The rest of the West seems to be moving to the political left, electing left of center governments that urge strong protections of human rights and the environment. Although he campaigned as an emissary from the center, President Bush has veered sharply to the right and America seems to be marching with him. That's partially illusory, of course. The combined vote totals of the center-left forces embodied in the campaigns of Democrat Al Gore and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader were more than enough to capture the presidency had those forces been united. In term of sheer numbers, then, the U.S. electorate actually is in step with the Western world's slow dance to the left.
Conservatives are desperate to disrupt that dance.
Their strategy seems to have paid off. But Bush's subterfuge is less convincing to Europeans. The president's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change has earned him an international array of critics who are furious that the country spewing 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases seems so cavalier about this global problem. The area of human rights is particularly sensitive, as few U.S. allies protested when this country recently was excluded from the UN Human Rights Commission for the first time since its 1947 founding. But that action should not have been surprising.