Out of touch (JoCo)

The fact that I am still out of touch with current American politics does not concern me, but the fact that I only just learned that Job Cohen is no longer mayor of Amsterdam makes me feel positively out of it.  (And that I only did learn about it by reading an article in the New York Times makes me feel a bit like a dinosaur.)  We didn't often drink champagne with JoCo (as we liked to call him) but when we did, well, it somehow tasted even better.  I would love to see him become the premier of the Netherlands.

I would also love to see articles about the Dutch/European immigration problem stop making statements like this:

There is certainly some truth to the conventional wisdom about the immigration debate: that Europe lags far behind the United States in its ability to craft a truly multiethnic society, to turn newcomers into citizens.

What so bothers me (and a lot of other people) about this is the bit about the US having crafted a "truly multiethnic society," and being proficient in turning "newcomers into citizens."  Really?  But, uh, your own newspaper points out that there are more illegal than legal immigrants in this country, that there are enormous and painful divisions of opinion on what to do about that, and that years of political effort have produced no consensus and little progress in this area.  And let's not even get into recent US policy vis a vis Islamic radicalization, here and abroad.

No, no, we aren't the model, and even if we were it wouldn't translate, these things never do.  (And let's not forget how much trouble you got into following our free market lead!)  The Dutch will solve this, as they always do, by being Dutch.  In the meanwhile, let's hope Amsterdam can find a good replacement.