WIN OR LOSE, OBAMA HAS HELPED SALVAGE AMERICA'S REPUTATION

I write this entry from a diner in the heart of London's East End, where I have recently taken up residence after living nearly my entire life in my beloved hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Being a recent transplant to Europe I feel it appropriate that my virgin blog entry on Blurt address an issue intertwined in both American and European society. That being the case, why steer clear of the personal? Let's cut straight to the bone and look at why when I say, "I'm American," approximately three-quarters of Europeans get a look on their face that says, "Excuse me while I swallow down the little mouthful of vomit that just crept up my esophagus."

As an American with joint Irish/American citizenship I started going to Europe on a regular basis about seven to eight years ago. In my early days of trekking around various European countries most people I encountered along the way almost seemed to sit up straight as an air of interest and excitement beamed from them upon learning that I was from the USA. This was especially true directly after 9/11, when Europeans seemed to swoon over me and beam gushers of sympathy and encouragement on me after learning that I was an American, or what one Englishman referred to as, "A victim of those heartless bastards hiding out somewhere in a cave of Afghanistan."

But those were the good old days, when it seemed the entire world was in sympathy with the USA. It didn't take long for Uncle G-Dub and Uncle Dick to f that up. The more the US took on the look of an Orwellian nightmare rather than the beacon of freedom, equality, and hope, the more European's soured on the USA. All of a sudden people were asking me, "Are you a fan of George Bush?," suspicion in their eyes. "And how do you feel about Iraq?" Yep, the Iraq war wrecked America's reputation with Europe overnight.

I wish I could say that Europe's sudden disdain for America was limited to our president, that they were thinking, "The American people are A-OK friendly folk who fell victim to the manipulation of GW...," but it isn't that simple. Millions of Europeans, conservative and liberal, young and old, poured onto the streets in protest of the US-led invasion of Iraq because it was so obvious to them that George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and company were full of total b.s. in arguing that Iraq was a threat to the rest of the world. "If we can see it," pondered Europe, "why can't the people and the Congress of the USA see it? What the hell is wrong with them?

Why aren't they out in the street in the same numbers we are? After all, it's their kids who are going to fight and die for oil and to enrich the pockets of Bush and his cronies." You see, Europe's attitude wasn't that the invasion of Iraq and the behavior of the USA pre- and post-invasion was a case of an administration gone out of control, Europe's attitude was that an apathetic, ignorant and lazy America allowed a bunch of criminals to do whatever the hell they felt like doing.

I'm sorry to report that I had become so accustomed to the rolling eyes of Europeans as I acknowledged being from the U.S. that their skeptical attitude toward my citizenship hardly phased me anymore.  However, that changed recently when people started asking me a new question, "What do you think of the black guy running for president? Barack Obama?"

Hmmm...  This is a new one! I thought to myself. Interesting...

And so it was that I noticed a new attitude creeping into the psyche of my European brothers and sisters. 

Regardless of how he performs as president (if he happens to reach that lofty office), one thing Obama's candidacy has done almost instantaneously is improve the image of the United States in the eyes of many Euros. Hillary Clinton's candidacy helped too, as Europe witnessed what seemed to be a breakthrough in America's patriarchal old-white-guy-running-the-country culture. But Hillary is very much viewed in Europe as the Old Guard. And having voted for war, her image in Europe is not what it might be if she were more of a Washington outsider. Furthermore, the true symbol of social progress in America for many Europeans lay in the history of America's civil rights era of the 1960's; highlighted in particular are the images of police dogs mauling peaceful African American activists, the courage of Rosa Parks, the inspirational vision and oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. After witnessing an illegal invasion of another nation, Gitmo, state sanctioned torture, extraordinary rendition, the refusal to join a international ban on cluster bombs, the abandonment of numerous nuclear weapons treaties, and a stick in the eye of the international community on the issue of the environment, an African-American running for president and having a significant opportunity to win the office resonates in the hearts of Europeans like the low hum of a Dutch-engineered windmill power station.

The reality is that European's see Barack Obama as a spit in the face to George Bush and his America. They see America's support of Obama as a sign that just maybe America is waking the hell up; that America finally realizes that the direction GW has steered the ship and consequently the world, is straight for the rocks on the shoreline. Bush is a madman bent on war, Obama is a diplomat who would do everything possible to avoid war. Bush can hardly form a complete sentence, Obama is articulate and eloquent. Bush's mind is vacuous and empty, Obama's mind is forward thinking and rational. Bush is dumb, Obama is smart. Bush is white, Obama is black.

The latter point sums it up nicely. To Europe it is as plain as black and white. Bush represents a belligerent, ugly America. Obama represents the idealized American Dream that is legend in European hearts; an America that does not judge a person based sex, religion, class or color, an America that lives up to the lofty ideals it has symbolized for so many years.

So is that enough of a reason to vote for Obama?  In my eyes it is not the reason, it is one of many reasons--but that's a topic for another entry. For now I'm just happy to report that Obama has already delivered in one respect. And I suddenly feel a flicker of hope in my heart when people ask me what country I come from.

Justin Sane fronts the originally Pittsburgh-based punk band Anti-Flag.