Dangerous European division has been poisoning the political climate in the United States of America for decades.

Dear Americans,

I am a European from Germany. I have an urgent request for you: Please stop categorizing politics into right and left! A division of politics into left and right is a European invention, which has already led the world into several major wars.

A couple of centuries ago, beginning with the July Monarchy of France in 1830, the monarchists sat on the right benches in parliament and the opposition Republicans and Liberals sat on the left benches. Hence the political terms „left“ and „right“. Why is it that in the United States of America language regulations of a monarchical seating arrangement from 19th century’s Europe are still being applied in the 21st century?

Why does this European division divide America?

There are many people in the USA today who are not discussing, but yelling at each other. The attributions „left“ and „right“ merely serve as insults. For right-wingers, everyone else is a leftist and for a leftist all others are just right-wingers. Others who stand between these extremes are suffering headaches!

Ask a leftist what right-wing politics mean and you’ll hear the harshest judgements. Ask a right-winger what left means and the result will be similarly devastating.

Dear Americans,

Please don’t evaluate the thoughts and deeds of citizens according to the poisoned European categories of left and right. There are far better classifications, for example, free or authoritarian.

The political terms left and right put ideologies above people. Such divisive political terminology has cost the lives of millions. America is better than that. In America, the focus is on people.

People deserve respect, not ideas, ideologies, religions and convictions. If someone thinks he has been insulted just because the Koran, the Gospel, a manifesto, Marx, Mohammed or Jesus are being criticized, then he confuses himself with his convictions. But a person is more than just the sum of his thoughts and ideas!

Defend the freedom of expression! Never give up ridiculing, doubting and criticizing ideas.

When a person is demeaned because of his or her origins, then it’s racism. But when a person is criticized for his convictions, it’s called enlightenment. Nobody should be criticized for his or her origins. For their convictions they can certainly be held responsible!

With each step taken, a decision is made in regard to direction. No one should be forced in an unfree direction.

Totalitarianism is when we are forced to march lockstep along a given path toward a predetermined paradise. Totalitarianism is when everything in the present is subordinated to that predefined goal. Totalitarianism is when those who waver or question are punished or eliminated!

America doesn’t march lockstep. America dances! When Europeans march, American music and culture is forbidden.

America stands for freedom. Please do not give up this freedom! Continue dancing to the music of freedom, because freedom is an inherent characteristic of every human being.

The striving towards freedom is inherent within each human being! Freedom is a constant criticism of prevailing conventions. Unfortunately, far too often authority is preferred to freedom. Changes have occured because someone had started to think and speak differently. Everyone has a basic human right to express his or her own opinion! Stupidity doesn’t need to be outlawed. Stupidity exposes itself. Basically, I am a romantic because I have faith in the basic goodness of my fellow human being. I believe people are better than their reputations! That’s what America stands for!

Governments should be designed to provide a safety net for those who may fall off the ropes. But, not there to ensure that no one falls or fails. I don’t want to be tied down. I want to dance! The possibility of falling is part of the tightrope walk of life!

I don’t need the government dictate to which music I’m allowed to dance. There are so many melodies.

Please America,

don’t stop making the world dance. Don’t quiet the bells of freedom, silence the songs of love and hinder the hammer of justice with the European categories of „right“ and „left“.

Stay free and remember the words of PUBLIUS in „The Federalist Papers #11“:

„The world may politically, as well as geographically, be divided into four parts, each having a distinct set of interests. Unhappily for the other three, Europe, by her arms and by her negotiations, by force and by fraud, has, in different degrees, extended her dominion over them all. Africa, Asia, and America, have successively felt her domination. The superiority she has long maintained has tempted her to plume herself as the Mistress of the World, and to consider the rest of mankind as created for her benefit. Men admired as profound philosophers have, in direct terms, attributed to her inhabitants a physical superiority, and have gravely asserted that all animals, and with them the human species, degenerate in America–that even dogs cease to bark after having breathed awhile in our atmosphere. Facts have too long supported these arrogant pretensions of the Europeans. It belongs to us to vindicate the honor of the human race, and to teach that assuming brother, moderation. Union will enable us to do it. Disunion will will add another victim to his triumphs. Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!“

With love and gratitude,
Gerd Buurmann

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Translation: William Wires
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