‘Super patriots’
The blind anti-Americanism that stretches from the extreme Right to the extreme Left, is easy and macho, like shooting into the air to create a lot of noise. What is difficult, tiresome and lacking in «patriotic» glory is to handle relations with the United States to the benefit of this country, at a difficult time in general and in a very difficult region specifically… The two extremes of the Greek political spectrum, which are of limited electoral strength, exert a disproportionately great ideological influence on the two mainstream parties: Both fear a sudden strengthening of the two extremes which sail under the same flag of «patriotic» anti-Americanism. The Left, despite its long experience and many travails, is caught in the same vicious cycle, even though it knows that each time a le Pen arises he is confronted by a super-conservative Chirac who marshals around himself all the «democratic forces.» The same dangerous game is being played on Cyprus, where the two extremes are almost identical. But there is a substantial difference there: AKEL, the traditional leftist party, is a large, serious and responsible party, and it became even larger and more responsible when it started sharing the burden of government. Despite this, the debate between the «yes» and «no» vote in Cyprus and Greece is being shaped in a paroxysm of «patriotic anti-Americanism» behind which many specific responsibilities are hidden and defeat is transformed into a proud patriotic position…
