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Politics

Disunited States

Apr 20, 2020 Ana Palacio

Long held up as a model for Europe, the United States is now also suffering from balkanization, internal competition, out-of-touch and short-sighted leadership, and narrow turf battles. Given the large number of pressing global challenges, the world must hope that America does not go further down that road.

MADRID – In 1946, with war-ravaged Europe exhausted and in disarray, Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, gave a speech in Zurich in which he emphasized the need to “recreate the European fabric” in order to restore peace and freedom to the continent. “We must build a kind of United States of Europe,” Churchill declared. It was a foundational moment for what would become the European Union, even if Churchill’s views of the United Kingdom’s place in Europe were rather more nuanced.

Subsequent attempts to construct a united Europe have never lived up to the grand vision that Churchill advanced that day. Indeed, in the 74 years since his speech, the United Kingdom first refused to take part in the European project, then grudgingly entered the bloc and secured numerous opt-outs and concessions, only finally to leave it in January this year.

Nonetheless, the idea of a cohesive Union remained, with the United States of America seen as the ideal model for what Europe might someday become. Indeed, in 2006, a year after French and Dutch voters rejected the ill-fated European Constitution, Belgium’s then-prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, published a manifesto for the continent’s future that evoked the Churchillian dream. He titled it “The United States of Europe.”

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j. von Hettlingen Apr 23, 2020

Ana Palacio points out how responses in the US to coronavirus are shaped by hyper-partisan politics, which reminds her of a deeply fragmented Europe, where disunity among member states is more of a rule than an exception. Just as the American public is divided over Trump, the EU has its own deep fissures – from political, cultural, to economic divides: the 2008 financial and the 2015 migration crises, the hammer-blow of the 2016 Brexit vote, and the long shadow of autocracy in the East.
Despite pessimism, the author says, “the idea of a cohesive Union remained, with the United States of America seen as the ideal model for what Europe might someday become. Indeed, in 2006, a year after French and Dutch voters rejected the ill-fated European Constitution, Belgium’s then-prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, published a manifesto for the continent’s future that evoked the Churchillian dream." He titled it “The United States of Europe.”
However, since the 2016 election that propelled Trump to power, the US could not have been in worse political shape. “America, too, is falling victim to balkanization, internal competition, out-of-touch and short-sighted leadership, and narrow turf battles. Such warning signs suggest that the US is becoming more like Europe, rather than vice versa.” Instead of getting their own house in order, Trump and his minions want Europe weak and divided.
Throwing their weight behind Britain’s Eurosceptics, Brexit had delivered. Now they hope a weakened EU would not be able to build itself up as a tentative counterweight to Trump’s US. Indeed, “after a decade of crises, sluggish growth, ineffectual leadership, and internal divisions, the idea of building such an entity has all but faded away, and Europe has taken a sharp turn toward intergovernmentalism. For all the talk of shared values and common approaches, robust unity is simply not feasible right now.”
It looks as though “for the foreseeable future, Europe will remain politically constrained by the reality of parochialism.” New member states in Central and Eastern Europe – notably the Visegrad 4 that makes up of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – are increasingly going their own way. Hungary and Poland under right-wing populist autocrats promote Catholic, conservative values, reject migration and multiculturalism, flouting EU standards on democracy and rule of law.
The North-South divide widened since the 2008 global financial crisis. A dramatic loss of confidence in southern European sovereign debt - especially that of Greece - threw the eurozone into crisis in 2010, and led to multiple bailouts, at huge cost to taxpayers. Resentments ran high when wealthy member states in the north imposed austerity measures for bailing them out.
Today, France, Italy, Spain and other countries hard hit by Covid-19, accused northern states led by Germany of unwilling to share out coronavirus-incurred debt in the form of "coronabonds" (or eurobonds) – mutualised debt that all EU countries help pay off. Austria, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands have refused to back joint borrowing, anxious that they could be liable for repaying the debts of member states in the south. Germany wants to set up an EU rescue fund and lend using mechanisms set up during the financial crisis of a decade ago.
In the US critics say the country is most fragmented since the Civil War. Americans are more divided than ever, gridlocked over social and economic issues. It is no longer just Republican vs. Democrat, or liberal vs. conservative. It is about the 1 percent vs. the 99 percent, rural vs. urban, white men against their country, and even against the entire world. Climate deniers clash with believers. Identity politics –gender, race, faith, ethnicity, class, culture etc. – goes from inclusion to exclusion, dividing the public discourse.
Trump’s presidency accentuates the nation’s divisions along racial, ethnic and geographic lines. He has become autocratic, telling lies and sowing discord. He spews white supremacist rhetoric relentlessly, with critics fearing that his rants will only get louder and more hateful the closer he faces the November elections. Amid the ongoing national health crisis, not only does he lack “strong and effective national leadership,” he even risk more peoples’ lives by spreading disinformation about the virus, ignoring health experts' advice, and urging people to protest against social distancing measures, like a lockdown imposed by state governors, knowing a economic disaster will hurt his prospect of getting reelected.
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j. von Hettlingen Apr 22, 2020

Ana Palacio points out how responses in the US to coronavirus are shaped by hyper-partisan politics, which reminds her of a deeply fragmented Europe, where disunity among member states is more of a rule than an exception. Just as the American public is divided over Trump, the EU has its own deep fissures – from political, cultural, to economic divides. The 2008 financial and the 2015 migration crises, the hammer-blow of the 2016 Brexit vote, and the long shadow of autocracy in the East.
Despite pessimism, the author says, “the idea of a cohesive Union remained, with the United States of America seen as the ideal model for what Europe might someday become. Indeed, in 2006, a year after French and Dutch voters rejected the ill-fated European Constitution, Belgium’s then-prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, published a manifesto for the continent’s future that evoked the Churchillian dream. He titled it “The United States of Europe.”
However, since the 2016 election that propelled Trump to power, the US could not have been in worse political shape. “America, too, is falling victim to balkanization, internal competition, out-of-touch and short-sighted leadership, and narrow turf battles. Such warning signs suggest that the US is becoming more like Europe, rather than vice versa.” Instead of getting their own house in order, Trump and his minions want Europe weak and divided.
Throwing their weight behind Britain’s Eurosceptics, Brexit had delivered. Now they hope a weakened EU would not be able to build itself up as a tentative counterweight to Trump’s US. Indeed, “after a decade of crises, sluggish growth, ineffectual leadership, and internal divisions, the idea of building such an entity has all but faded away, and Europe has taken a sharp turn toward intergovernmentalism. For all the talk of shared values and common approaches, robust unity is simply not feasible right now.”
It looks as though that “for the foreseeable future, Europe will remain politically constrained by the reality of parochialism.” New member states in Central and Eastern Europe – notably the Visegrad 4 that makes up of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – are increasingly going their own way. Hungary and Poland under right-wing populist autocrats promote Catholic, conservative values and reject migration and multiculturalism, flouting EU standards on democracy and rule of law.
The North-South divide widened since the 2008 global financial crisis. A dramatic loss of confidence in southern European sovereign debt - especially that of Greece - threw the eurozone into crisis in 2010, and led to multiple bailouts, at huge cost to taxpayers. Resentments ran high when wealthy member states in the north imposed austerity measures to bail them out.
Today, France, Italy, Spain and other countries hard hit by Covid-19, accuused northern states led by Germany of unwilling to share out coronavirus-incurred debt in the form of "coronabonds" (or eurobonds) – mutualised debt that all EU countries help pay off. Austria, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands have refused to back joint borrowing, anxious that they could be liable for repaying the debts of member states in the south. Germany wants to set up an EU rescue fund and lend using mechanisms set up during the financial crisis of a decade ago.
In the US critics say the country is most divided since the Civil War. Americans are more divided than ever, gridlocked over social issues, race, gender and the economy. It is no longer just Republican vs. Democrat, or liberal vs. conservative. It is about the 1 percent vs. the 99 percent, rural vs. urban, white men against their country, and even against the entire world. Climate deniers clash with believers. Identity politics – sex, race, faith, ethnicity, class, culture etc. – goes from inclusion to exclusion, dividing the public discourse.
Trump’s presidency accentuates the nation’s divisions along racial, ethnic and geographic lines.
He spews white supremacist rhetoric relentlessly, with critics fearing that his rants will only get louder and more hateful the closer he faces the November elections. Amid the ongoing national health crisis, not only does he lack “strong and effective national leadership,” he even risk more peoples’ lives by spreading disinformation and urging people to protest against the lockdown, knowing a economic disaster w
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Zhenjia CHEN Apr 21, 2020

This is manifestly true. Singapore's founding Prime Minister, the late Lee Kuan Yew, whose views were widely sought after, in his various interviews with media local and international, had invariably expressed this deep concern of his – on how "united" can EU be, given the disparate and diverse geo-political aspirations and social and cultural fabrics among the EU countries.
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Michael Public Apr 21, 2020

Maybe New York can Nexit and join up with Britain to form a kind of Atlantic pariah bankers club /s.

Unlike Europe, the US has a single President, a national budget, a shared army, a common language, a national economy and a strong sense of commonality. Europe wishes every day it had these things.
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