Travel day; in fact, filing from the airport lounge. And I can’t really say that I learned a lot — no conversations with the powerful, or for that matter wise taxi drivers.
Still, a quick note from Brussels: Everyone I talked to was horrified and terrified by what’s happening in America — but not cowed. If anything the mood was that Europe has to grow up and stand up.
I doubt many people in the U.S. realize what a geopolitical earthquake just happened in Germany. They didn’t pass legislation; they changed the constitution (or will have, assuming the upper house goes along) to lift the “debt brake” on a trillion euros of defense and infrastructure spending. Combine that with tough talk from France and strong indications that on security matters, at least, Britain will consider itself part of Europe, and suddenly it seems as if a continent that was always a superpower, but refused to act like one, may be waking up.
