Being from another country, another continent even, has up till now meant that a lot of things have surprised me while being here. Of course I knew that things were going to be different, like the clothing style, the food, different age limits… But arriving in America during election time, arriving on Ole Miss’s campus with the debate coming up has made me realize that even our political systems are more different than I initially thought.

Coming from the Netherlands where we have a constitutional monarchy, a royal family, a prime minister, a parliament and a multiparty system I thought this was just one of the ways a democracy works. According to U.S. department of state Web Site a democracy is “a government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." Abraham Lincoln also put it as “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Putting it simply; a democracy in our days means that the people elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws and administer programs for the public good. In a country as big as America, elections take place in several stages; first on a local platform, then state elections and finally nationwide elections. Being a republic with a presidential system the U.S. elections were prone to be different from Dutch elections. But that what I saw as ‘our’ countries big political similarity was the fact that we both are democracies and we both give a voice to the people to elect the ones running our countries, is something that I’m now starting to see as yet another difference.

As I said earlier on, in the Netherlands we have a multi-party system. These parties reflect almost al the different viewpoints one can have. From the more social parties to the more right parties, from the animal/green party to the Christian party, every aspect is represented. This can at times make it hard pinning down your choice because we have a lot to choose from. And as is the case right here, different parties can have similar stands on several subjects, which in turn can make you agree with more than one party. The bottom line however is that we have a choice, a broad choice. I am more and more starting to feel that the American choices are really limited, something that makes me wonder how democratic America actually is.

A lot of people have already made up their minds about who they are going to vote for. Most Democrats will follow Obama, most Republicans will follow McCain, surprisingly. There are however a lot of people that feel like they have to choose between the best out of two evils. They feel like they don’t really have a choice because they like/trust neither of both candidates. A comment I have heard here on campus way more then I would have expected is that people are going to vote Green. At first I must admit I did not know what they meant, then it was explained to me that there actually is another party besides the Republicans and the Democrats, “but they just don’t make any chance of winning”. This way voting Green is becoming more of a protest vote, because people are unhappy with the choice in candidates. “They’re both incapable of being our president, it’s like choosing between bad and worse,” someone said to me.

I am in no way trying to speak for everybody saying this is the way everyone feels. What I however am doing, is simply repeating and reflecting on what I have seen and heard firsthand while being here. Marloes Lemsom, a good friend of mine, has put this thought into words beautifully:

You are expected to be either left or right, either liberal or conservative, you either agree or disagree; it made me wonder if real democracy is about choosing between opposites.

Is a country as big and diverse as America cutting itself and its people short by its limited choices? Is having a variety in choices not one of a democracy’s true fundamentals?