Bashing, boycotting, and backing away from America are all now in vogue across Europe. But before you torch that Stars & Stripes you just ordered over Amazon, consider holding a mirror to some of our own problems.
At first glance, decoupling from America makes sense: Buying American weapons is coming back to haunt us; and it’s hard to be seen in a Tesla now that Musk interferes in our elections (that boycott is working, btw).
The reasons for this anti-American wave are hardly an emotional upswell of European supranationalism, though European integration may well be a side-benefit.
The ugliness of the Trump White House is a wake-up call to the West of what we already knew, that we depend for our daily lives on a small number of powerful oligarchs and authoritarians (some of whom are European).
They do not share our values, they want to dismantle our laws, and we are increasingly, painfully aware that they plan to use their means to do so.
The obvious reaction then is to try and deprive them of those means economically. But, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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