...The anti-American left and right in Europe needs the US to be the Antichrist. We have reached the point at which there are no objective conditions, demonstration of facts or even sustained actions that would shake the conviction that everything the US does is cynical and everything it says double-faced. And yet, as everyone who has ever met an American or travelled in America knows, there is no one America. America is pluralism as a system of life and government. And I do not mean consumerism or lifestyle choice, though you will find more tolerated diversity in the big cities of the US than in those of Europe - for all our condescending European sophistication. Nor do I mean manners. The Americans have better manners, more day to day kindness and civic respect that any European country I know, except perhaps Denmark...