Videos: Notice a Difference?

What's the difference between government protests in Europe and in America?

In Europe, people take to the streets to protest cuts in government spending and reductions, real or perceived, in the entitlement cradle-to-crave nanny state. And all this in spite of the fiscal reality that such a government overreach has produced deficits their societies cannot sustain. The folks in the streets want more spending, more government, more of the cradle-to-grave nanny state.

Here's France:


And here are the Greeks:


Americans, on the contrary, have taken to the streets to protest government spending, the deficit, and to demand a reduction in the size and scope of government in their lives. They protest against big government, not for it. Americans, by and large, have a preference for individual freedom and an inherent suspicion of intertwining their individual fates with the caprice of government largess. It is the cultural effect of our unique history: it is how we are hard-wired as a people.

Here is the Tea Party:


That is quite a difference, one worth keeping in mind when discussing what is "mainstream" and what is "extreme" in American thinking.