By Bryna Hellmann-Gillson, Amsterdam
The Dutch recognized Obama's qualities months ago, long before many Americans did and in far greater numbers. Asked during the primaries whom they wanted to see in the White House, only 9% wanted McCain, and similar polls around Europe produced similar results. That so many Americans were enthusiastic about McCain and then - how was it in God's name possible? - even more about Palin, amazed and even angered Europeans. So Obama's triumph was greeted with a sigh of relief: we're not as dumb as they thought we were.
For two weeks what the English call 'the chattering classes': journalists, columnists, media commentators, bloggers and academics, have rung all the changes on the words 'transformative, progressive, pragmatic and wow'. Now they're settling down to wondering who exactly this fantastic person is, what, in other words, can they expect Obama to want to do, now that the time has come to transform abstract 'change' into concrete 'changes'.
A recent article in a weekly magazine suggested the Dutch might understand Obama better if they placed him somewhere in the Dutch political system. America has her problems, they have theirs, and both governments are responsible for solutions which not only work but are acceptable to the voters. If noting else because re-election depends on that.
But the systems are different in some profoundly important ways, not least that there are, at the moment in Holland (as Americans like to call The Netherlands), nine political parties with enough support to give them voting rights in the parliament. Nine? Yes, really! They represent socialists, centrist democrats, moderate republicans, Christians, greens, anti-immigrationists and animal rightists. That's hard for Americans to understand when even a third party can't buck the US electoral system, but it works: 150 men and women talk to each other, shake hands and compromise to get things done.
Since none of them can match Obama's mix of charisma, intelligence and down-right cool, it's fun to imagine, the article suggests, that he's Holland's Minister President. First of all, which party does he lead? You'd imagine it would be the Labor Party which, like the Labor Party in England, is somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. But Obama's expressed belief that he must be guided by God puts him in the Christian Democratic camp, a lot more to the right than you'd expect him to be.
We might be able to place him if we imagine him at work. Is there anything about Holland he'd want to change? Absolutely! This is one of those European countries the Republicans so derisively label 'socialist'. For goodness sake, this government actually believes it needs to tax us in order to pay for essential services like hospitals and universal health care, schools and almost-free colleges, rent-controlled housing, public transport, infrastructure, theaters, at museums and concert halls, and everything else we need to do with and for each other.
That takes a lot of euros to maintain. When Obama cuts the top 52% tax bracket for Dutch incomes over $70,000 a year down to the 35% for American incomes over $250,000, and the sales tax drops from 19% to 5 or 6%, they're not going to be able to pay for all that socialist nonsense. There'll be more millionaires, more two-job families struggling to pay the bills and not much left of the middle-class. It sounds as if Obama is the leader of the Liberals, the party that wants government to get out of our lives and our pockets.
The list of things Obama will want to adjust or eliminate will affect the policy on nuclear energy (one reactor and no support for another one), guns (they're illegal here), the military (the boys are coming home in 2010), weed (fill your personal needs at the nearest 'coffee-shop'), abortion (the deadline is 24 weeks), same-sex marriage (and a gay couple's right to adopt) and a rejection of life sentences and the death penalty.
There's no doubt that Obama supports what an overwhelming majority of Dutch people would label a far-right agenda. Did they know that when they went wildly enthusiastic about the man? Of course not, and somehow, in the coming months, and like a lot of young and idealistic Americans, they'll try not to be disappointed. We'll all wait and watch and hope it wasn't just another campaign scam like Reagan's 'morning in America' or Bush's 'compassionate conservatism'. We'll understand that he's restricted by the opposition, by the system, by the deficit, by the near collapse of capitalism, by the price of oil and the effects of global warming. Given time, we'll say, our faith will be rewarded.
With luck as much as intelligence and good will, Obama will live up to the promises we thought he was making: his government will create jobs, raise the living standards of the working middle class, get us out of two unwinnable wars, improve schools, hospitals, roads and bridges and make America the country it never was but always thought it could be. A country rather like Holland? Wouldn't that be nice!
The article I paraphrased is by Roelof Bouwman and is in the November 14 issue of HP/De Tijd.
