‘Last Salute’ for the US

Professor of Philosophy Ronald van Raak foresees the end of democracy in America and advocates a symbolic farewell on campus.

On 16 November this year, the American president and the Dutch king were meant to stand together at Fort Oranje, on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. To jointly commemorate how, 250 years ago, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to recognise the independent United States. With a cannon shot that in 1776 greeted a ship flying the American flag.

That shot, fired from Fort Oranje, is known as the ‘First Salute’. The Netherlands supported the American independence fighters against the British colonists by supplying weapons via Sint Eustatius. At the time, the island was also a transit port in the slave trade – including for American plantation owners. A historical crime that binds both countries together.

I visited Fort Oranje and the site of the First Salute several times when I was a member of the House of Representatives. In 2018, I proposed in parliament to hold a joint commemoration on 16 November 2026, in honour of 250 years of relations with the US. A commemoration with the heads of state of both our countries, ‘taking into account the darker sides of our shared past’ (motion 35000 IV, 19). At the time, the proposal was adopted across the political spectrum. There was, however, a complication: Donald Trump was still president and would not have been inclined to reflect critically on that darker past. But his presidency lasted until 2021, and afterwards the Americans would surely have learned from this authoritarian episode.

It is 2026 and Donald Trump has unfortunately been elected again. The decision to hold a joint commemoration of the First Salute has quietly been reversed. A meeting with President Trump on colonialism – how strange would that be now? With a US that currently seeks to annex neighbouring countries, lays claim to the territory of allied nations and wages wars to disrupt economies, oppress people and overthrow governments. In 1776, America fought a war of independence against the British colonial ruler; 250 years ago, the American constitution became a model for a democratic rule of law, which our country also looked to as an example. Now, the US itself poses a threat to democracy.

The Netherlands is distancing itself from the US – as is the rest of Europe. This is badly needed, given how dependent we have become on that country in digital and military terms. Or politically: how neoliberal market thinking has shaped policy in our country. Or culturally: how often the films we watch or the music we listen to come from the US. And certainly in academia: how commercial thinking in research and the anglicisation of education have come to dominate our universities. In 2018, we still hoped that President Trump was an American mistake; after his re-election last year, we now know that this is what most Americans appear to want: not a democratic rule of law, but colonial power politics.

Perhaps 16 November is a good moment to distance ourselves from this, 250 years after the First Salute. Perhaps in the form of a ‘Last Salute’. Not at Fort Oranje, but on our own campus. A symbolic farewell to the democratic rule of law in the US. The loss of a 250-year-old friend.