More on the European parliamentary elections

[wshaffer]

It occurs to me that the lack of proportional representation in US governance is in some respects a blessing. Watching the reactions of my British friends to the realization that some percentage of their electorate wanted to be represented in the European Parliament by a man who once opposed bombing synagogues only because it was bad public relations, I can only imagine the sorts of wingnuts I'd be obliged to feel embarrassed about if we used a proportional representation system.

Overall, Europe's apparent swing to the right mystifies me, especially since American politics seems if anything to be swinging the other way. I suppose when times are tough, whoever is in power gets blamed.