GENEVA, SWITZERLAND "Why do they hate us?"
This seemed a fair enough question when I was a senior in high school. Just three years later, it feels like decades have passed since George W. Bush gave voice to the one question on all of our minds.
I miss those days in a way. The new world was scary, but at least it was neatly packaged. For Texans down in Bush Country, the globe was split into liberators and evildoers. God was on our side; the enemy wrongly thought the opposite. We were the "indispensable nation." Afghanistan? Just a country full of terrorists, nothing more.
As an ambivalent 17-year-old who had rooted for Bush in 2000 only because my parents voted for him, the world of geopolitics was like a reality TV show -- but in black and white. I ate up the presidential speeches. Seeing W. throw out the first pitch, a metaphorical "preemptive strike," at the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium comforted me -- it was foreshadowing at its finest. A with-us-or-against-us mindset seemed totally justified to me because of what we had gone through.
Even the imagery in my state song complemented my good versus evil worldview: "The stars at night were big and bright, deep in the heart of post-9/11 Texas."
Two unfinished wars, one overstretched military, zero WMDs and 1,000 dead Americans later, things have changed.
We shocked and awed Iraq during my first year at Virginia. Since then, I have strayed from the de facto Parsley platform (think Texas, Catholicism and the GOP), becoming a political prodigal son on both sides of the family tree. That said, being in Europe has been the most eye-opening experience of my life.
I was prepared for the mean looks, the frosty comments -- the entire package of being despised everywhere but Great Britain. And don't forget Poland! Knowing only "bonjour" didn't do much to disguise my nationality either.
The make up of our group didn't make it any easier to fit in, when our entire program (meaning 35 people, mostly from Ohio) wisely decided to hang out in a crowded lakeside public place. Needless to say, it was hard not to see and hear our group.
Abroad Lesson No. 1: Don't do that.
Two Iraqi men who spotted us sure knew how to make a group of Americans feel at home. The taller one kindly unzipped his pants, dropped his drawers and introduced us to his weapon of mass destruction. Where are David Kay and his inspection team when you need them?
The incident turned into a big fiasco that surprisingly involved the Canadian in the group nearly starting a fight to defend us. As we darted out, I heard the clothed Iraqi man try to explain his friend's actions: "It's not you, it's Bush," he said.
I've whittled my bedpost down to a toothpick tallying the number of times I've heard that line. The total is approaching 420. With the exception of anti-G8 hard liners (who are incredibly gifted graffiti artists), a strictly anti-Bush sentiment is the essence of European anti-Americanism. Perhaps a better phrase would be "Anti-America'ism," because things American -- pop culture, people, food -- are still very much "in."
My premonitions about an Ugly American reception have been confirmed in certain places, but negative interactions have been the exception rather than the rule. Through my random friendships with people from countries such as Madagascar, South Africa and Denmark, I've found people to be generally friendly -- if you smile and say "hello" in a language other than English.
As one might expect, no one here appreciates American policies in the Middle East. "Petro" is seen as the only reason George W. Bush invaded Iraq, end of story. I can think of no word more volatile than "Bush." But despite it all, people still admire Americans -- that means New Era-throwback caps, iPods and Levi's.
But even in the eyes of an "Old European" decked out in Calvin Klein, Bush is an unelected president abusing his mandate, with no chance of surpassing Daddy's legacy. The idea that he'll probably win Tuesday makes less sense than Donald Rumsfeld's plan for combating an insurgency. Polls that show Kerry trailing are illogical. How could those damn Yanks voluntarily put themselves through four more years?
The same camp sees the would-John Kerry-be-any-better? debate as irrelevant. It's a simple matter of mathematics to these people. Flip-flopper or not, what are the odds someone could perform any worse than Bush has?
It's a safe bet that a Bush victory will change the way I'm treated here. We will have endorsed his actions, after all. Americans may then become synonymous with America -- and that's not a good thing. Even my favorite patriot Toby Keith would agree with that.
I've often wondered out loud how this scenario would affect perceptions of me. The responses I've gotten don't hold any punches.
"I'd have thought you were crazy."
"I wouldn't have talked to you."
"Would've thought less of you. Sorry."
There aren't enough smart bombs in the arsenal to make people stop wearing Nike or eating KFC. American-exported materialism will not suffer if Bush wins reelection. What may suffer are the reputations of American people as being rational creatures. And this would be harder to correct than slumping Big Mac sales.
I won't be home until Dec. 20. That means there's a chance I can finish off my European adventure before we find out who our next president will be -- which would be totally fine with me. Here's one American hoping to see "Hanging Chad 2: The Return" in 2004.