Tim van Opijnen | The enduring allure of the United States
Having lived in the US for twenty years, columnist Tim van Opijnen is still struggling with the question of whether he should stay. He has watched the country reinvent itself, tear itself apart, and reinvent itself all over again. “I went from pride to disbelief to disgust. It was a roller coaster, and last Tuesday marked the latest reinvention.”
Last week I ‘celebrated’ twenty years in the US. Here I am the Dutch guy that brings a homemade cheese sandwich to the lab and instead of sneakers wears cool shoes. In the Netherlands, I no longer quite feel at home. If you have been reading this columns, you know I am struggling with whether I should stay, and the last two years made leaving easy to justify. Lies about immigrants eating cats and vaccines causing autism went from shocking to normal, as did extrajudicial ICE killings. I have started to doubt everything: can democracy survive this government and can the country bounce back? And if I leave, would I still fit in in the Netherlands? So why am I still here, and why do friends who visit keep falling in love with this country within days?
A democracy showdown
Last Tuesday was a night jam-packed with ‘hopium’ (‘hope’ plus ‘opium’: the wishful thinking that a Democrat will win, until election night proofs otherwise). I spent it at home, refreshing the results in one browser window while finishing a research proposal in another. The proposal was submitted the next day, and we celebrated it and the ‘Blue-Nami’ with a glorious maple pecan pie at our weekly lab meeting. Democrats won both chambers of Congress, Texas elected a Democratic senator and governor, Georgia elected the first Black female governor in US history, New Hampshire the first openly gay man in the Senate, and Michigan the first Muslim in the Senate.
What made me proud is how they won. In 2016 and 2024 it sometimes seemed voters were asked to vote for the first female president rather than for policies. This time ‘the firsts’ arrived by themselves: voters had had enough of the cruelty and the blatant corruption and picked people who cared about their rising costs and unaffordable healthcare. The voters showed they do not care what their politicians look like, whom they love or worship.
In twenty years, I have experienced this country reinvent itself, undo itself and reinvent itself again. I went from feeling pride to disbelief to disgust. It’s been a rollercoaster, and Tuesday was the latest reinvention.
One good reason
So, what is this enduring attraction of the US to so many of us? Take two of my friends who lived in Boston, moved to Sweden last year and visited two weeks ago. Sweden works; healthcare is great, and work-life are actually balanced. But they find it hard to feel accepted in Swedish society. In the US, you can try on ‘being American’ instantaneously, as if it came with a money-back guarantee. Want to be a cowboy? Fly to Texas, go to a rodeo, go line dancing and let the BBQ chef show you the briskets slow-cooking on a grill the size of a pick-up truck. All it takes is a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat, and you are welcomed in as if you have always been part of it.
What worries me most about returning to the Netherlands is what two other friends experienced. After working for more than ten years in US tech startups they moved back and only lasted three years before returning to the US. They could not get used again to what sometimes makes the Dutch the most annoying people in the world. In their words: “Dutch people will explain to you in detail, and often unsolicited, a million reasons why something won’t work and you shouldn’t do it. In the US one reason why it WOULD work is enough to go do it.”
I understand that. I am still Dutch enough to see the million reasons, and American enough to need only one. That mix gave me a career. As a young scientist I led research projects of tens of millions of dollars, an opportunity I would never have had in the EU, and I still feel encouraged to try and take risks. Failure is a real possibility, but I can always reinvent myself and try again.
One swallow
I know that my view is from a privileged position. Who you are and how you arrive shapes your welcome in every country, and the US has shown how disastrous the consequences can be if you arrive without the right papers. Nor have I forgotten that we still have the same president, and two years is a long time. Until November 2028, hopium has to turn into something real every day, to show Americans and the world that real change is possible when you elect honest, decent people.
And while one swallow does not a summer make, in the US one reason why it could work is enough to try.
Tim van Opijnen is Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, where his lab develops novel antibacterial therapies. He writes a monthly column for Folia about conducting research in Trump’s America.
