TWO OF Donald Trump’s most effective slogans during the presidential campaign were “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” This underscores the contrast between seeking globalist interests versus fighting for American interests. President Trump promised his supporters he would give priority to national interests. Currently, we are witnessing the same sentiment in Europe, with some asserting that fascism is on the rise there, and that President Donald Trump is an American example of fascism. This is a false assumption.The nation-state is reasserting itself as the primary vehicle of political life. In Europe, the refugees and immigrants from conflict-torn countries are challenging the European Union’s institutions. Some European citizens see the immigrant policy as not being in the national interest. Even though some of these refugees and immigrants go against European national interests, accusing the nations of being racist or fascists when they guard their borders and beliefs is wrong.
International politics is not about charity; it is about national interests. The leftists, liberals, or Democrats accuse those who do not think like them as being racists or bigots. Atheists like Bill Maher denigrated John McCain, George Bush,and Mitt Romney like they were apocalyptic threats to t America. The left says Donald Trump is racist and that because he temporarily banned the entry of people from seven Muslim nations to the United States, the people who support him are racist and Islamophobic also.
If Donald Trump were a racist or hated Muslims, then he would have banned all immigrants from more than 51 predominately Muslim countries. Mexico is not a Muslim country; yet, President Trump said he would build a wall between Mexico and the United States, because he is trying to protect American interests. The leftists have sorted everyone into identity groups and then have deemed the people in the poorly educated, white male identity group as the only bad ones. Liberal media sponsored by the their godfathers, like George Soros, mock the people who voted for Trump rather than for Hillary Clinton. They called his supporters racists and bigots. Even some leftist liberals said that if Trump won, they would move to Canada, France, or Ireland, an inconsistency that even students in basic logic could recognize. While advocating acceptance and diversity, they simultaneously planned, whether in zest or in seriousness, to abandon the country if their candidate did not win.
Yet, as we see, Europe is more divided than the United States. I don’t believe Russian hackers or Federal Security Service (FSB) spooks made people vote for Donald Trump. The United States seemingly has two camps, the Donald Trump supporters, albeit for varied reasons, and the anti-Donald Trump cadre. Almost every nation is somehow either already polarized or is drifting in that direction. The new global political thinking cuts through religions, ethnicities, and even families, so that notions of right and left or geopolitical divides are no longer relevant. It is the conflict over the new global order and who is going to design and lead this new world order.
The divisions are generated by the contemporary global culture. President Trump wants upside-down traditional policies and the elimination of the ruling elites’ ways of governing, such as hiring and catering to lobbyists. People who voted for Trump want him to continue doing what he did during his successful campaign. But President Donald Trump dumped political correctness, and, as a consequence, many liberals consider President Trump the most divisive and negative president in modern history, because he is unwilling to give his critics much respect.
We should not forget the American and French revolutions were both nationalist uprisings against multinational empires. We are seeing the rise of nation states that are against multinational corporations and trade agreements that do not benefit the state’s interest. The current rise of nationalism in Europe is the result of the European Union’s failure to function well for the interests of all the union members. The leaders were out of touch with the people. There is lack of leadership and unanimity about how to solve the current refugee influx, the war in the Ukraine, and economic crises, among other issues. Therefore,it would be illogical for citizens not to raise questions as to whether to stay in the EU or to leave it.
Donald Trump has similar questions, such as whether free trade agreements, NATO, the UN, or other policies and institutions are always advantageous or whether they even represent the best interests of the United States. Today, President Donald Trump is challenging the current system and wants to change to a better system, so his detractors call him autocratic, divisive, misogynistic etc. because they do not understand the current system and that institutions that were established after World War II do not benefit them any longer and need to be changed or at least redesigned.
