MikeJ

You know, I just cannot agree with this statement, at least not the language and religion part. Not only is there a massive number of people in the U.S. whose first language isn't English, but you also share that language with several other nations throughout the world (not to mention the hundreds of millions who speak it as a second language). This is a world apart from the smaller nations of Europe. It's quite different to speaking a language with only a few million speakers, most of whom live in the same country as you... As for religion, the largest religion in the U.S. (Protestantism, which I believe can be further divided into smaller groups) has the support of approximately 51 percent of the population. In many European countries the (nominal) support for the main religion (typically meaning that the people are members of the one and same church) is something between 75 and 98 percent. And keep in mind that most of the countries in Europe are small and in the neighbouring countries the major language and/or religion might be quite different from your own.

I'm not saying that we're in any way 'better' in any respect, but I do think that these two factors are more encompassing in many European countries than they ever could be in the U.S., for the reasons I stated above.