The center holds; passion falls away. That is what happened ideologically in Western Europe over recent years.
Europeans believe in democracy - or, at least, in republican government - but they have considered the alternatives, and continue to do so, and that scandalizes Americans.
Foreign policy deals across time as well as space.
The problems of elites is an old one for which Americans have found no solid answer.
Our culture is teleological-it presumes purposive development and a conclusion.
The achievement of nationhood is a product not only of time and circumstance but usually of war and suffering as well.