Here in Scandinavia, the attitude especially from young people to America is that they are utterly indifferent to the U.S. The older generation still has the same attitude as in the past. Most older people still believe that America's political influence in the world is negative. They still believe that U.S. foreign policy creates more enemies than it solves problems.
Europeans have always regarded America with a mixture of fascination and confusion, and many times with disbelief. How can a country that prides itself on its economic success have so many very poor people? How is it that a country so insistent on the rule of law should seek to exempt itself from international agreements? And how is it that the world's beacon of democracy can have elections dominated by wealthy special interest groups? How can a country that has produced so much cultural and economic wealth act like that? It's not the America that everyone dreamed of is it?
When the Europeans come to such criticisms, Americans assume we are envious. "They want what we got," the thinking goes, and if they can not get it, they will stop us from having it. But does everyone want what the U.S. has? Well, we like some of it, but could do without the rest. Europeans tend to regard free national health care, unemployment benefits, social housing and so on as pretty good models of human progress. We think it's important - civilized, in fact - to help people who fall through society's cracks. It is not just altruism, but an understanding that far too many losers in society hurts everyone. It is better for everyone to have a stake in society than to have a poor underclass bent on destroying things. For many Americans, this sounds like socialism, big government, nanny state. But so what? And many Europeans can’t understand why America doesn’t want some of what we have.
When U.S. politicians states that “the American way is the only way” then you are seen as arrogant and moralizing, just like George W. Bush’s statement "You are either with us or against us" is something you can expect from a mullah, not an American president. God is also often mentioned in connection with politics. Doing it in Europe and you will not be taken seriously.
The reason that some in Europe still have this attitude, is perhaps because the Europeans expected that America would act differently than all the other empires in history, but wasn’t that the original idea?
America is often proclaimed the villain of all villains but the truth, as so many times before, also has other nuances. Very often, we in Europe have looked with skeptical eye on what happens in the U.S.. For example, we have shaken our heads of your entertainment programs and of U.S. election campaigns. And suddenly, our own lives are filled with US reality shows on TV and of election campaigns, just like in the U.S...
It may easily pay off to look over the Atlantic. At what’s happening and what’s going on. Although we are skeptical. Who knows, maybe the Americans have something to offer to our world anyway.
Europeans want a strong union, but can't trust each other to share their currency?