The Europeanization Of America

Ever since the American Revolution, the United States has prided itself on being a special country unlike any other in the world. The "First New Nation," as Seymour Martin Lipset called it, represented the "New World" as opposed to the "Old World" of Europe. Over time it has led the world in such critical areas as the global economy, democracy, laissez-faire capitalism, high technology, immigration and higher education. The victory in World War II, its emergence as a superpower after the war and defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War after a 40-year struggle seemed to confirm the uniqueness of the United States. After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States seemed destined to reign supreme as the world's only superpower (even hyperpower), deciding the fate of the world for many decades to come. At first, in the 1990s and 2000s, this seemed a plausible scenario, but now the United States in many ways begins to resemble Europe rather than the American model to which we had become accustomed. No longer does the United States have the dominant economy in the world. Rather China, with a $10 trillion economy growing three times faster than the American economy, seems likely to overtake the American economy in the next decade or two. The American economy, growing perhaps 2.5 percent per year, is now far closer to the 1.5 percent rate for the EU rather than the 6 percent rate for the Chinese. On the international political scene the rise of authoritarian countries such as Russia, China and the Islamic Republic of Iran challenges America's leading role in the world. Like the European powers after World War II, the United States is seen as losing its dominance on the world scene. America's semi-withdrawal from the Middle East, where it had reigned supreme since the withdrawal of the British by the 1960s, seemed to many to confirm the international decline of the United States. Even in domestic politics the European model seems to be displacing the standard American way of doing things. In the Republican Party, the "obvious" candidate Jeb Bush and 16 of his largely traditional rivals were quickly swept aside for the first time in modern history by a charismatic and dynamic real estate and television figure with no experience in politics. In the Democratic Party the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton, deemed at the beginning of the primary process to be the overwhelming choice, had to struggle to the California primary last month before she defeated a little-known 74-year-old senator who strongly attacked the establishment. In many ways Trump and Sanders represent the European model. Sanders, after all, is a socialist who was traditionally outside of the American political mainstream. Until now, the most successful socialist candidate was Eugene V. Debs who, while sitting in jail, got 900,000 votes in 1920! But in Europe the socialist parties, in both their communist and democratic forms, have played a key role since the end of World War II. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's campaign echoed that of numerous European political figures, such as Silvio Berlusconi who was elected three times as the Prime Minister of Italy. Another very European trait is the growing anger in the United States with the political establishments of both parties. The latest polls show two-thirds of Americans don't like the direction of the country. The terrorist violence, whether in Paris and Brussels or San Bernadino and Orlando, reinforces the popular discontent with politics as usual and seems to conflate the two worlds into one seeming whole. So too does the broad concern with the flow of Third World immigrants to the shores of Europe and the United States. Neo-isolationism in America, while drawing on a long pre-1941 American tradition, also begins to sound like much of the European discourse. After the disappointing wars in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) and hopeless chaos in the Middle East and Africa, many Americans support semi-withdrawal from the Middle East. This echoes the European withdrawal from the Middle East and Asia in the 1950 and 1960s. As Great Britain moves towards its exit from the European Union, the prime question will soon be answered: Will the United States follow the British example of putting country first, or will it emulate other European powers? During the era that the United States was dominated by European immigrants for the first 200 years after 1789, it always tried to show its superiority to European institutions and values. Now, and in the next several decades when non-Europeans are predicted to become a majority of the population, America seems to be evolving into a European look-alike. This is indeed a rich irony.