TO A CASUAL EUROPEAN OBSERVER, the row over President Bush’s judicial picks may seem a bit dippy. Democrats fight tooth-and-nail to block mid-level nominees. Republicans talk of a “nuclear option” to break the impasse. Democrats warn they’ll bring Senate business to a halt. Republicans dare them to try. Our transatlantic friend might scratch his head and wonder, How could an ostensibly minor, non-legislative issue–who sits on a few appellate courts–implode the entire U.S. Senate?

There’s no simple answer. But any substantive explanation must begin with abortion and Roe v. Wade. In The Right Nation, their 2004 treatise on American conservatism, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge probe why Europe settled its abortion debate long ago but the United States didn’t. They cite three key factors: religiosity (secular Europe vs. devout America), fundamentalism (technocratic Europe vs. moralistic America), and the American right’s knack for cultural politicking.