In one of Bernie Sanders’ first appearances on national media after declaring his bid for the presidency, George Stephanopoulos, seated across from him, said, “I can hear the republican attack ad right now, ‘He wants America to look more like Scandinavia.” Senator Sanders quipped back, “That’s right. And what’s wrong with that?”
Since
then, comparisons between the U.S. and Europe, which seem to crop up in this
country every four years, started resurfacing. A quick Google search will
reveal 4 things America Can Learn from Europe,
5 things America Could Learn from
Europe, or What America Can Learn from Europe’s
High Speed Trains. The problem with these aforementioned articles, however, is
that the learning usually comes at the expense of conservative, free-market
dogma. Giving workers more time off? Paying teachers higher salaries?
High speed trains?! Republicans tend not to like things that do nothing for, or
might even hinder, the profit margins of the top 1%.
But
I became curious. As an American who has lived in Europe, I noticed plenty of
European ways I wished I could have taken with me back home to Michigan. Are
there not a few useful, commonsense things that we on the American side of the
pond could learn from our allies and friends in Europe? Could there not be a
few things so commonsensical that they might transcend political divides and unite
Americans from across the political spectrum? I set out to investigate. Here
are 4 of the most commonsense, (seemingly) nonpartisan things I found.
#1.
Moving elections to Sundays.
France,
Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland, and others all
hold national elections on Sunday. Even our purportedly undemocratic and
authoritarian frenemy Russia holds their elections on Sunday. The ideal
of an industrial, democratic society should be to create conditions which allow
as many citizens as possible to vote; therefore, hold the election on a day
when people have the least going on. (I would even go so far as to suggest that
we should declare major elections national holidays, but I won’t get greedy here.)
On the other hand, if you want to minimize the amount of people who vote, hold
the election on a day that is in the thick of their work-week, when, between a
job(s), child rearing, and errands, the average citizen may easily be logging
ten, twelve, or even fourteen hours of their time.
So
what would prevent us in the U.S. from adopting such a commonsense, seemingly
nonpartisan measure? Well, as Rolling Stone reports, ever since the influential
conservative activist Paul Weyrich told a gathering of evangelical leaders in
1980, “our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting
populace goes down,” there has been a concerted effort on the part of
conservatives to decrease the voting populace. Ari Berman notes that the Republican Party has waged
a long and aggressive war on voting, which especially intensified from 2010
onward. In the last election days ago, Berman points out, voters in
fifteen states faced new restrictions thanks to conservatives. Ok, moving
on.
#2.
Make money different sizes.
If
you’ve been to Europe, you probably noticed that paper Euros come in different
colors and sizes. This commonsense design idea no doubt leads to less mistakes
(Hey, I gave you a twenty, not a five!) and most importantly helps the blind
discern which note they have in their hands. Seems like simple commonsense,
right?
Not
so fast.
Redesigning
and printing new money of different colors and sizes would cost the government
money, and you know who does not like spending government money to help
disabled people? You guessed it. In fact, Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail to cut government
survival stipends for the disabled to such an extent that Brian Beutler, writing in the New Republic,
was forced to concede, “Given what we know about today’s Republican Party, it
stands to reason that few or none of the GOP primary candidates this cycle
would support [the Americans with Disabilities Act] ADA, and that ADA would
fail in Congress, if it were introduced as new legislation today.”
So,
“no” to efforts to help expand the franchise, and “no” to help disabled people.
Let’s try again.
#3.
Ban substances that might be harmful or poisonous to humans.
I
found this radical political magazine called Shape, which has an article about 14 foods that are banned
in Europe but that are still allowed in the U.S. The fact that this information
comes to us from the left-wing loonies at Shape notwithstanding, it actually
does make sense that we would want to avoid putting poisonous or potentially
poisonous chemicals into our bodies. I’ve found it, I thought. A commonsense
thing on which Americans of all political stripes could agree. But why don’t we
ban these substances already, without the example set by our European friends?
Elizabeth
Grossmann explains that in Europe, “when there
is substantial, credible evidence of danger to human or environmental health,
[Europeans believe] protective action should be taken despite continuing
scientific uncertainty. In contrast, the U.S. federal government’s approach to chemicals
management sets a very high bar for the proof of harm that must be demonstrated
before regulatory action is taken.”
So
in Europe, potentially harmful foodstuffs are guilty until proven
innocent. In the U.S., potentially poisonous food ingredients are
innocent until proven guilty. Should we not protect our bodies and the health
of our children with utmost vigor like the Europeans? Ask your conservative friends
at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. See if they’ll help you out.
#4.
Raise the driving age to 18.
All
over Europe, the driving age is 18. This is, of course,
commonsense. If you’ve ever spent time around young people ages 16 to 17,
you likely understand that letting them drive potentially mortal, one ton
vehicles not only goes against commonsense, but that it is actually insane.
16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age, and 1 in 5
of 16-year-old drivers has an accident within their first year of driving, according
to dosomething.org. It is true that
fatal accidents among U.S. teenagers are on the decline, thank heaven, but that
grim statistic still totals in the thousands.
Why don’t we take measures, like Europeans do, and save the lives of thousands
of U.S. teenagers?
Again,
ask the folks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce if thousands of teenage lives are
worth a significant reduction in cars on the road and oil and rubber burned.
Do
you see a pattern here? In my search for commonsense things the U.S. could
learn from Europe, I might argue that one of the most valuable pieces of wisdom
from the other side of the Atlantic was graffitied on a wall in Paris during
the May 1968 student- worker movement: Conservatism is a synonym for rottenness
and ugliness.
H.
W. Honeycutt is the author of "Universal Basic Income and Disability"
published by
Red
Lion Press. @HWHoneycutt
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