Fears

It was perfect weather for the first Saturday of the Cannstatter Volkfest in Stuttgart.  Thousands of people from, based on all the different languages I heard, every country in the world.  They had come to see the largest carnival in Europe, and to eat and drink with the Stuttgarters.  I was sitting with my friend and his family at a large picnic table in one of the large temporary buildings the Germans call "tents" that are erected by the Stuttgart brewers.  Having just finished a very tasty Ganze knusprige Schweinshaxe, which was once an important part of a now-deceased pig and can also be used as a deadly weapon due to its size, two middle-aged couples sat beside us to enjoy the music.  There is no explanation for it, but the favorite song of the Volkfest is John Denver's Country Roads, and everyone stops what they are doing to join in singing the song.  "Dark and dusty, painted on the sky."  The second favorite is YMCA, but isn't that the case everywhere.

Having been introduced as the American visitor, I was asked by one of the newcomers, "What is wrong with America?"  Being asked this question was not a surprise.  I had been asked the same question earlier in the week at a coffee shop in Brussels, then again while having tea and a Belgian waffle in Brugge, on the Inter-City Express train from Brussels to Frankfort, and on a second ICE train from Frankfort to Stuttgart.  So I knew exactly what it was they were asking.  How could America actually consider any of the eight nutcases that the US Republican Party put forward for President, and how can it be that President Obama is in a tight political race when he should win 90% of the vote?  They do so like Obama in Europe.  He seems to understand what America's relationship should be with other countries in the world.

But what they really couldn't understand was how Americans could vote for Mitt Romney after knowing about his foreign bank accounts, his unwillingness to produce tax returns, and his accusation that 47% of Americans were lazy parasites.

Previously I had provided my pat answer.  "I live there, and I ask myself the same question every day.  What is wrong with America?  I don't know."  That seemed to satisfy Europeans, who obviously know more about American politics than Americans.  But I was half-way through my second masse of Schwaben Welt, and the pat answer was getting a bit old.  They deserved the truth.  "Right-wing politicians need Americans to be in constant state of fear."

By the shocked faces now before me, I came to the belief that this was the answer they were neither expecting nor hoping for.  Country Roads was played again, and everyone stood up to sing.  "Radio reminds me of my home far away."  When the song was finished, I was asked, "What do you mean?"

So I finished the bier and said, "Consider the 47% speech.  There was Mitt Romney speaking at a wealthy white private residence to a number of wealthy white financial contributors.  What would bring fear to that audience?  Of course it would be the losing of any of their wealth.  And what would cause them to lose their wealth?  A non-white President who supports any social program that assists those in need, such as African-Americans, or Hispanic-Americans, which is financed by taxing the wealthy.  Yes, they ignore the fact that they and their friends on Wall Street, and in the Bush administration caused the massive recession that put those people in need.  Is this racist?  Of course, but many Americans respond to racist threats.  Most will not admit to being racist.  They might use other terms that sound like acceptable political disagreements.  Some might say these types of social programs are "redistribution of income", or are "socialist".  But these are just code words to induce whites with fear of blacks and immigrants.

"Or take Romney's constant comments decrying China's purchasing of US treasury notes.  In reality, China has actually reduced the amount of US debt it owns, and it is now about the same as Japan at 8%.  The biggest holders are the US Federal Reserve, and the Social Security Trust Fund.  So why all the China-bashing?  To create fear in the minds of Americans.  The Communist Chinese Red Hordes will soon own the country!  Fear China!"

They quickly finished drinking and said their goodbyes.

It was quite some time later that I realized I should have given them the pat answer which would have satisfied them.  But I had driven them away by giving them the real answer.  And they now feared what would happen to America.

"Take me home.  Country Roads."