Thoughts from Europe re the West’s Past and Future

Trump must get Europe to realize that our shared threat comes from China both by its theft of technology and intellectual property and its wish for militarily dominance.

I just spent the last ten days on vacation with my son visiting London and Amsterdam. We connected with my daughter who is spending the summer in London studying abroad and doing a finance internship with Sofitel at the amazing St. James London. Over the course of our nine days on the ground, we walked an astonishing 106.4 miles, or 11.82 miles per day, setting a new single day family record of 16.8 miles. The television in our hotel rooms didn’t come on once (though we did watch a few of the Euro 2024 matches in the hotel bar at the end of the day). I spoke at a dinner in Amsterdam with ten journalists about the upcoming U.S. elections and how the outcome will impact Europe. I also did an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. At any rate, I thought I’d provide some thoughts from the trip.

First, like the influx of Central and South Americans to America over the last few years, I was stunned at the number of people from Africa and the Middle East in both countries. In talking to locals, it is a controversial issue that is driving populist parties across Europe to election wins, as we just saw with the European Union (EU) Parliament elections two weeks ago. In the Netherlands, after two decades of applying a cordon sanitaire (walling him off from being in a governing coalition) to controversial populist Geert Wilders (the Dutch Donald Trump), his parties large election win six months ago resulted in the wall falling down, with him forming a coalition government recently. We may see the same outcome in France with Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party. Donald Trump’s appeal in America partially comes from a similar angst among the voters re illegal immigration.

One of the most mindblowing visuals occurred one night when walking through the Red Light District (the place made famous by the “red lights” of prostitutes), we passed many Muslim husbands and wives, with the wives covered head-to-toe. I don’t have an issue with them dressing that way; rather, I was surprised to see them walking in that area of Amsterdam, which I thought would be highly offensive to them. I guess it wasn’t.

Crime also is up in those countries. Several of the students in my daughter’s study abroad group have had their smartphones stolen right out of their hands. Apparently, it is a common crime that goes unpunished in the United Kingdom. After a friend had her smartphone swiped on the street, my daughter spent a couple of hours with her riding along with the local police to see if they could find the criminal. Unfortunately, they didn’t see the guy. One student has tracked her smartphone back to Hong Kong.

In a sheer stroke of luck, our flight from America landed and allowed us to get to Central London in time to grab my daughter and head to Buckingham Palace to see the Trooping the Colour ceremony in which King Charles, Queen Camilla, and Prince William and his family rode down the Mall and back. Though I am a Republican through-and-through, I will admit it was a neat experience to see the Royal Family, especially Princess Kate back in public for the first time since her cancer diagnosis. There were a group of protestors near Buckingham Palace shouting “Not my king!!” When we were in Amsterdam, we saw the news that Prince William and his two older kids attended the Taylor Swift concert at Wembley Stadium where they took pictures with her. I did comment to my son that, if ever there was “white privilege,” it was that experience—a man deemed “better” than others and entitled to rule over them due to birth who got to meet a music star due entirely to that accident of birth. 

On a disappointing, but related note, I tried to take my son to see the Magna Carta on its 809 birthday on June 15, but it wasn’t on display. Remarkably, the Magna Carta usually is on display at the British Library where you simply have to walk past a light security post to see it. I was able to show him the Codex Sinaiticus (the earliest known copy of the Bible from the 4th century) and the Guttenberg Bible (his movable type changed the world), which are on display in the same room. My favorite visual contrast in London is seen at the Tower of London when you see both the entry gate to the Tower of London built in 1280AD and The Shard tower built in 2012AD, which represents 732 years of history. We just don’t get that depth of history in America.

I had several fascinating conversations in the Netherlands with old and new friends about the current state of affairs. We talked about how the EU attacks U.S. companies using regfare (regulatory lawfare) to hurt those companies and help EU companies. Ultimately, this counterproductive approach is flawed because is allows EU companies to remain stagnant and risk averse, as U.S. companies push the boundaries of innovation and risk. Only true competition will force EU companies to shed the status quo and return to the mentality that led European companies to dominate the world 100 years ago. EU regfare is why few EU companies started since 1980 (i.e., NOT Mercedes Benz, BMW, Adidas, Puma, etc.) make the Global Fortune 500 or are household names (i.e., Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla, etc.). My hope is that Trump has a “come to Jesus” meeting with EU Member State leaders about creating a true free trade zone between America and Europe in which all goods and services are available to citizens without any tariffs or other trade barriers. Such an agreement must end French protectionism over agriculture, wine, and cheese. Trump must get Europe to realize that our shared threat comes from China both by its theft of technology and intellectual property and its wish for militarily dominance. America and Europe likely can’t win a trade or military fight with China if they are not joined at the hip.

Much to my surprise, as I complained to my Dutch friends about the privacy notifications that pop-up every time you visit a website, they agreed enthusiatically and pointed to the hated EU for the rule requiring the notifications. One curious note: apparently the Dutch Government’s work is stored on Amazon cloud servers in America, which obviously requires more energy production and water usage for those data centers. So the EU wants to push green energy, which it can do more easily when America houses the energy and water sucking data centers.

We spent one day visiting Zaanse Schans, which is a quaint village on the Zaan River that shows how windmills were used in the pre-Industrial era. As many have noted, the world used to live on renewable energy and there is a reason it leveraged carbon-based energy once discovered. We saw working windmills that ground peanuts into the peanut oil, cut massive trees into planks, and maintained the water levels (about 1/3rd of the country is below sea level). Seeing the insides of a windmill was very interesting and far more complex than I ever imagined. My takeaway, however, is that the amount of time and labor required to do the various tasks powered by the windmills were enormous, which is why the Industrial Era was such a world-changing time as it significantly reduced the time and labor required for so many tasks. Over time, the innovations from the Industrial Era resulted in billions of people being lifted out of poverty and the modern world we live in today. We are seeing a similar transformation due to semiconductors, with Artificial Intelligence technology being the latest advancement to change how we live and work. Don’t ever forget that the world’s consumption of energy far outpaces its ability to get that energy from renewable sources like wind turbines and solar arrays. If we want to advance as a civilization AND keep our world as clean as possible, we must harness the power we derive from mostly clean natural gas and clean nuclear power.  

Finally, one shocking event that occurred was when anti-Semitic/pro-Palestinian protestors in boats motored by the Anne Frank House shouting their vile messages. It is one thing to hold a protest in Dam Square (the main pubic square in Amsterdam), but to do so in front of a house that tells the story of the Jewish Frank family is repugnant. It was an intentional act intended to upset visitors to the museum. It also was deeply disrespectful of the Frank legacy given that all members of the family except Anne’s father, Otto, died in Nazi concentration camps after being discovered hiding in the house. They had hid for over two years in the house before being found and shipped to Auschwitz to be murdered. Pushing anti-Semitic/pro-Palestinian views at that house was just repulsive.

In case you missed it, listen to my interview on The Bruce Hooley Show where we talked the upcoming presidential debate, the continuing opioid crisis, the preventable murders commited by illegal immigrants, and how Bernie Moreno can win his U.S. Senate race.

P.S. For the first time, I went cash free the entire time I was in Europe, as everywhere we went took credit cards. It was a pleasant surprise to leave without having to spend money at a duty free shop or bring home Euros.