What did America mean to the average European in the 90s and early 2000s

Let's pretend we are in mid June 2005, the war in Iraq is raging for two years, George W. Bush is the leader of the world, his popularity is on the decline even in the US, and anti American sentiment throughout Europe is on the rise. <br><br>But how did us Europeans view America even when anti American sentiment was rising? <br> <br>I'm a 30 year old Dutch guy, so I will share my perspective, I think the average European was fascinated by the US, even though I had never been there I had this sense of awe of the land of freedom. <br><br>The US was this land of the good and the brave, where everyone could make it. <br>As a child I remember watching American sitcoms and kids shows like teen angel, Sabrina the teenage witch, caroline in the city etc etc. My sisters and I spent hours watching those shows and others. <br><br>As I got older and had entered my teens I got really into American rap, I remember listening to the Marshall Mathers lp and wanting to move to America right away. <br><br><br>When 9/11 happened I was only 16 years old, but I remember everyone was watching the TV in shock, nobody could really fathom what was happening, a close family friend of ours was in New York for work and everyone was worried if he was okay. We all wanted to hang out at home and watch CNN and see what would happen. When we learned that he was okay, everyone was in relief. Only years later when I was older did I realize that the person we were worried about was white, and that if he would have been black or Hispanic, nobody would have cared. <br><br>In the following years the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and the sentiment started shifting, people and the media started being more critical of the US, even though I never called myself an anti American, I hated Bush and his policies, and I remember in my younger news being angry that americans would vote for him again. <br><br>When I went to University, I met 2 Americans who were exchange students, one was a staunch republican who went on to work for the state department, and the other was a liberal. I had never spoken to an American up until that point, and both were friendly. The republican was super religious which was something that was completely new to me since religion played no real role whatsoever in the Netherlands at least not in my circle. But it was a fun experience, and it didn't really change my positive view of the US as a whole. <br> <br>Over the years my fascination for the US only grew, and whenever American movies or shows came out, it was all I could talk about, and I was so disappointed when Obama did not get re-elected in 2012, which I assume was only because of my lack of basic political knowledge. <br><br>Even when Trump became president, I wasn't as sour on the US, even though his presidency was an international embarrassment, to me it was the Americans who voted for him who were the problem, not the US as a whole. <br> <br>It wasn't until 2020 with Biden that my view of America started shifting, his constant gaffes, his refusal to run after the debates, the fact that he was the only person the DNC had left, which caused him to win the primaries, the fact that he had no vision for the country, no policies really, and the fact that he ran on the "anyone but Trump" platform, as a European, I couldn't understand how Biden was seen as the "Good Guy" when he had been in politics for over 40 years, and had been on the wrong side of history so often, with the crime bill, the Iraq war, his support for Israel, etc etc. <br><br>And with the 2020 elections came the woke culture, as a European, we have never really cared for race, everyone is the same, as long as you work you get to live a comfortable life, and everyone is treated the same. But the US was so divided along racial lines, in a way that we could not understand, one side saw people as oppressors and the other saw them as victims, it was something that we couldn't really fathom, and the fact that Biden won and ran on an "anti racist" ticket really bothered me.<br><br>And with everything that had happened in the US, and Biden being elected president, my awe for the US had finally disappeared, the US had changed, or maybe it was me, but the US was nothing special, other than being an overly litigious and weirdly patriotic and nationalistic country, with 330 million people and gerrymandering states, it's citizens had no real political power. <br><br><br>Disclaimer, this is just my opinion, so please don't come at me with "this is how ALL 750 million Europeans view the US", just how one person viewed America at this specific time period.