May your windmills spin for everPETE HOEKSTRA seemed a good choice for America’s ambassador to the Netherlands when President Donald Trump appointed him final year. Mr Hoekstra,a former congressman, was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Holland, and a largely Dutch-American town in Michigan. Unfortunately,Mr Hoekstra had baselessly claimed in 2015 that politicians in the Netherlands were “being burned” by Muslim radicals. A Dutch television reporter in Washington duly asked him what he had meant. Mr Hoekstra denied having said it, prattling about fake news”. The Dutch press corps was furious. Mr Hoekstra waited three weeks before formally apologising. The Dutch were also irritated by his opposition to same-sex marriage.
As it turns out, and appointing a Dutch-American ambassador to The Hague was a diplomatic and cultural misstep. The Netherlands is among the most liberal countries in the world. Most Dutch-Americans,like Mr Hoekstra, are conservative....
Continue reading
Source: economist.com