keep getting 'congratulated' and keep saying that they are not due - he is just another politician.

 

[Crabtownboy]

In some ways I think that, but Clinton was loved here to the very end, as Bush was despised.

I keep getting 'congratulated' and keep saying that they are not due - he is just another politician.

I may be wrong, but I believe it is the message more than the man are congratulation us for, though it does not hurt that he is young and chrasmatic. I believe it is a congratulations on the repudation of the policies of the last 8 years. I believe that, rightly or wrongly, Europeans and the world saw McCain as a continuation of those policies which they truly feared. At breakfast this morning a visitor from Sweden said, "We must not have expectations that are too high. He [Obama] can only do so much and it will take time."

You are right, they did love Clinton. This has to be remembered in the context of European culture. Europeans do not condem their politicians for sexual digressions nearly as greatly as Americans. It is true that some European politicans have been brought down because of immorality, but it is not considered as great a sin here as in the States. The seriousness of a particular sin varies from culture to culture.

Let us enjoy this time of being viewed favorably as Americans for this too shall pass.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Let us enjoy this time of being viewed favorably as Americans for this too shall pass.

Especially with my 'politics as usual' response

 

[targus]

It will be interesting to see how those feelings hold should Obama prove to be an isolationist as I believe he will be.

It's cheaper and easier to ignore what goes on outside of the U.S. when you are an isolationist. No hard decisions to make. You upset fewer foreign governments. And you don't have to pay for the use of military assets.

Of course some of these very same Obama euphoric people in countries that depend on the U.S. military presence around the world to make them feel safe from others may not like it so much.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

It will be interesting to see how those feelings hold should Obama prove to be an isolationist as I believe he will be.

It's cheaper and easier to ignore what goes on outside of the U.S. when you are an isolationist. No hard decisions to make. You upset fewer foreign governments. And you don't have to pay for the use of military assets.

Of course some of these very same Obama euphoric people in countries that depend on the U.S. military presence around the world to make them feel safe from others may not like it so much.

I hope you are right. I am essentially an isolationist in US foreign, hearkening back to President Washington.

 

[targus]

I hope you are right. I am essentially an isolationist in US foreign, hearkening back to President Washington.

If Obama takes an isolationist attitude we may see maps changing over the next few years.

The old Soviet Union may attempt to reassemble some of it's former empire.

Israel could decrease in size or disappear all together.

One or another Middle Eastern country could decide to take over it's neighbor's land to consolidate the power that oil resources bring.

 

[Matt Black]

I may be wrong, but I believe it is the message more than the man are congratulation us for, though it does not hurt that he is young and chrasmatic. I believe it is a congratulations on the repudation of the policies of the last 8 years. I believe that, rightly or wrongly, Europeans and the world saw McCain as a continuation of those policies which they truly feared.

I think that that's about right; it certainly reflects the views of virtually everyone I know, including most Christians

You are right, they did love Clinton. This has to be remembered in the context of European culture. Europeans do not condem their politicians for sexual digressions nearly as greatly as Americans. It is true that some European politicans have been brought down because of immorality, but it is not considered as great a sin here as in the States. The seriousness of a particular sin varies from culture to culture.

You're spot on here, too; again, many Christians would share that view here. It's not that we don't regard marital infidelity as sin or a topic worthy of adverse comment - a glance at our average tabloid newspaper headlines will dispel that impression - but rather that we don't regard it as terribly relevant to the holding of political office or the ability to execute a mandate. Sarkozy may or may not have a mistress for example (he probably has) but who cares? It's a private matter between him, God and his wife. We tend to regard things like corruption and dishonesty in public office more seriously, because they have consequences which affect the rest of us. For example, Europeans would tend to see the possibility that Bush may have lied over WMD in Iraq far more gravely than Clinton's dalliance with Lewinsky - the latter didn't cost any lives, the former may have cost many thousands of lives. Different cultural priorities.

Let us enjoy this time of being viewed favorably as Americans for this too shall pass.[/quote]

 

[NiteShift]

Obama has a great talent for saying what people want to hear, depending on the audience. Such as when he told wealthy supporters in San Francisco that working class whites cling to guns and religion. It played right into what they already thought. Same with Europeans, he basically says the kind of things they want to hear.

Tony Blair was very popular in the US, not so much across the pond. It all depends on where you're standing I guess.

 

[Mexdeaf]

Of course left-leaning countries will love a left-leaning politician, but Obama's living on borrowed time- he isn't prez yet. Let's all check back in a year and see if we're still loved.

 

[sag38]

I guess they don't hold lying under oath to be wrong either which holds much greater implications than fooling around with an intern. Had Bill Clinton been honest instead of lying and asking what the definition of is is a lot of folks would have let it go. President Clinton would have been advised to keep his cigars away from young interns. But, to lie under oath is a serious offense of the highest order and worthy of impeachment. By the way it has been proven beyod a shadow of a doubt that President Clinton outright lied unlike the "Bush lied people died" slogan.

 

[Matt Black]

But whose lie had consequences?

 

[Bro. Curtis]

It is clear to me our friends from across the pond had no idea of the depth of Clinton's deception. Lieing under oath is frowned on, over here, as is jury tampering, & witness intimidation. Clinton is a disbarred felon. The fact that Europeans like him tells me more about them.

 

[rbell]

By the way it has been proven beyod a shadow of a doubt that President Clinton outright lied unlike the "Bush lied people died" slogan.

But whose lie had consequences?

There are light years of difference between deliberately stating what you know to be untrue (a lie), and stating something you genuinely believe to be true at the time, but due to bad information, is not true (a mis-statement).

Bush did not lie. Was his mistake a big one? Yes., certainly. But let's be accurate. He did not lie.

 

[Revmitchell]

I went to India last year on a crusade. Those folks love America and President Bush. Of course they do not have the socialist politics to taint their view.

 

[Crabtownboy]

I went to India last year on a crusade. Those folks love America and President Bush. Of course they do not have the socialist politics to taint their view.

A person who goes to India or China for a week or two comes back an expert.
A person who stays a month comes back and writes a book.
A peson who stays six months comes back and writes a magazine article
A person who says a year or longer comes back and says, "I do not understand India/China."

I told this to a Chinese friend what I was there and his response was, "Don't feel bad. We Chinese do not understand China either."

 

[Revmitchell]

A person who goes to India or China for a week or two comes back an expert.
A person who stays a month comes back and writes a book.
A peson who stays six months comes back and writes a magazine article
A person who says a year or longer comes back and says, "I do not understand India/China."

I told this to a Chinese friend what I was there and his response was, "Don't feel bad. We Chinese do not understand China either."

ummm....yea

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

A person who goes to India or China for a week or two comes back an expert.
A person who stays a month comes back and writes a book.
A peson who stays six months comes back and writes a magazine article
A person who says a year or longer comes back and says, "I do not understand India/China."

"

That's excellent! I have been in Ireland since 1995 and even here I can cay 'I don't understand Ireland.'

 

[Thinkingstuff]

A person who goes to India or China for a week or two comes back an expert.
A person who stays a month comes back and writes a book.
A peson who stays six months comes back and writes a magazine article
A person who says a year or longer comes back and says, "I do not understand India/China."

I told this to a Chinese friend what I was there and his response was, "Don't feel bad. We Chinese do not understand China either."

I grew up in East Africa and lived in the UK for 6 years. I have been in the US since 1992 and it took me until 1998 to understand the US. Not politically nor civicly but how people interacted and related with one another. Once I got a good handle on that I was alright. But my idealized views of my own country while I was abroad quickly died when I came back home.