The Big Picture after the elections? A new middle ground, Iraq, and avoiding Europe's woes
Date published: 11/12/2006
ON'T FAIRFAX FREDERICKSBURG." That sentiment propelled Bill Beck into the mayor's seat in 2000. In 1999, and again in 2003, it was "Slow Growth" that got Pete Fields elected supervisor in Stafford County.
Both slogans were catchy and effective, but neither expressed the Big Picture--the visions that got Beck and Fields elected. For Beck, it was Government in the Sunshine, a rebuttal of closed-door, special-interest local politics. For Fields, it was Quality of Life, a refutation of what had become seen by some as carte blanche for developers.
Last Tuesday, the Big Picture was certainly in play in national politics; only the bumper stickers and broader issues were obviously different from those local ones in '99 and '03. In both the House and the Senate, it was all about Iraq.
But Republicans and Democrats alike will want to keep one eye on Europe.
Europe?
Bruce Bawer, in his stunning book "While Europe Slept," warns us, as do other observers, of the dangers of duplicating the current "European condition." Economics, foreign policy, immigration, culture, and media--European Union style--are all scrutinized by the American expatriate author. His conclusion, in slogan format: "Don't E.U. the U.S."
The author--a self-described gay American literary journalist--moved to the Netherlands to escape, among other disenchantments, Christian fundamentalism. Europe, he was certain, would be better, more tolerant, and positively multicultural.
But within a short time as a citizen of Europe, Bawer came to view Europe's one-sided leftward tilt as both extreme and extremely dangerous. In relating actual events, statistical and historical facts, and personal stories from years living and traveling through Western Europe, Bawer shows the ill effects of unchecked extremism of any political stripe--in this case, political correctness, and the subsequent failure of immigration policies to assimilate huge influxes of new citizens (especially those who refuse to obey secular laws in their adopted countries and are draining a welfare system that is rarely tapped by the natives).
Europe's general foreign policy, even in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on Barcelona and London, can best be described as appeasement, Bawer warns. And with more than 60 percent of European media either owned or subsidized by the governments, an elitist group of government, media, and academics make "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" the official policy on terrorism, the immigration crisis, and welfare reform.
