Reading Beyond Borders

by Rick Hill

Not all of it is Greek to me... just a headline and a few words...

Since the beginning of the War on Terror, Americans and Europeans have been at odds, to say the least, about American culture and the role of the United States on the global scene.  Pick up a copy of The Guardian, Die Welt, Le Monde, O Globo, The Times of India, or publications from whichever country you choose, and you will find anti-American editorials and/or coverage of anti-American political action abroad.  As the primary recipients of the criticisms, members of the American Right struggle to skim even the news section while they sift through the paper.  As a result, most readers prefer to remain stateside to get their news.

I write this piece today to suggest a new approach to my fellow Republicans:  stop being afraid of foreign opinion.  Not everyone hates us.  Here is how I got to this point:

Remember that the United States still has allies in the world.  In most cases, European right-wing newspapers and online sources are going to support at least some American initiatives in the world and are worth reading against the conventional anti-American screed written elsewhere.

Many of you might have experience reading a British periodical (many of my political science professors have suggested either The Economist or The Guardian, neither of which come to my surprise).  You might have found articles such as these, should you have visited the opinion website:  “Mitt Romney is too rational for a deluded Republican base (Guardian),” or “Mitt Romney’s problems:  Elite defection (Economist).”  In spite of the headlines (and the comments, if you choose to peruse them), it takes a well-read individual to understand that, like in the United States, other countries have a variety of periodicals that cover the spectrum.  To my friends on the right, I would suggest The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk), a prominent right-leaning newspaper based in London.  While I do not mix well with its pro-European editorials, it also gives space for Eurosceptics such as Daniel Hannan, of Youtube fame (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs).  These opinions, though full of language and terms understandably foreign to Americans, still give a set of metaphorical water wings to the readers as they broaden their horizons.  Keeping to the Anglosphere, I also suggest Australia’s Daily Telegraph (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au), Canada’s Toronto Sun (http://www.torontosun.com/) and South Africa’s Sunday Times, specifically the politics section (http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/).  Pointing these out leads me to the next conclusion:

Foreign opinions matter because they often give insight from perspectives that American writers miss.

Smacking down Marxism, Brazilian style!

One of my favorite foreign political commentators is the Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho (www.olavodecarvalho.org/english), and I found him through my frustration with Brazilian politics, having studied it the past couple years.  For those with little to no background on Brazil, the country has been under firm control of the left since 2003, but still operates under a largely backward political structure.  Political clientelism runs rampant, no matter which side takes control.  Olavo writes as a ruthless critic of political leftism, pointing out errors and fallacies through his weekly radio show, True Outspeak.  He also gives insight on the American political scene, as he lives and operates today out of Virginia.  Regardless, Olavo gives opinions from a Latin American perspective, which integrates opinions on political culture that we Americans are not accustomed to seeing.  Tim Stanley, from Britain’s Daily Telegraph (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/timstanley/), is another favorite.  One of the first steps you can take, as a conservative committed to being better-read, is to pick two foreign authors and mull over what they write.  They will help you understand not only international anti-American opinion better, but also gain a new perspective on American politics that you may not have conceived in the past.  With that, a final point:

Reading foreign opinion gets you out of the “grid.”

I could have lumped this point into the previous one, but I wanted to explain separately the pitfalls of limiting yourself to only American opinion.  It is true that the right and the left hold divergent opinions in the United States, like any other country, but our prominent issues are not issues in other countries.  Take Brazil, for example:  how do you structure the abortion debate in a country where abortion is illegal, except in cases of rape or incest?  Moreover, how can we criticize President Obama’s healthcare law without gaining opinions and insight from foreigners who have fallen victim to a universal healthcare system?  In a debate concerning issues rather than ideology, the foreign angle is vital to applying the concepts of a new law on our society.  Although we do not always share the same cultural values as France or Brazil or India or Australia, the effects of reform still have economic consequences that any sensible conservative can see and apply to our current situation.

I appeal to my fellow conservatives by simply saying that the American story does not always tell the whole story.  Consider picking up a foreign publication this week, and see what you can find.  Sometimes the opinions of a Telegraph, a Financial Times or a Sun can help to shape a well-founded opinion just as much as the Wall Street Journal or the American Spectator.  Food for thought.