Reagan was disliked in Europe by many people (as you might expect those to the left of the European centre) but he was still popular with many, Thatcher and Reagan’s close relationship was generally approved of, especially by members of her own party, whereas the Blair Bush relationship is a cause of despair amongst the Labour membership.
Regan long suffered the ire of those who wanted to speed the development of a European community as well. Not to mention that his relationship with Thatcher was wracked in ’82 by the poor fashion in which the United States handled the Falklands Crisis.
The level of loathing inspired by Bush Jnr is highly unusual maybe even exceptional and simply can’t be explained away by him being “conservative”.
I didn’t say that it could. There are many reasons for intellectuals to dislike George Bush. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of those who profess dislike of Bush are not intellectuals. Most of his detractors know very little about his actual policies, and prefer to parrot the silly by-lines of professional protestors and media pundits. Case-in-point: on a recent vacation to the Caribbean, I met two New Yorkers who insisted that Bush had purposely dropped the ball on 9/11. They then proceeded to tell me that they would vote Republican in the next election to punish the Democrat, Bush.
But why is hating Bush popular? Well from a European perspective it’s because there are so many things to hate about him from Kyoto (which I know most people here don’t like that doesn’t stop many people in Britian being annoyed about the way Bush wrecked the treaty), his general hostility to environmentalism of any kind, his regressive social policies, his constant god bothering which really disconcerts many Europeans, his general fuck the rest of the world stance and of course Iraq, it’s not just a fashion there’s real substance there for many people.
Kyoto was killed and buried in Europe, according to Britain’s own Deputy Prime Minister. Bush wasn’t the one who doomed that treaty. I will, however, acknowledge that misrepresentations of the process have tarnished Bush among the left. And there was already plenty for environmentalists to despise in his Republican platform.
As for Bush’s social policies and religious beliefs, I remind you that Europe is hardly the paragon of liberalism you hold them up to be. Religion is still strong in Europe – especially in Southern Europe, including Spain, France, and Italy. I really doubt that Bush’s social agenda is the true cause of people’s anger, but rather more ammunition they can use against him.
Bush’s “fuck the world” stance and his unilateralism in Iraq are the primary causes of his troubles with the international community. Of course, in this day and age, I’m willing to trade some casual insults to get things done on our own. It isn’t as if all of our treaty obligations have suddenly been sundered.
