Learning from the Euro-right.

Here’s Anne Applebaum. In short, the American capilalist leadership is lacking:

In France, Germany, Italy, and Poland—four of Europe’s six largest countries— center-righ governments got unexpectedly enthusiastic endorsements. In the two other large countries Britain and Spain, left-wing ruling parties got hammered, as did socialists in Hungary Austria, Bulgaria, and elsewhere. In some places the results were stark indeed: In London this weekend, I could hardly walk down the street without being assaulted by angry screaming newspaper headlines, all declaring the Labor government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown weak, corrupt, tired, arrogant, and, yes, very unpopular. In some constituencies, European candidates of the ruling Labor Party finished behind fringe parties that normally don’t get noticed at all. So rapidly are British ministers resigning from the Cabinet that it’s hard to keep track of them (four in the last week—I think).

But how is it possible that the European right is doing so well—and so much better than their U.S. counterparts—during what is widely described as a crisis of global capitalism? At least in part, the Europeans are winning because their leaders have the courage of their economic convictions. While it is true that the continenta European welfare states have kicked into high gear over the last six months, there are few equivalents of either George W. Bush’s budget deficits or Barack Obama’s spending binge. And where there have been—in Britain, for example—the high spending has hardly bought popularity.