The End of Atlanticism: America and Europe beyond the U.S. Election* MICHAEL LIND T he claim that the u.s. and Europe are diverging in their values and so­cial structure is a myth. Several factors make the u.s. appear to be more conservative, unequal and ungenerous than it is in fact. In reality the u.s. is becoming more like Western Europe in its growing secularism, liberal­ism, and high proportion of the aged to the young. However, the long­term convergence between the u.s. and Europe in social values and social structure will not produce a transatlantic consensus in foreign policy. Rec­ognition of the geopolitical differences between the u.s. and Europe will lead to the erosion of the idea of a transatlantic»West,« while Britain and Israel will continue to be the foreign countries that Americans know best. The Myth of Social Divergence In recent years both American and European writers have claimed that the differences in society and values between the u.s. and Europe are deep and growing. Similar claims are made by Americans hostile to Europe and Europeans hostile to America. Most of these assertions are not sup­ported by the evidence. 1 The Myth of Conservatism The political system and in particular the election system make the u.s. seem more conservative than it really is. The Republican Party is based primarily in the South and secondarily in the Western states allied with * A longer version of this article has been published in the series» fes -Länderanaly­sen«, Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation(ed.), October 2004. 1. Moreover, it is a mistake to create a mythical»European« average and then to con­trast it with the United States. If individual countries are ranged along a spectrum of political values, from statist Sweden to libertarian America, Britain and the Neth­erlands are closer to the American side than to the Swedish side. ipg 1/2005 Lind, The End of Atlanticism 25