Perhaps the recent media disclosure that in fact Americans respect their own ideal of German prowess, engineering and discipline (irrespective of what kind of magical or wishful thinking that is) is more like the kiss of death—hitching the tenor and fatalism of American politics to how Germany and the current government carry on to handle an undulating, interest waxing and waning, crisis in the economic sector married to more profound and long-term questions of European identity, peace and cooperation.
The polygamist US is strange in courting another marriage of convenience with a partner that’s very coy and mutable: Germany either, as the hinge for the US election, represents deft leadership and resolve or Germany is the Bรผrgermeister of Euro-Town, the focus of the Red Scare rhetoric that was an early theme in the campaign—that European style governance was not working in Europe and certainly would not work in the States, and strident scolding from the President and monetary policy-setters about how Germany needed to act, not to mention the volleys from the credit rating agencies were landing on all sides. It’s like as if one was playing Battleship and the grid is all red-hits except for a Germany-shaped cut-out. I don’t think Germany wants the responsibility (in the rarified air of the democratic process) of king-maker or empire-wrecker, nor agrees to the dire hysterics of the moment, whether regarded through American eyes as a bulwark of self-control or as a Welfare Queen. Such is the statecraft of blame and deflection. Despite frustration and desperation, no one, from Germany and France, whose smugness may be a media construct, to Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the rest have given up on their native talents and resources. Yanked on stage and ordered to dance, one would think that global financial maneuvering was old-hat for some of the designated trouble-economies. Borders have been re-drawn, crossing-wires or supplanting the signs of the Zodiac with one’s own corporate constellations. Certainly any of these countries have the sophistication, wherewithal and frame to play and win besides, this is not the top draw in Europe. There is also not the delineation of the Free and Imperial City of Detroit, the Principality of California or the Most Serene Republic of the Mississippi for market comparison. Inflated and artificial divisions press the attention of the public to this side show and away from the native resources that America sorely lacks. Instead of trying to affect a cultural and productive remedy, US political antagonists are yoking their prospects to a very cosmopolitan cause that is not Europe’s first priority.
