What we do does not affect Great Britain or France, except as it relates to trade.
This is really not true. The US is so powerful that we affect other countries without even knowing it, or sometimes without intending to. It is only natural to be interested in the future direction of such a powerful country.
That being said, the European position should be watchful interest, not condescension toward US voters. The Europeans focus their dislike on George Bush, but the reality is that they don't really like the US, and Bush is just a convenient target. We have significantly diverged in our values, and Europe suffers the impotent jealousy of the old leader who has lost power to the upstart. Europeans loved Clinton because there wasn't much to deal with during Clinton's term in office, so the differences in values could be masked. Also, Clinton's overall behavior was much closer to the European standard than what is acceptable in middle America.
I think the Europeans have a very similar attitude toward middle America as the coastal elites have. These people who champion tolerance are actually quite bigoted and condescending. Sure, there are stupid conservatives, but the ranks of Democratic voters are packed with semi-literate morons, so liberals have no business saying that Republican voters are stupid.
Let's face the facts about Europe - this is a continent that turned over its defense to the US because (1) they didn't have the 'nads to do it themselves; and (2) they are so inept that they can't manage their own affairs without devastating wars. Since they effectively turned the management of their external defense to the US, they have enjoyed the longest period of peace and prosperty in their history. They should be on their knees thanking us for all we've done for them.
The reality is that over time, the US approach to world affairs has worked better than the European one. Had we followed the European - or for that matter, Democratic - approach during the latter half of the Cold War, we may have lost the Cold War, and at the very least we'd probably still be dealing with a hostile Soviet Union. Without our defensive shield, Europe would have succumbed in whole to the Soviet onslaught, and become one big gulag. With this record, there's no reason to believe that current European thinking would produce any better results.
