The first sentence sets the tone of lament that the rest of the piece carries by giving the reader a sense of something lost, a foreboding that foreshadows the end of the prominence of the United States of America.
For millions of Europeans who braved the Atlantic Ocean for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and dreams of a lavish life, there was little thought of ever emigrating back.
You can just feel the other shoe about to drop as far as the writer of this claptrap is concerned.
Yet for a new generation of Americans of European descent, the Old Country is becoming a new country full of promise and opportunity... The creation of the European Union and its thriving economy is very appealing for Americans in a global economy.
And there you have it. Americans are streaming to Europe for a better life... at least according to the Palm Beach Post.
So, the Post is trying to sell us this claim that a "growing number of Americans" are looking for European passports so that they can find better "opportunity" in the EU. Yet, as each sentence and paragraph rolls on, the hope that the Post would back up its claim with stats seems to recede ever farther away.
We get meaningless interviews with several Americans who have begun the process to get European citizenship, we get the claims that more Americans are doing it, we get the expression that the grass is greener in the booming EU, yet, no facts and figures.
There is a reason we get no real facts and only claims and anecdotal evidence of this supposed trend. In one sentence the Post admits its got bubkis to prove the wild claim that Americans are in "growing numbers" streaming to Europe to escape our bad American life.
Since the United States doesn't keep statistics on dual citizens, it's impossible to know exactly how many people have applied for citizenship in Europe.
I see. So they have no statistics? None at all? Not only does the Post not have any statistics from America to prove this thesis, they don't even present any from Europe to show that more Americans are asking European countries for dual citizenship.
It appears that it is all just a wild conjecture on the part of the Palm Beach Post.
But there is one thing that this fantasy "report" does admirably. It presents American after American who has given up on this country because it is so horrible to live here. One after another, the folks they interview to present their anecdotal evidence of this so-called trend are heard to bash the U.S.
Having no proof to prove this claim does not really bother the Post when the goal is not to substantiate the premise in the first place. The goal was to bash the U.S. and that the story does quite well, I must say.
Mission accomplished, Palm Beach Post.
