The United States was founded as a refuge from the wars, religious persecutions, and overbearing rulers of Europe. European life has certainly improved since the U.S. was founded. Today, Europe is a lot like the U.S. in its freedoms and economic strength.
But Europe is still different than the U.S. because the people are different, and the nations of Europe evolved differently and experienced different issues. Many of the problems our ancestors fled to America to escape still exist in some form. For example, the Spanish government’s fight against Basque separatists continues. Germany is racked with xenophobia. Italy experienced the Years of Lead, an approximately 20 year economic crisis that finally ended in the late 1980s. The French have had widespread rioting among its disaffected Muslim youth, and racism is so prominent in European soccer that major sponsors ran ad campaigns against it.
The Principle of Mind Your Own Damn Business Politics, that the U.S. was founded as a refuge, is worth remembering as some U.S. voters demand changes to European style governing, whether in health care, taxation, business regulation, or the overall economy. The United States has evolved differently than Europe based on very different challenges and needs that arise from those challenges.
The United States needs solutions based on 21st century United States challenges, not 19th and 20th century European issues.
