Meet me in Eumerica for the best of 2 worlds.

Perhaps I am not alone in having dreamed sometimes of an island in the Atlantic that would combine the disparate qualities of European and American life and so resolve the frequently sterile debate about which of these societies has it right.
These dreams have been particularly intense of late because a recent column of mine suggesting that Europe had become a sideshow to Americans has provoked dozens of letters, some hostile and some supportive.
“I’d much rather live in this sideshow”, wrote Gert Wiescher from Munich. “It’s much safer, more sophisticated and cultured. The average European is much better educated and the cities are nicer as well”.
But Eric Merson, an Australian living in Vienna, finds his new home gives him the feeling of “living virtually in a history book” in a “beautiful country that has little else to offer in the modern commercial world”. As for Rob Brike in Brussels, he sees Europe becoming “a giant elderly home, Florida multiplied by ten. Roads and dance floors will gradually turn empty as teenagers wander abroad searching for a date”.
As this haunting image suggests, views of Europe and America have hardened as the continents, no longer bound by the conviction of a shared threat, have drifted apart. The result is often an exchange of caricatures, with neither side ready to concede any virtue to the other. In this who-can-shout-the-loudest age, middle ground is hard to find.
So I have been dreaming of some middle ground, an island I call ”Eumerica”, where there would not be 44.9 million people without health insurance as there are in the United States. Nor would there be nightmarish American medical insurance forms designed to ensure that any claim is rejected because some detail has been overlooked.
No, there would be doctors unafraid of litigation who actually respond to your calls, as they do in France and Germany, and may even come to your house, including on weekends, and whose bills are covered by a national health insurance system that includes everybody.
In Eumerica, a land boasting the bracing wide-open beaches of North America but also sun-baked coves reminiscent of the Mediterranean, a place where taxi drivers do not grumble and waiters do not speechify, a country where the cocktails are as good as the wine, there would not be an unemployment rate of over 10 percent, as there is in France and Germany.
No, there would be full employment, or something close, because companies would be able to hire and fire as they do in the United States, and sophisticated capital markets would encourage innovation and risk, and nobody would be able to make more money from not working and getting b benefits than from working, and the French 35-hour week and other silly regulations would be bad memories.
Eumericans would send their children to public schools as good as those in France. But the kids’ imaginations would be encouraged as they are in the United States, rather than worn down by a premature onslaught of Gallic learning by rote.
A short and amendable constitution establishing the essential religious and other freedoms and the checks and balances of a modern democratic republic would provide the bedrock of Eumerican governance, a model of stability and of the separation of church and state.
The national flag – red, white and blue stars and stripes in its upper half, blue with a circle of god stars in its lower half –would rarely be seen in backyards, partly because of its singular ugliness and partly because the people of Eumerica would be wary of crossing the thin line between patriotism and nationalism.
In matters of leisure, Europe would inspire Eumerica. As realists, Eumericans would adopt the principle of a one-month annual vacation, rather than the American habit of using “ sick days” and “personal days” to supplement an allotted week or two of holiday. A work-hard-play-hard ethic would characteaize the island.
Realism would also lead Eumericans to accept that, in a dangerous world, a strong military is essential to maintain peace and the values of an open society for which they stand. As a last resort, and as far as possible in concert with their allies and international institutions, they would be ready to fight wars. They would scoff at notions of some postnationalist utopia spreading across the globe and rendering armies obsolete.
Immigrants would be seen as a source of vitality rather than a potential threat. In this openness, commentators would see a form of American optimism in contrast to the history-is-tragedy doubts of the European mind. Needless to say, the coffee in Eumerica would be Italian, the (absence of) speed limits and the cars German, the steaks and the refrigerators and the air-conditioning and the can-do outlook American, the fresh cream and the rock bands and the tolerance for eccentricity British, the herring Scandinavian, the climate Spanish, the college fees European, the duration of a college education (and most of the Professors) American, the vodka Polish, the roads (and landscaping) French, the beer Czech, the chocolates Belgian and the national sports soccer and baseball.
Of course, because Eumerica is not paradise even though it is unreal, there would be disputes about the right to carry guns and abortion and euthanasia and the death penalty, but these disputes would be characterized by civility and by people of different views really listening to each other. After long debate, Eumericans would ban the death penalty, give every woman the right to choose, allow euthanasia in strictly defined circumstances, and approve the limited right to carry a gun.
I can already hear the cries of “Dream on”. But I am not the only one dreaming. Brike in Brussels concluded his letter to me by saying: “Here in Europe we will watch a beautiful sunset. I will turn on the TV, read a book and drink a glass of red wine, dreaming of our lost empire, like the Greeks did when the Roman Legions were conquering the virgin woods”.