Europeans see something familiar in odd US primary race

[webfact]

Europeans see something familiar in odd US primary race
By GREGORY KATZ

LONDON (AP) — With its red, white and blue banners, patriotic slogans and ubiquitous country songs, the presidential campaign marching through South Carolina and Nevada seems like an all-American affair. But it holds familiar overtones for Europeans watching anxiously from abroad.

Donald Trump — his bombast distinctly American — sometimes takes a nationalist stance that sounds a lot like the "blame the immigrant" approach used by a growing cadre of European politicians as the continent deals with unprecedented waves of immigration and Islamic extremism.

On the left, Bernie Sanders espouses Scandinavian-style "democratic socialism" that sounds radical to some American ears. But it has long been part of the political mainstream in Europe, where socialist governments come and go without particular fanfare.

The sentiment fueling the unexpected ascent of Trump and Sanders seems the same as the mood powering trends in Europe: a flat-out, let's-make-a-change rejection of the political elite.

Jacek Kucharczyk, president of the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw, says despite huge differences between politics in Europe and the United States the same sense of grievance and helplessness is driving people to extremes on the left and the right.

He cites the Polish election in October that brought the anti-immigrant Law and Justice party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski to power. "There is the same mistrust of the political mainstream. There is this lethal combination of social economic uncertainties and identity wars that are imposed on them," he says.

Fear of mass immigration is a common denominator that was exploited by Kaczynski in the final stages of his campaign — when he warned that the migrants arriving on Europe's shores were carrying dangerous infectious diseases — and Trump is stoking somewhat similar fears in the United States.

"When we hear Trump, it really sounds like Kaczynski," says Kucharczyk.

In both Europe and the U.S., extremist attacks also have undermined the sense of security, heightening fears of outsiders.

Attacks have been far more frequent and lethal in Europe, which is relatively close to the Islamic State group's bases in Syria and Iraq. And Europe has been rattled by the arrival last year of more than 1 million immigrants, many fleeing Middle East conflict.

But the December attacks that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, had a noticeable impact on the American psyche. It may have caused a bump in support for Trump, just as backing for anti-Islamic European lawmakers like the Netherlands' Geert Wilders appears to have grown since the extremist attacks in Paris and elsewhere.

Trump alarmed many overseas observers, by classifying some Mexican immigrants as rapists and suggesting a temporary ban to keep Muslims from entering the United States.

Josef Braml, a specialist with the German Council of Foreign Relations, says the venomous attack style surfacing in the U.S. primary campaign is calculated to capitalize on anger with a political class that can no longer be counted on to provide security, job growth and economic expansion.

"They are saying, 'To hell with political correctness, I'm telling you the truth,'" he says. "That tells me they see political correctness as the code of the elite.

He sees resurgent nationalism, fed by fear of outsiders, in both the United States and in Europe, where many felt it had faded as a political force. Trump's disparagement of Mexicans is similar to the anti-Semitic views expressed by the National Front in France, he says.

While Trump's rise is surprising to many Europeans, the strong early performance by Sanders in his bid to snatch the Democratic Party nomination from Hillary Clinton is not setting off alarm bells because his views are similar to those expressed by left-wing politicians in Europe for generations.

Indeed, some trace the roots of his socialism to the world his Jewish father inhabited in Poland before he left for the United States and settled in Brooklyn in 1921.

Sanders' call for free college tuition at public colleges and universities, for example, puts him squarely in line with policies already in effect in a number of prosperous European countries including Sweden and Norway.

His attacks on Wall Street and its bankers would also get a careful hearing in Europe, where even the rightist Law and Justice Party in Poland has complained about inequality and imposed new taxes on banks, with the same medicine planned for large supermarkets.

There are parallels between Sanders' bid for supremacy in the Democratic Party and Jeremy Corbyn's ultimately successful campaign for the top spot in Britain's Labour Party even though mainstream party leaders found him too far to the left for their taste.

Sanders' rise has been cheered by European leftists including many in Scandinavia with deeply held anti-American views, says Mads Fuglede, a Danish historian and political commentator.

He says, "They see the U.S. as a capitalist nightmare, so when someone says they want to make a revolution against free market capitalism, they embrace that, so he has a lot of fans."

What does all this say about Trump and Sanders?

"The two are really significantly different but you can unite them by saying anti-elite sentiment coming from the left and from the right is gaining ground," said Dominique Moisi, senior adviser to the French Institute of International Relations. "We have not seen that in American elections before."


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-23

[Norvid 1950]

Any sociologist is a leftist by definition. The truth needs to be uncovered and this is what new government is doing. there are many books which could enlighten anybody of there hidden facts because they were not acceptable by judeocommunism in soviet russia and post communism. The freedom is not easily achieved. You need to open the history, make people responsible for what they did during the reign of communism, open a pandora box of those guilty of working against their "own" country and then form new world around. Statements from some people are worth as much as the last year snow.

[Usernames]

Hey, European ruling class. Stuff it. What goes on in the United States is NONE of your business.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Usernames

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Hey, European ruling class. Stuff it. What goes on in the United States is NONE of your business.

except that what goes on in the US doesn't just stay i the US as they have a real tendency to go around the world invading countries and destabilizing regions that affect the entire planet as we are now seeing.

[Chicog]

The OP makes a valid point.

People all over the world are getting more and more disillusioned with the organised crime now masquerading as a political system.

I was listening to a story about Venezuela on the radio the other day.

They have enough oil to have made them richer than Croesus, but the country is on the verge of collapse with inflation pushing 200% and a currency that's getting useful only as toilet paper.

[Steely Dan]

I suspect Jeremy Corbyn was a UK manifestation of the same phenomenon, which is why as an outsider I would like to see a Trump vs Sanders contest for president. The other candidates are managed and manipulated as the Truman show. People are indeed fed up and feel disconnected from what we once thought of as democracy.

[GeorgesAbitbol]

Any sociologist is a leftist by definition. The truth needs to be uncovered and this is what new government is doing. there are many books which could enlighten anybody of there hidden facts because they were not acceptable by judeocommunism in soviet russia and post communism. The freedom is not easily achieved. You need to open the history, make people responsible for what they did during the reign of communism, open a pandora box of those guilty of working against their "own" country and then form new world around. Statements from some people are worth as much as the last year snow.

What a funny statement

So sociologist=left= communist=Russia...

Seriously?

Open your eyes and see how the capitalists countries work much better those days:

Ask the citizens of many european countries and USA if they are happy to pay the banks mistakes which clearly work against their country and for their sole benefits..

I also would like to quote you :

Statements from some people are worth as much as the last year snow.

And I will add: When the winter comes, don't eat the yellow snow

[Trouble]

One only has to look around to see why Trump, Sanders and some European leaders are being looked at. People are fed up. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. The county is now at over 35% foreign born. Everywhere I go somebody is speaking a foreign language. It's not my home anymore but just a place I choose to live because of my roots here and I sure can't beat the weather most other places. Difficult to find a restaurant that is not fusion this or that. I'm not anti immigrant but 35% foreign born in such a short period of time does tend to change the dynamics of a society. I can't imaging how many kids this 35% has had so add that to the mix. I would not deport any but the criminals but it sure is disheartening to be born someplace and not feel it is a reasonably homogeneous community anymore. So yes xenophobia does take hold and creates a situation whereby people do get concerned. In my mind, you can't blame the Trumps for speaking what many are thinking but because of political correctness won't say. It is the current and previously elected leaders of both parties and the president who are to blame for their inability to take action. Two extreme sides that can't come together. If the liberals had just agreed to take some action to control the borders whether that is a damn wall or more enforcement, first, you can bet the less conservative republicans would have worked with the democrats to figure out an amnesty program of some sorts that would have brought many of the illegals into the system over time. Instead nothing gets done. European leaders invite the problem with the refugees and then wonder why the people react as their communities are torn apart. The political elite of the USA and Europe need to come down a notch and see what life is really like in the towns and communities as a result of their lofty policies.