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Do American on The Motte feel that the country is generally in favour of breaking from its old European alliances? I am not sure I have got that sense when visiting but I've visited only fairly D-leaning areas in recent years.
From the British/European point of view, one has the sense from current reporting that a significant rebalancing is happening, one that I would characterise as going beyond wanting to reduce American spending on e.g. Ukraine, and towards decisively breaking with European countries out of gut dislike, and beginning instead to form either a US-Russian alliance of sympathies, or if not that, then at least a relationship with Russia that is rhetorically much friendlier than that with Europe. I think the fear is starting to take root in Europe that the US would effectively switch sides in return for Russia granting it mineral rights in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. This heel turn seems unlikely, but things are murky enough that it is worrying people.
I feel that this rebalancing is already working in a way towards achieving stated Trump goals – it certainly is succeeding in restoring Europe's appetite for military spending (underinvestment here is one thing Trump has been consistently right about but European leaders have buried their heads in the sand on, hoping he'd go away). But the current situation re Ukraine is also sending confusing signals, as it had previously seemed as though the US wanted Europe to step up and be part of a solution for Ukraine, whereas currently it seems they actively want to stop Europe from having a role in peace talks. The motive for this appears to be stopping Europe from asking terms of Russia that would delay a solution the US and Russia find jointly satisfactory, though perhaps there is more going on beneath the surface.
I did not have the impression that the American population generally has gone through this kind of Europe->Russia realignment in their hearts, Russians still being a regular foil for the good guys in movies (said movies coming from liberal-leaning Hollywood, sure). I have the impression that moving towards Russia is an aspect of foreign policy that Trump has not built domestic support for. But maybe this is wrong. Maybe the average American now thinks not only "Europe should contribute more to solve their own defence problems", but furthermore, "Europe should get its nose out of international affairs and attempt to help only when it's spoken to. We, Russia and China are in charge now."
I'm writing this without especially detailed knowledge of foreign policy, but I'm more interested here in the emotional calibration of ordinary Americans generally. What outcomes would they accept, what outcomes are they afraid of, who do they feel warm to and who not, and to what extent do they feel entirely insulated from global events, alliances and enmities?
Not at all. I view Russia as an adversary, although more of an annoying one than a serious threat at this point. In stark contrast, I view Europe as a loveable older brother that's a bit of a fuckup and needs to straighten themselves out. Many of my criticisms of European pathologies also apply to the United States though, so it's a bit like my loveable older brother that's kind of a drunk and doesn't really want to hear about it from me because I've been known to knock back a few myself. The only thing I genuinely dislike about Europeans is the tendency to smugly believe that there is some sort of superiority to the United States when I find such a claim absolutely laughable. Now we're at the point where my loveable, drunk, fuckup older brother still thinks of himself as better than me because acknowledging that he's broke and about to go bankrupt is just too hard to accept.
Huge caveat - I don't actually like to think of "Europe" as a single entity all that much because my experience with different places is very different. The Dutch aren't actually fuckups, for example. Also, to be clear, I really do mean that I find these places and peoples loveable.
In what ways are Western European nations (to the extent that they still function as nations) fuckups wherein the Dutch somehow aren't?
Their per capita GDP is 10% higher than Germany, 30% higher than France, and about 45% higher than Spain. Their debt to GDP ratio is 45%. When you visit, the productivity and industry is quite noticeable.
I agree that there are obvious factors that make those 3 countries fuckups, but raising the per capita GDP would have scarce if any effect on those.
The GDP is downstream of the general fuckuppery of the French and Spanish. They're just a lot less industrious than the Dutch.
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