Where is Europe's Tea Party?
In the United States it was a time for anger; 23% of those polled as they left the polling booths said they were angry.
It was a time to rage against government. Dislike of Washington is never far beneath the surface in the United States. The stubbornly persistent unemployment lines came on the back of an economy that failed for almost ten years to provide real wage increases for middle-class Americans.
And some of the anger was directed at the president. During his election campaign his life story connected to the American people. He was the embodiment of the American dream.
In office he has failed to find the language, the narrative that linked him to ordinary Americans. The almost zen-like no drama-Obama has seemed too distant, too cerebral, too calm.
So many Americans have taken refuge in a movement. For the Tea Party the future lies in the past. America, it insists, is on the wrong track. It has to return to old values. Self-reliance, small government and low taxes. One nation under God.
The attraction of the Tea Party is not its policies. It appeals to an almost visceral sense of what America was and how its greatness was achieved. Incoherent it often is, but it can drive incumbents from office and has changed the political landscape.
In Europe, too, there is reason to rage. Apart from Germany and a few other countries the recovery has been jobless: 24 million are without work. Unemployment amongst 16 to 24-year-olds is shocking. For that group in Spain the unemployment rate is 43%.
There is talk of a lost generation. Many in their twenties and early thirties believe they will never have the prosperity of their parents.
Then there is austerity. Almost everywhere the public sector is being hacked back. Pay has been cut or frozen. Public sector jobs are disappearing. Half a million posts may go in just Britain alone.
Plenty of people believe the debts of the banks have been loaded onto the public sector. In demonstration after demonstration I have met people who believe it to be unfair, unjust. Working people are taking the rap for the banks.
And then - with the recession still threatening - the bankers and CEOs are at the bonus pot once again. There is the greed of public sector managers. There is a European Union that backs austerity for everyone but itself.
All of this could be reason to rage... and yet.
There was anger in France over pension reform. Maybe two million people marched. The oil refineries were blockaded. There were riots in Lyon. A few cars were burnt in Nanterre. But the much-feared student revolt didn't happen. There wasn't the passion for the struggle.
Even in Greece, where the anarchists killed bank workers, street protests have not been able to derail reform.
In Spain, so far, they have accepted changes that made it easier to hire and fire. Yes, there has been a general strike, but again it has not stopped the austerity programme.
In Ireland, where the cuts have been brutal - with more to come - the streets have been strangely silent.
Certainly the electoral cycle may explain part of it. Germany had an election just over a year ago. Britain saw a change of government but there was no landslide.
In France, Italy and Spain elections lie ahead. Only then will we see whether frustration overturns governments.
In France, during the protests, many people complained that their way of life was being threatened by pension reform. Hard-won rights were being sacrificed at the altar of austerity. For some these rights were linked to their identity and what it meant to be French. President Sarkozy will face his voters in 2012.
It is difficult to judge the political mood in Italy because so much debate is tied up with the personal dramas of Silvio Berlusconi.
The mood in Europe, for the moment, seems more resigned than angry. What is happening in country after country is a turning away from the mainstream.
In Holland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Italy populist parties are having success. Their message is that a political elite has betrayed working people. They resent immigration when jobs are so scarce. They fear their known-world is changing. Some of these parties hold the balance of power.
What you do detect is that old moorings are shifting. Fewer people are committed to just one party. They float, ready to change allegiances.
Politicians in Europe have struggled to find the language to explain the economic crisis. They have not so far been able to sketch out where the new jobs will come from and how Europe will compete in the future.
What doesn't exist in Europe is a set of core beliefs that can be embraced again in times of trouble. America's leaders, since the writing of the Constitution, have articulated dreams, beliefs and myths that exercise a powerful hold on the American people. "Morning in America!" "A City set on a hill!" The enduring power of exceptionalism.
Europe has fewer dreams. It may not throw up a Tea Party. But the angst of the time still may have the power to remove leaders from power and shake Europe up.
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