#demoracy

Well he SHOULD be. However he has always been Shameless.

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Jaap Van der Wal

For my friends in the United States.

Hopeful news from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Reading time 3-5 minutes

In recent years, I have visited your country often and intensively and taught my courses there. My wife and I have noticed that Americans have strange prejudices about Europe and are not always so fond of Europe. I suspect this is a kind of inferiority complex or at least a form of envy. I live in a medieval city, Maastricht, where the street plan is still that of the Romans and the Middle Ages. Try finding that in America. I sometimes think that Americans can't really stand the fact that we have existed for centuries, centuries longer than your nation. Of course, I'm not counting the Native American and other ancestral cultures that you have so "successfully" obscured. I am aware that the latter could be prejudice.

Anyway, one of the preconceptions in your minds is that you think our nation, the Netherlands, is a kingdom and that we have a king. In the US, there are now demonstrations against NO KING President Trump, who wants to turn your country into a kingdom or, better yet, an empire.

What you apparently do not seem to know at all is that we are a constitutional monarchy. The king and our queen have no political power whatsoever. They are only symbolically our king and queen, and most Dutch people are happy with them. She, in particular, is a very charming and smart woman who also does a lot of work for the world through the United Nations. We are a true democracy with a multi-party system and can therefore make something of democracy that has become completely impossible in your country with its reprehensible two-party system.

Tomorrow we Dutchmen are embarking on a special experiment. First of all, we are getting the youngest prime minister ever (38 years old!), who is also a gay man, and is starting a minority cabinet with three parties, roughly from the right-wing center. I believe we have 15 parties in parliament, so this government will have to constantly negotiate on issues and laws to be implemented. It is an experiment that everyone is looking forward to. Because that would truly be democracy. They have been doing it for years in Denmark. And that is how democracy is meant to be. Not to finish off the 49% minority every four or eight years with a 51% majority, to throw them in the trash and make co-determination impossible. That is not what democracy is meant to be! Democracy is meant to have plans and laws adopted each time with the largest possible majority. You do that through discussion, dialogue, and consultation, and by sometimes, perhaps often, having to compromise. You are completely incapable of doing that anymore. And then you let your vice president dismiss us as rotten, old-fashioned democracies! You should be ashamed.

And don't look to Norway, where the crown princess has made a big mistake by having had contacts with Epstein. Norway is just as much a kingdom as we are. In our country and in Norway, the royal family also appears in court if necessary. Well, try getting that from YOUR president.

So keep an eye on us over the coming months. Maybe you can learn something or at least draw some hope from the democratic struggle we are going to undertake to get our democracy back on track. There is much to be done. We are at war with Russia, and the United States is almost an lost ally, and European democracies are still threatened by fascists whom your vice president has characterized as patriotic nationalists.

We continue to strive to make Europe a true community. IN VARIETATE CONCORDIA is our official motto for community. In my view, this can also be described as In pluribus Unum: being ONE in diversity. This is quite different from what was (or is) written on your dollar bill: E pluribus unum. E or EX means 'from'. E pluribus Unum can therefore also be read as "turning diversity into uniformity." And you have never succeeded in doing that. Nor will you succeed. Unless you hire a dictator to achieve it with paramilitary organizations such as ICE. (BTW: I know enough of Latin to know that there are softer and more peacefull interpretations of E Pluribus Unum, as it was meant in 1782). (BTW 2: In 1956 your national slogan became In God we Trust .......)

We here in Europe do not, as your Vice President Vance claims, have much to learn from you. You have much to learn from our struggles. Don't let your midterm elections be taken away from you. Trump will undoubtedly try to do so, for example by declaring a state of emergency in response to the unrest and riots that he himself creates. And if common sense prevails in those midterm elections, I advise (Who the hell am I?) the US first to abolish its out-of-control two-party system. That would be a good example for us to follow.