>I did not mean to be rude, - there is no excuse for that - but the "love it
> or leave it" trope is yet another thing that I find quite annoying. Who
> is
> to decide what one can or cannot say about a country?
>
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A foreign student I knew when we were both in Madison used to conspicuously
display the "America, love it or leave it" sticker on his carry-on bag
whenever he took an outbound flight.This was during the Vietnam War, and his
grumbling (and mine) were innocent enough, and contained more than a germ of
truth - very much like yours, although I sometimes think you forget that the
country is pretty evenly split on cultural lines, with the half of it which
is mostly in the urban areas not very different from those living in
European, Canadian, and other cities. In fact, I think you've made this
point yourself before, so maybe a part of you is just being naughtily
outrageous.
I think there's generally more consciousness of America's dark side today because Bush is such a perfect representation of it. It was different when Clinton was president - he was mostly cheered on his foreign jaunts - and, quite apart from Iraq, which has really poured fuel on the fire, I wonder if you would have the same widespread and visceral anti-Americanism today if Clinton were still in office or if you had an equally sophisticated Republican in the White House like Colin Powell or even a more presentable conservative like John McCain pursuing largely the same policies.
The nasty and inarticulate Bush is a big liability to the US ruling class - a fact not lost on more than a few of its members, Republican as well as Democrat - and when he surrenders the office to his successor, America will almost certainly, at a stroke, reacquire much of the global "soft power" he has frittered away. Of course, I'm not saying Bush is wholly responsible or that there are not more important structural forces shaping American foreign policy and producing global resentment and resistance - especially when it commits aggressions - so please let's not have that debate.