As the US presidential election nears, I am inundated with emails from Europeans telling me they will be ecstatic if Obama wins. I know that alone is enough to drive many proud Americans to vote for McCain.
I’ve been pondering the different ways Americans are received in Europe. When our current president visits a city, the place is literally shut down and his motorcade races through ghostly streets. When Obama visited Berlin, he was greeted by 200,000 Germans waving American flags. Impressively, the McCain campaign turned that into a negative, and Obama’s advisors decided not to gloat about his popularity among Europeans.
On my recent visit to Capitol Hill — where I talked with Members of Congress and their aides about American relations with the rest of the world — people from both parties were really into the concepts of “soft power” (creating goodwill, letting the ideals of America shine and inspire to complement our “hard power,” in which our military might forces compliance) and the “brand of America” (which all agreed needs some serious fixing for the good of our export trade…people just don’t want to “buy American” when it symbolizes torture, pre-emptive war, and a go-it-alone approach to the world).
While most of the European correspondence I’ve received simply begs us to elect Obama, this letter, from an American woman who married local guide Roberto Bechi in Italy, shares more introspectively the European sentiment about our election. (I have never encountered anything from a European favoring McCain over Obama, so I can’t be balanced here.)
27 October, 2008
Dear Editor,
I am a long-time Virginian, raised in Richmond and Harrisonburg. I graduated from D.S. Freeman High School in Richmond, hold two degrees from UVA, and am the (tax-paying) owner/employee of a small business based in Harrisonburg which promotes tours to Tuscany, Italy, my current residence. I am writing in hopes of contributing a bit of international perspective for those who are still undecided as to whether to vote for Senator Barack Obama or Senator John McCain in the presidential race Nov 4th.
America is and always will be my beloved homeland, despite the fact that I now live abroad. Therefore I have been greatly disheartened and dismayed by the changing attitude towards my country, seen first-hand in the comments and questions of my Italian neighbors. Ten years ago, I was the object of curiosity and admiration: upon meeting me, people proudly listed even distant relations in the USA, asked questions both about my culture and how one could visit or work there, and on occasion even marveled at my decision to move here. Alas, that is no longer the case.
Over the past eight years my neighbors’ questions have taken on an increasingly worried tone. They wondered aloud why my country consistently ignored the opinions of other nations in the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq. They asked, preoccupied, whether I really agreed with the use of preventative strikes, and wondered why even the massive public outcry against the war had no effect on public policy. The re-election of Bush made some ask whether all Americans were more concerned with terrorism than prosperity at home or abroad. The flouting of the Geneva conventions at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base further increased that impression…were Americans perhaps so obsessed with “security” that they preferred it to justice itself? It’s important to underline the fact that after 9/11, I was direct witness to an unbelievable outpouring of love and sympathy for my country even from perfect strangers who, upon hearing me speak in English, would stop to express their solidarity. The fact is that we have squandered that good will.
I don’t receive many inquiries about studying abroad in the USA anymore, despite the weak dollar. Our country is not seen to be as welcoming as it once was, for one thing: even if students wish to study in the USA, visas are much more difficult to come by. Furthermore, the attitude of the Bush administration has clearly shown that the US government prefers arms to education, and supports a quasi-religious zealotry over scientific research.
I can assure you, as an American living abroad, that we have lost our moral authority. Where we were once seen as yes, ambitious, but also thrifty, honest, and defenders of the poor, we are now seen to be a nation at once self-centered and overbearing. Europeans no longer count on us to side with projects for the greater good after our willful disregard for the U.N. and refusal to sign on to international agreements like Kyoto.
The moralizing of this administration, particularly regarding issues like human rights and the “right-to-life,” is seen as hypocritical. Why? This is in light of our own human-rights violations, among which can be counted the use of torture at undisclosed locations, our continuing use of the death penalty (illegal in most of the civilized world, and abolished here in Tuscany in 1786!), and now-well-known issues like the fact that 58 million Americans are without healthcare. While Italians are hardly unaccustomed to comical politics with a figure like Berlusconi at the helm, the nomination of Sarah Palin to the McCain ticket has inspired a mixture of amused disbelief and horror. (“Is it true she could not name a single newspaper?”)
I still believe that the United States of America can be a force for good in the world. Despite the current economic mess, we wield great economic and military power. My neighbors here in Italy have not lost faith in their neighbor across the Atlantic. But do not doubt that the world is anxiously awaiting our decision, and desperately hoping that we will turn the page, and move towards collaboration rather than bullying, generosity and outreach rather than withdrawal and protectionism, and healthy growth rather than dangerous, unrestrained greed. Like him or not, Senator Barack Obama is the president who has the best chance of healing our nation and its relationship with the rest of the world. I know — I live there.
Yours sincerely,
Patricia Robison Bechi
Siena, Italy