I particularly appreciate your conclusion and the quote from Geoghegan:

The threat to Europe right now ... is the violence of the rhetoric against the model...

A lot of us at EuroTrib (Europeans and Americans alike) are sensitive to this, though some still don't seem to see it. What we're accused of, fairly often, is of US-bashing (or its minor-mode equivalent, UK-bashing) -- when in fact the real communications flow is in the other direction: ("old") Europe-bashing. The existence of an independent Europe with an efficient and redistributive economy is a threat to American globalization (Friedbrain's Flat Earth), just as an independent Europe is a threat to neocon imperialist foreign policy. With convergence of powerful interests of that nature and degree -- American corporate capitalism and the reigning Washington geopolitical theory -- it's not surprising the campaign is massive and violent. And, as always, American right-wing spinmeisters apply the rule: when you're out to attack, first make out it's you who are the victim of the same kind of attack as you are about to launch, on the part of the self-same people you are going to attack.

So tell us, Captain Future: why do you hate America?

(Thanks for the diary).