Posted by Kyle Atwell in
US Domestic and Cultural Issues on Saturday, May 17. 2008
The California Supreme Court made a 4-3 decision this week that will legalize gay marriage in California, most likely effective within 30 days. As reported by the New York Times:
This decision will give Americans the lived experience that ending exclusion from marriage helps families and harms no one,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, who noted that same-sex marriages were legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain.
The timing of this action, coming only months before the US presidential elections in November, have led to speculation on whether or not it will hurt the Democratic nominee. Alex Altman wrote an article in Time Magazine asking, “Will Gay Marriage Help the GOP?”:
California Republicans are hoping that history will prove instructive. After Massachusetts became the first state to codify marriage equality in 2003, the G.O.P. spent the ensuing general election wielding the issue as a potent weapon. Thirteen states passed ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage — including Ohio, the battleground that tipped the 2004 election in George W. Bush's favor. Opponents of gay marriage in California have generated more than 1 million signatures to place on November ballots an initiative amending the state's constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
Kai Stinchcombe, a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford University, and a very good friend of mine, created the popular Facebook group Gay Marriage Killed the Dinosaurs. In his thoughtful analysis, Kai identifies 17 reasons gay marriage should remain illegal:
Continue reading "California: Today Gay Marriage, Tomorrow Meteors and Volcanoes"
Posted by Joerg Wolf in
Transatlantic Relations on Wednesday, March 26. 2008
Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, writes about the Brussels Forum in the SF Chronicle: Many European leaders will be saddened to see President Bush leave the White House next year. No, they won't miss his soaring inspirational rhetoric, collegial foreign policy or sophisticated knowledge of the world. What worries many Europeans is that their free pass is about to expire. Not since Richard Nixon's final year in office have foreign leaders been so free to say no to Washington with few if any political repercussions. In fact, for the last few years, agreeing with the White House has held greater political risks than snubbing Bush and his aides.
Yes, most political observers (at least in Berlin) believe that it will be harder for European governments to say no to a new president. I, however, think that German and European public opinion on issues like Afghanistan or Iran is not going to change, when a new president is inaugurated in the United States. European politicians will find plenty of good (and not so good) reasons to say no. Besides, 2009 is an election year in Germany. Don't expect any changes in our Afghanistan policy until after the elections.
Posted by Sonja Bonin in
US Domestic and Cultural Issues on Tuesday, March 4. 2008
It has been many years since a party convention in the United States has been decided by superdelegates rather than delegates from state primaries and caucuses. It could happen this time again, says our guest writer Brian Livingston, editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com. Plus: He expects "the worst kind of racist smear literature coming from far-right extremists" should Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination. Here's what else he had to say shortly after the Washington State primaries:
 My wife and I attended our precinct caucuses on February 9, and about 100 people were there to vote, as opposed to about 25 in the same precinct four years earlier, when Kerry, Dean, and Edwards were candidates. The vote in our precinct this month was more than 2-to-1 for Obama over Clinton (we supported Obama).
Hillary won in zero out of 39 counties in Washington State. The interesting part for people around the world, of course, is not how Washington State liberals voted, but how the nomination process will go in the rest of the U.S.
Continue reading "Superdelegates Might Decide Democratic Party Convention"
Posted by Kyle Atwell in
Transatlantic Relations, US Foreign Policy on Thursday, February 21. 2008
There has been speculation on both sides of the Atlantic about whether America’s next president will be able to revitalize the acidulated transatlantic partnership. Con Coughlin has captured a common sentiment in an op-ed published by the Telegraph:
Whether it is a Republican… or one of the two remaining Democrat contenders… none of them will arouse anything approaching the level of controversy and hostility that has been caused by President George W Bush's seven-year tenure.
President Bush has certainly been a divisive figure, both in policy and style. However, it is hardly a foregone conclusion that there will be a panacea in transatlantic relations once Bush decamps. As suggested by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in a recent interview with Spiegel Online, transatlantic differences run deeper than one administration:
SPIEGEL: Isn't German and European opposition to a greater military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq also a result of deep distrust of American power?
KISSINGER: By this time next year, we will see the beginning of a new administration. We will then discover to what extent the Bush administration was the cause or the alibi for European-American disagreements. Right now, many Europeans hide behind the unpopularity of President Bush.
Kissinger brings to mind a good question: has European hostility toward the US been solely the response to poor leadership by Bush, or is there a more fundamental schism in the Alliance?
Crispin Williams weighs in at Social Europe Blog, arguing that Bush has left a scar on transatlantic relations that will not easily heal:
Continue reading "Are Europeans Hiding in the Bush, or is Transatlantic Panacea to Come?"
Posted by Joerg Wolf in
Transatlantic Relations, US Domestic and Cultural Issues on Wednesday, January 30. 2008
The Republican presidential candidates demonstrated some suspicion and negativity towards Europe, concludes the Atlantic Community: Huckabee claims Europe is (unintentionally) to blame for some of the US' biggest terror threats, Romney is using an anti-European stance to further his campaign, Giuliani is turning away from Europe to focus on Asia, while McCain, appears committed to revitalizing transatlantic relations. What do you think? Is that a fair assessment of the candidates' statement on Europe? And if yes, is their suspicion and negativity towards Europe justified? The good news is certainly that John McCain is the frontrunner. For Europe he would be better than any other Republican candidate. I appreciate your comments here and on Atlantic Community. Full disclaimer: Atlantic Community is my day job as editor-in-chief. Registration is required for commenting, but is real fast.
Posted by Joerg Wolf in
International Economics, Quotes on Saturday, January 19. 2008
Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is right this time (via: Andrew Sullivan):
None of us would write a check to Osama bin Laden, slip it in a Hallmark card and send it off to him. But that's what we're doing every time we pull into a gas station.
The same is true for Europe, which is even more dependent on oil from the Middle East than the United States. Related posts in the Atlantic Review: The US-Saudi Relationship: Oil Supply at the Expense of US Security and Moral Values and Chicago Tribune: "Germany says 9/11 hijackers called Syria, Saudi Arabia"
SuperFrenchie presents the picture that says all about President Bush's latest Middle East tour. I am not aware of any European head of government having kissed Saudi princes. Bush does not just kiss the Saudis in their own country as a gesture to cultural customs, but even kisses the Saudis, when they visit him in the US. He also holds hands with them. And yet, Europeans are supposed to be the softy weasels from Venus that do anything to get cheap oil.
Posted by Kyle Atwell in
US Foreign Policy on Friday, January 11. 2008
Today’s Zaman 1: “Saakaashvili won around 52 percent of the vote, with most of the counting complete, double that of 43-year-old wine producer Levan Gachechiladze, whose poll hovered between 25 and 27 percent, the central election commission said. the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, backed the vote. 'I should like to congratulate the Georgian people on the peaceful conduct of a truly competitive presidential elections on Jan. 5,' he said in a statement.'”
EUobserver – “Georgia president Mikhail Saakashvili was re-elected Sunday (6 January) in a move set to keep the country on its pro-EU and NATO course. 'Reports from mass media, NGOs and opposition representatives have been coming in on numerous violations of election laws by the authorities,' the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. 'Assessments by western observers [the OSCE]...appear superficial.’”
New York Times – “Georgia is also valuable to Washington because it is an ally in the Iraq war. With 2,000 troops in Iraq, it is the third-largest contributor of troops there, after the United States and Britain.”
Today’s Zaman 2 – "In these recent elections the Georgian people also endorsed Georgia’s membership in NATO with a 71 percent vote in favor… In conclusion, the Georgian people voted for stability and integration with the West… the recent elections in Georgia mark a new era where the Georgian political system will move from a Soviet system, in which the president enjoys broad discretion, toward a Western system in which the parliament assumes a greater role."
Financial Times - "Opposition leaders condemned the poll as rigged. Their criticisms were echoed by Russia, which declared the vote was 'hardly free and fair', with the foreign ministry saying the election was marred by 'the widespread use of administrative resources, open pressure on opposition candidates and tough restrictions to their access to financial and media resources.'"
Personal reaction: yay to Georgia, and boo to Russia. I am particularly happy about the country’s strong support for joining NATO – not necessarily because I think Georgia should be admitted to NATO, but rather because such a strong vote in favor of NATO is a clear indication of the pro-western sentiments of Georgia’s populace. Voting for a candidate who is pro-West is one thing, but voting to join the pillar of the western alliance leaves no room for doubt about Georgia’s western orientation
Posted by Kyle Atwell in
Transatlantic Relations, US Domestic and Cultural Issues on Wednesday, January 9. 2008
Mike Huckabee is a political rockstar in the United States. Even atheist Democrats who disagree with many of his policies cannot help but be charmed by the former governor. My friend and a fellow blogger Kevin (one such atheist Democrat) gives his take on this phenomenon at the blog Wyatt Gwyon:
Of the Republican candidates, Huckabee is the most straightforward in presentation and generally the most rigorous in his analyses… I certainly do not concur with the majority of the political positions that stereotypically come with his fundamentalist Christian system of belief, but I am clear on what he believes and can respect his convictions to those beliefs for their principled consistency. Huckabee is a profoundly known factor.
IMHO, style is what has buoyed Huckabee’s presidential bid. It is not a coincidence that his campaign picked up momentum only a week after he became “Chuck Norris Approved” in a humorous commercial run prior to him sweeping the Iowa primaries last week.
Huckabee has nonetheless been criticized for lacking a solid foreign policy platform. This week, he dabbled on the issue of US-European relations by speculating who is better at cultural integration. As reported by the National Review Online:
It is also difficult for us, with our culture of assimilation, to understand that life for European Muslims is different from life for American Muslims. Muslims in Britain or the Netherlands or Germany are second-class citizens because those countries have more homogenous populations that don’t readily integrate outsiders. Instead of melting pots, Europe has separate pots boiling over with alienation and despair. In some countries, like France, it is more a lack of economic integration, while in others, like Britain, it is more a lack of cultural integration, but whatever the reason, Europe is a much more fertile breeding ground for terror than the United States. Unintentionally, some of our closest allies are producing some of our clearest threats.
I agree with Huckabee that Europe does a poorer job of integration than the US, and that this can breed violence. However, I find it difficult to pin exactly why the US is a more successful 'melting pot'. Perhaps one factor is upward mobility: I suspect an individual can transcend their parentage easier in the US than in most European countries, which in turn mitigates social and cultural stratification.
Posted by Joerg Wolf in
Transatlantic Relations, US Domestic and Cultural Issues, US Foreign Policy on Friday, January 4. 2008
 Barack Obama is a very smart and impressive politician, who was right about Iraq from the start. He has won big time at the Iowa caucus. Is that good news for Europe?
Well, Senator Obama is criticized for failing to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman. The Times quotes Steve Clemons, director of foreign policy at the New American Foundation in Washington: Someone who is seeking the presidency should have some facility for the most important anchor in global affairs, which is the transatlantic relationship. (...) The major threats in the 21st century are changing but what is not changing is the vital necessity of Europe and the US collaborating in meeting those challenges with Europe, for instance, in the lead on dealing with Iran. This is a very disconcerting void in Obama's profile. I am sure most Europeans love Clemons' appreciation of the Atlantic alliance as the "most important anchor in global affairs." Obama, however, is trying to get votes from Americans, who are increasingly less interested in (or have less faith in) transatlantic cooperation. Of course, Obama is saying the usual nice things about Europe and NATO. And he promises to restore and further strengthen America's global alliances. David Vickrey wrote a guest blog post about Barack Obama's Foreign Policy article. IMHO, Obama expressed unrealistic expectations and wishful thinking in that article: "I will rally our NATO allies to contribute more troops to collective security operations and to invest more in reconstruction and stabilization capabilities." I have the impression that many other Democrats underestimate European opposition to US policies.
Continue reading "Barack Obama's Lack of Real Interest in Transatlantic Cooperation"
Posted by Kyle Atwell in
Transatlantic Relations on Tuesday, December 4. 2007
Kyle Atwell has joined the Atlantic Review. This is already his third post. All of his posts are here in chronological order. Kyle will introduce himself later. Let's have him get right into discussing the Russian elections, in particular France's reaction:
The topic of last Sunday's elections in Russia has flooded my news aggregator the past couple days, and what I originally intended to be a brief news summary on the elections has blossomed into several distinct thoughts. To keep to the short blog format, I have broken down my thoughts into three posts. This is the first.
The disingenuousness of the Russian elections has been almost comical at times. For example, the Washington Post reports that in war-torn Chechnya, Putin's United Russia party won 99.36 percent of the vote with a turnout of 99.5 percent. Not laughing yet... here is where it gets really funny:
"It's a normal result. I'm pleased," said Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman president of Chechnya and a Kremlin loyalist who has pacified large parts of the war-torn republic in southern Russia. "The most important thing to me is that people were voting with pleasure. Almost all people came to the elections. It shows the level of trust in the power."
These numbers are clearly inflated. I am pretty sure that you could not get 99.5 percent of Russians to a free vodka giveaway, much less the polling stations.
While many in the west (Corriere della Sera) have questioned the election's legitimacy, Sarkozy of France spared no time in calling Putin up personally to offer his "warm congratulations" (Le Monde). Sarkozy was the only western leader to congratulate Putin at the time this article was written.
Sarkozy's action took me by surprise. For a French president who has taken pains to demonstrate his affections for the US, I expected Sarkozy to speak out against Putin's power abuse, or at least keep mum about it. I wonder if a chance to boost strategic bilateral interests with Russia was too tempting to pass up for the French leader, even when it meant breaking western unity in opposing the dubious election results.
For regular readers: props to Joerg and his recent post, How to be a Good Ally of the United States? Just Smile: He must be having one of those 'I told you so' moments after having teased that an ally's smile and sweet talk (of which Sarkozy has plenty for the US) can be used as a better measure of its commitment to the US than its actual policy actions.
Posted by Sonja Bonin in
Transatlantic Relations on Monday, October 22. 2007
People who vote(d) for the Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP) probably consider it "civic" or simply conservative. But the international press (from the UK to South Africa to Israel to the U.S.) calls it what it is: "nationalist", "right-wing", "rightist", "far-right" or "anti-immigrant".
In national elections yesterday, the SVP received almost 29 % of all votes, gaining seven more seats in the Swiss parliament (according to projections). It has therewith established itself once more as the country's largest political group. The result came after an aggressive election campaign that many observers consider blatantly racist. One of the SVP's infamous, posters showed a black sheep being kicked from a Swiss flag by three white sheep; another one black hands grabbing Swiss passports. According to African News Switzerland The party was once ordered by a judge to remove a campaign video from its website: Footage had shown staged scenes of youth violence and pictures of foreigners juxtaposed with picture-postcard scenes of Switzerland, along with the message: “Heaven and Hell”.
Continue reading "Swiss Right-Wing Party Wins"
Posted by Joerg Wolf in
US Domestic and Cultural Issues on Thursday, October 11. 2007
Large parts of the so-called Democratic "base" are angry with their Congressmen and women over the "failure to end the war in Iraq." Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi complains to reporters about protestors:
I had, for five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering neighbors, hanging their clothes from trees, building all kinds of things -- Buddhas? I don't know what they were -- couches, sofas, chairs, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk. (...)
If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'Impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment.
This is so funny. And sad! Quotes are taken from the Washington Post. Chris Jones at Redstate considers it "the funniest thing I've ever heard." Well, I would not got that far. I might be living in the supposedly humorless Germany, but I have heard funnier things.
JustOneMinute (via TMV) comments on this as well and quotes an article in the SF Chronicle about changing attitudes on homelessness in San Francisco, America's most liberal/progressive city and Nancy Pelosi's hometown. JustOneMinute concludes: "What's the old saying - a conservative is a liberal who has been thrown up on by reality?"
Hey, Nancy Pelosi was very supportive of Cindy Sheehan, when she camped close to Bush's ranch in Crawford... Now Pelosi and Sheehan seem to have different opinions about each other's tactics (camping and funding the Iraq war). According to an August article in the SF Chronicle Sheehan announced her intention to run against Pelosi in her SF district.
ENDNOTE: To balance the above criticism of the top Democrat in Congress, I would like to give big kudos to Senator Barack Obama for not wearing the American Flag pin like all (?) other ambitious politicians.
I like his reasoning that the pin has become a substitute for "true patriotism" and that he prefers to "try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism." In Europe, especially in Germany, flags are not as prominently displayed as in the US. Very very few politicians wear (tiny) pins with the flag of their country.
The Volokh Conspiracy does not buy Obama's explanation and assumes that the American people are like a wife, who expects her husband to constantly say "I love you!" Therefore presidential candidates need to walk around with the US flag in order to win elections. How sad. And it is even sadder that many US media outlets write so much about Obama's 'missing' flag pin. FAIR concludes: "Trivia again distracts media from issues voters care about."
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