Voices en Español

Back in September you may recall hearing about U.S. Senator John McCain’s bizarre gaffe about Spain. New York Times columnist, Roger Cohen, picks up the thread in today’s op-ed, telling his readers that he has dared to do what McCain says he would not…sit down and have a conversation with Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

You can read his column entitled “Hasta la vista, Baby,” but here are some of the highlights:

When Zapatero told Bush in 2004 of Spain’s intention to withdraw troops from Iraq, Bush’s response was: “I’m very disappointed in you.”

Undeterred, Zapatero tried to explain that he was the leader of a democratic country, and his campaign promise had been getting the troops out. Bush, as the leader of another democratic country, should understand this.

“But Bush was very cold. He said, ‘O.K., all right, goodbye.’ ”

Attaboy, Dubya. Way to lose friends and alienate people.

Zapatero said that, nonetheless, he had a “certain consideration” for Bush, because “I recognize that my electoral success has been influenced by his governing style.” In other words, Bush was so unpopular in Spain that he helped Zapatero win in 2004 and 2008.

It seems like Cohen and Zapatero are getting along swimmingly, having a real meeting of the minds, until Cohen lets loose the following observation. Zapatero, he says, reminds him of why he, Roger Cohen, despite have been born and raised in Europe, chose to become an American and get U.S. citizenship. Ouch!

Despite Spain’s dictatorial past under Franco, Zapatero seemed to me mealy-mouthed about totalitarianism and tyranny. Moral relativism oozed from his lawyerly repartee. He illustrates why Orwell felt compelled to say: it’s not enough to be antifascist; you must also be in principle anti-totalitarian. The European left has often had a hard time with this notion.

I wonder if Roger took that knife out of Zapatero’s back when he left La Moncloa, the Spanish prime minister’s residence. The article goes on to explain why Cohen thinks Zapatero is a wimp. Makes for good reading.

As always, the best part of a column like this are the reader comments in reaction. One person in particular, a “Ken Powers in Spain”, echoed my thoughts exactly when he wrote:  “I wonder how the Zapatero apologists at El Pais will translate this one. Undoubtedly, highly edited.”

El País is Spain’s “progressive” newspaper that delights in writing all manner of twisted, stereotypically negative things about the U.S. They’re predictably simplistic, almost Tarzan-like, in their coverage of the U.S.: America, inferior; Europe, superior. America, racist and ignorant. Europe, colorblind and intellectual. So it will be fun to see how El País handles this column. There’s no way they can avoid mentioning it since El País cribs a lot of New York Times content and then slavishly republishes it in Spanish. Can’t wait to see how they edit this one to fit their political agenda.

Here’s the link to reader comments for Roger Cohen’s “Hasta la vista, Baby” column.