The structure of the NFL is deeply socialist in comparison to the tooth and claw capitalism of the various European football leagues.
The private school thing is, I think, because so many private schools in the US are religious schools, and often very religiously conservative. The biggest reason most Americans send kids to private school (if the truth be told) is religious, although obviously there are several other very common ones (like when the local public schools suck).
UK only: There’s no principled disagreement on these issues (the public don’t want change) so the parties differ on approach and degree.
Also IMHO the U.S. has nothing that compares to sectarian sports violence. Nor really anything that compares to a Basque football team, or a Catholic football team. There are no longer, at the professional level, traditional white or black teams.
Well, it wouldn’t would it. Did thousands and thousands go to the away matches every week in the US in the 80s?
I think the public do want capital punishment. “Bring Back Hanging” is always a popular sentiment, but it’s not a popular idea with the political classs on either side of the divide.
It’s worth reading for the final 4 words:
that’s true of the US as well, though. A lot of things are left to the individual states to decide.
Many European countries have an official state religion.
Damn Saudi wannabes
Well I’m glad to say the UK has never had professional white and black teams.
Isn’t Notre Dame a catholic team?
Not quite.
The team is named after its university; the university, while officially catholic (it was founded by a priest and many of its current teachers are members of his same order, the Congregation of the Holy Cross), does not discriminate employees or students by reason of religious affiliation or in any other way impose religious practice upon them.
Many universities and colleges in the US have some sort of religious affiliation or origin, but how much that actually is expected to impinge on the lifes of the people working or studying there varies greatly.
Not to sidetrack things, but I don’t think that’s really true. The majority of people I know who send their kids to private school do so because their local public schools are bad (or at least are perceived to be bad). It’s not unusual at all for people to send their kids to a private religious school of a religion they don’t even practice, just for the educational benefits.
This is a good one. Also, royalty seems to me to be inherently a conservative thing.
Abortion laws in Europe are apparently not as liberal as in the US. Quoth Wikipedia: “Although nearly every European country makes abortion available on demand during the first trimester, when it comes to later-term abortions, there are very few with laws as liberal as those of the United States.”
Yeah, I suppose it is. The current European constitutional monarchies are the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Spain with Luxembourg as a constitutional grand duchy, and Liechtenstein and Monaco as constitutional principalities. There must be some element of “if it ain’t broke” to most of these countries (Spain might be different I guess), and that’s a conservative trait.
You could make the argument that Western Europe has at least historically been to the right of the US in terms of environmental regulation (to the extent that its a left-right issue). In recent years, they’ve taken a much stronger stance on climate change, but they’ve been lagging far behind in terms of basic air and water quality regulations. Things like the US Clean Air and Clean Water Acts that were passed back in the 70’s didn’t really see strong European equivalents until this century. EU regulations have essentially caught up but even that’s a very recent development (like last 5 years or so).
Of course government policy doesn’t necessarily reflect popular political opinions. I think the big reason why Europe’s environmental movement is growing while the US’s is flagging is precisely because most Americans don’t remember how bad things were before vigorous environmental regulation, whereas in a lot of Europe people are still dealing with direct and immediate environmental health issues.
I don’t recognize any of what you speak in terms of environmental policy, which perhaps goes to show the danger of talking about Europe as if it’s one country. For example, the UK introduced the Clean Air Act in 1956.
No, I have no idea what he’s talking about either. Maybe he means some of the post-Communist, pre-EU countries.
I think that is the most notable one. The lefties here in the US would howl with anger if Congress suddenly enacted typical Western European abortion laws instead of what we have now. Of course, abortion laws vary by state and some states make it so difficult, legally and socially, for abortion providers to exist that they are few and far between.
BTW, the thread title is poorly worded. I expected this to be a discussion about regions that are more politically left than Western Europe. Berkeley, CA, for example.
Notre Dame isn’t professional.
Yeah, I should have said “issues” not “areas.”