Venting the Spleen

Over at American Future, Marc Schulman covers an article by Tom Friedman in the New York Times.

There is nothing that the Europeans want to hear from George Bush, there is nothing that they will listen to from George Bush that will change their minds about him or the Iraq war or U.S. foreign policy.

The same could be said about a lot of Americans who voted for Kerry. But I digress . . .

But, if Bush just listened,

. . . none of the European pundits would be able to pick apart his speeches here and mock the contradictions between his words and deeds. None of them would comment on his delivery and what he failed to mention. Instead, all the European commentators, politicians and demonstrators would start fighting with one another over what to say to the president. It might even force the Europeans to get out of their bad habit of just saying, "George Bush," and everybody laughing or sneering as if that ends the conversation, and Europe doesn't have to declare what it stands for. [My emphasis]

The rest is also worth reading, though I would like to throw a few of my own thoughts into the fray.

The European reaction against Bush is just that, a reaction. It is an entirely negative action, there is nothing positive or promotive to it. If Bush actually went to the Europeans and listened to what they said, he would hear a dozen different messages. The fact of the matter is the Europeans are in the sway of the Transnational Progressive movement to a slight degree, and that movement is as much an Opposition movement as it is anything else. It originated in response to the victory of liberal democracy, and thus doesn't really have a unified ideology it seeks to promote. The cleverness here on Friedman's part is that he wants Bush to expose the Europeans for what they are: critics, and not much else. Talk and diplomacy is all they have, and listening to them talk about talking would show, to a degree, what shams they really are. The problem with all of this, however, is that Bushatred is so deep seated in the Euro psyche that I don't think they can let it go. Their hatred has consumed them, and they can't let go of it without parting with some of their soul. I just don't see them having the strength of will to do such a thing. So I would expect them to whine, to complain, and to accuse Bush of being a poor listener. He is already Hitler after all, being a poor listener isn't too hard to throw into the package.