Remember when people were referring to French troops as "cheese eating surrender monkeys" and John Kerry was derisively referred to as John Francois Kerry? It wasn't that long ago. Doesn't it seem like America has been getting isolationist over the past few years? Foreign policy experience no longer seems to count in presidential elections.
Yet with all that going on, in most mainstream stores that I visit, there are decorative materials or clothing with European, most frequently the Eiffel Tower, themes. Paris is everywhere -- on shirts, wall hangings, pictures, blank books, writing paper, jewelry. Granted most of these items are geared specifically towards female consumers, but surely there's some kind of disconnect between not wanting to be international in language or policy, and pasting the Eiffel Tower all over everything. Another common motif these days is the "Keep Calm and" theme. Keep Calm and Carry On was a British WW2 slogan. What's it doing all over American popular culture?
As so often happens, I'm confused.
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