This article is reserved for our subscribers
During the entire 90 minute debate between US Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, I only heard the words “Europe” and “Ukraine” mentioned four times.
Trump repeated his boast about forcing European nations to pay their “fair share” to NATO; Harris repeated the time-worn Democratic Party pledge that America will stand by its allies “as it always should, as a leader upholding international values and norms.”
That was all. Aside from Trump describing Viktor Orbán as a “tough person… smart” and the candidates jousting over who could stand up to Putin, there was no mention of Russia’s threat to Europe, or of global warming – a topic that the EU seems to regard with far more gravitas than the Biden White House, and certainly more than Trump.
The fact is that over the past 50 years – and more recently due to large waves of immigration – the US populace has grown less European, and considerably less interested in Europe.
Demographically, the population has changed radically over the past half-century. While first-generation immigrants to the US accounted for 6% of the population fifty years ago, now they total over 14%.
According to a 2017 study “Americans are more racially and ethnically diverse” and “the U.S. is projected to be even more diverse in the coming decades. By 2055, the U.S. will not have a single racial or ethnic majority”.
