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Post by Jaga on Jul 21, 2019 11:28:02 GMT -7
He wants to send four women from Congress who are colored and only one born outside of the US to their countries of origin. Does he not know that one was born in Brooklyn and another in the US as well? www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/conservative-intellectuals-are-at-a-turning-point-normalize-trump-or-resist-him/2019/07/19/25e5b06e-a978-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html?utm_term=.02fb9e4c032bConservative intellectuals are at a turning point: Normalize Trump or resist him?n the span of a few days, two very different events unfolded that will, together, shape U.S. politics for the next decade. At a rally in Greenville, N.C., the president of the United States, though he later tried to deny it, egged on a crowd to chant “send her back,” echoing not only his own racist tweets from a few days earlier but also the language of American nativists down the decades. From the 19th-century movements that sought to send emancipated slaves back to Africa to the anti-Catholic “Know Nothing” party and the Ku Klux Klan, the notion that only certain kinds of Americans are “real Americans” is one that we have heard many times and know very well. “Send her back” also chimes beautifully with the modern language of the European far right, especially the Identitarians, a conspiracy network that believes in the existence of a secret plot, organized by Jews, to replace white Europeans with brown ones. The group, which assiduously seeks followers in the United States, calls repeatedly for “remigration” — in other words, “send them back” — and promotes the idea online whenever it can. Some of Trump’s followers surely recognize those ideas even if they don’t know where they come from. Already those ideas appeal to an extremist fringe: Both the synagogue shooters in the United States and the mosque shooter in New Zealand were inspired by them. Many miles from Greenville, a group of intellectuals met in a D.C. ballroom. These were “national conservatives,” thinkers and writers trying, in the wake of the president’s destruction of American conservatism as we know it, to build something new in its place. This is not an easy task. If William F. Buckley and National Review laid the groundwork for Reaganism, the situation is now reversed: Trump’s 2½ years in office have undermined whatever remains of President Ronald Reagan’s impossibly sunny vision, and intellectuals are racing to keep up. The question is whether it is possible — in the atmosphere created in the United States by Trump and in Europe by the Italian, Austrian and Hungarian far right, among others — for intelligent people to build on the word “nationalism,” as opposed to “patriotism,” without becoming, in practice, the Heideggers to his Hitler, or the Webbs to his Stalin: philosophers working, whether they acknowledge it or not, to justify the instinctive racism and vulgarity seen in Greenville and thus help make a corrupt president palatable to the wider public. This is not a new problem. As far back as 1927, in “The Treason of the Intellectuals,” French essayist Julien Benda denounced the “scholars, philosophers and ‘ministers’ of the divine” who “share in the chorus of hatreds and political factions” on both the right and left, and in retrospect he was correct.
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Post by pieter on Jul 21, 2019 15:39:10 GMT -7
Jaga,
The danger and explosive mix in Europe is that the new far right nationalist populist movement in Europe merges old and new, Alt Right, New Right, Identitarian, Nativist, peoples nationalist, ethnocentric, White Nationalist (White Power) ideas with leftwing populist, socialist (sometimes even Marxist elements), Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, Corporatist, classical anti-capitalist, Italian fascist, Austrofascist, Spanish Fascist and German/Austrian National socialist ideas and some ideas from non-fascist and non-Nazi pre-Second World War authoritarian rulers like Engelbert Dollfuss from Austria, Alexander I of Yugoslavia (regent of the Kingdom of Serbia from 1914 and later King of Yugoslavia from 1921 to 1934), Miklós Horthy in Hungary (1919-1944), Ion Antonescu in Romania, Józef Piłsudski and Roman Dmowski in Poland (Polish nationalists often admire and us the heritage and ideology of both pre-war Polish political leaders -whom were rivals by the way-), General Ioannis Metaxas in Greece (from the totalitarian 4th of August Regime from 1936–1941).
Something which might be hard to understand is that the old neo-fascist and neo-nazi far right in Western-Europe underwent a transformation from an openly racist, xenophobe, discriminatory, antisemitc, Nordic, Aryan, Germanistic, white power rightwing extremist, to a modern, well organised, rightwing populist and acceptable nationalist movement. These guys got rid of their antisemitism, Neo-Nazi style logo's, dress and behaviour, and they cleansed themselves of too openly blunt racism, xenophobia and extreme right symbolism. In staid they focussed on the democratic political establishment, the moderate centre left and centre right and the left. They kept their anti-migrant and anti-refugee stances. But former people of the rightwing of the Christian Democratic party, former liberals and former Social Democrats started cooperating with former Neo-Nazi's and former Neo-Fascists.The Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals in the German sense brought their training, political experience from their CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP parties with them, and in the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland) party they started cooperating with former members of the far right, Neo Nazi NPD party, and former members of Freie Kameradschaften, informal organised Neo Nazi groups. The latter are violent chaps with antisemitic, anti-migrant, Anti-Polish, Anti-Czech, anti-Sinti and Roma, anti-coloured people and anti-Muslim views. People with links to people who attacked, wounded and murdered black, coloured and other minorities. That is the situation today in Germany and other European countries. The FPÖ in Austria was founded in the past by former Austrian members of the Waffen SS.
In the Netherlands the non-fascist and not Neo-nazi Freedom Party of Geert Wilders and Forum for Democracy party of Thierry Baudet attract former Neo-Nazi's, Hooligans and the old core of rightwing populists of the eighties, nineties and early 20th century. The old supporters of the murdered rightwing Populist Pim Fortuyn. Golden Dawn in Greece is a very scary Neo-Nazi party with links to the European Rightwing Nationalist Populist parties. Lega Nord in Italy is extremely nationalistic, hostile to immigrants and has old Italian fascists amongst it's supporters. In Hungary, Poland and Austria you have and had nationalistic regimes. In the Czech republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia you have nationalist political parties and politicians too.
The present day American Alt Right, Tea Party and Trumpist movement people will feel welcome in Europe in these nationalist and rightwing Populist circles who are Pro-Brexit and Pro Trump, and against anyhting un-European, alien and not rightwing, National conservative and xenophobe like them. Around these rightwing Nationalist Populist there is a culture of aversion, distrust of authorities, rejection of political correctness, rejection of the centre left and left, distrust of the moderate centre right, anti-press and anti-media attitude, aversion towards the cultural world of the contemporary fine art, theatre, dance, modern architecture, intelligentsia, educated and succesful migrants, feminism, cosmopolitanism, internationalism and multi-culturalism. These rightwingers manage to also add some integrated and assimilated people of colour and some people of Muslim heritage who abandoned Islam and became critical or anti-Islam, behind their cause. Like Donald Trump uses African American conservatives, Black 'American nationalists', rightwing traditional latino's, the Israel lobby (moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recongnising the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel, to gain the rightwing Jewish American vote and the vote of the 50 million Evangelical Pro-Israeli christians).
The present day rightwing nationalist populist movement in Europe reminds me of the German conservative revolutionary movement, a German national conservative movement (der „konservativen Revolution“), prominent in the years following World War I. The German conservative revolutionary school of thought advocated a nationalism that was specifically German, or Prussian in particular. Like other right-wing movements in the same period, they sought to put a stop to the rising tide of liberalism and communism. The revolutionaries based their ideas on organic rather than materialistic thinking, on quality instead of quantity, and on Volksgemeinschaft ("ethnic community") rather than class conflict and "mob rule". Outraged by liberalism and egalitarianism in the Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933) and rejecting the commercial culture of industrial and urban civilization, they advocated the destruction of the liberal order—by revolutionary means if necessary—in order to make way for the establishment of a new order, founded on conservative principles. The movement had a wide influence among many of Germany’s most gifted youth, universities and middle classes. In the present day Alternative for Germamy (Alternative für Deutschland) you can find certain „konservativen Revolution“, "völkische" (Volksgemeinschaft), and Deutschtum ("Germanness") ideas. The anti-Western concept of a romanticized Deutschtum has been an important component of German nationalism, when the conceptions of Volk (people) and Gemeinschaft (community) were driven to their extremes during the Third Reich. These elements are present today in political parties like the Alternative für Deutschland and the NPD.
The political ideology of Nativism is present today all over Europe. Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants, including by supporting immigration-restriction measures. Opposition to immigration commonly arises in many countries because of issues of national, cultural, and religious identity. Nativism has become a general term for "opposition to immigration" based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values. Nativists point at the role of cultural differences, ghettos, race, Muslim fundamentalism, poor education and poverty amongst the native European underclass of unemployed workers on social benefits, who were forced out of their job by cheaper migrants and refugees. (In the eyes of the native European workers and middle classes who are nativist and vote for far right nationalist populist political parties).
What started five years ago In the USA as a groundswell of conservatives committed to curtailing the reach of the federal government, cutting the deficit and countering the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party has become a movement largely against immigration overhaul. The politicians, intellectual leaders and activists who consider themselves part of the Tea Party have redirected their energy from fiscal austerity and small government to stopping any changes that would legitimize people who are here illegally, either through granting them citizenship or legal status.
Trump has been drawing on a base of alienated white working-class and middle-class voters, seeking to remake the G.O.P. into a more populist, nativist, avowedly protectionist, and semi-isolationist party that is skeptical of immigration, free trade, and military interventionism.
Donald Brand, a professor of political science, argues: Donald Trump’s nativism is a fundamental corruption of the founding principles of the Republican Party. Nativists champion the purported interests of American citizens over those of immigrants, justifying their hostility to immigrants by the use of derogatory stereotypes: Mexicans are rapists; Muslims are terrorists.Identitarian movementThe Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a post-WW2 European far-right political ideology originating in France building on ontological ideas of modern German philosophy. Its ideological structure was formulated and organised by essayists such as Renaud Camus, Alain de Benoist and Guillaume Faye, considered the movement's intellectual leaders.
While asserting the right of the European peoples to their own European culture and on occasion condemning racism and promoting ethnopluralist society, it argues that particular modes of being are customary to particular groups of people, mainly based on ideas of thinkers of the German Conservative Revolutionary Movement and, in some instances, Nazi theories. Some identitarians explicitly espouse ideas of xenophobia, and racialism, but most limit their public statements to more docile language. Some among them promote the creation of white ethno-states, to the exclusion of migrants and non-white residents.
The movement is most notable in Europe, and although rooted in Western Europe, it has spread more rapidly to Eastern Europe through conscious efforts of the likes of Faye. It also has adherents among North American, Australian, and New Zealander white nationalists. It is also found in North America (United States and Canada), Australia, and New Zealand; the United States-based Southern Poverty Law Center considers many of these organizations to be hate groups.OriginThe identitarian ideology mainly derives from the Nouvelle Droite, a French far-right philosophical movement created in the 1960s to adapt traditionalist, ethnopluralist and illiberal politics to the European post-WWII context and to distance itself from earlier forms of far-right like fascism and nazism, mainly through a project of pan-european nationalism.
The Nouvelle Droite has been widely described as a neo-fascist attempt to legitimise far-right ideas in the political spectrum, and recycle Nazi ideas. According to the political scientist Stéphane François, the later accusation, "though relevant in certain ways, [remains] incomplete, as it (purposely) [shuns] other references, most notably the primordial relationship to the German Conservative Revolutionary Movement."
Nouvelle Droite figures de Benoist and Faye aimed at imitating the marxist meta-politics and tactics of cultural hegemony, agitprop and entryism which, according to them, had allowed left-wing movements to gain cultural and academical dominance from the second part of the 20th century onwards. The movement is hostile to multiculturalism and liberalism, and although not necessarily supremacist, it is racialist as it identifies Europeans as a race.
In the late 20th century, their ideas influenced youth movements through in France through groups such as Génération Identitaire and Unité Radicale, partially made up of football hooligans. The French movements exported their ideas to other European nations, turning themselves into a pan-European movement of loosely connected identarian groups. In the 2000s and 2010s, thinkers led by Renaud Camus, Guillaume Faye and Henry de Lesquen introduced the great replacement and remigration as defining concepts in the movement.IdeologyIdentitarianism can be defined by its opposition to globalization, liberalism, multiculturalism, extra-European immigration, and its defence of traditions, pan-European nationalism and cultural homogeneity inside the nations of Europe.
The movement is strongly opposed to the politics and philosophy of Islam, which some liberal critics describes as disguised islamophobia. Followers often protest what they see as an islamisation of Europe through mass immigration, claiming it is a threat to European culture and society. This theory is connected to the ideas of the Great Replacement and remigration, the latter being a project of reversing growing multiculturalism through a forced mass deportation of non-European immigrants, often including their descendants, back to their supposed place of racial origin regardless of citizenship status.Alternative for GermanyAlternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) is a right-wing to far-right political party in Germany. Founded in April 2013, the AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag during the 2013 federal election. In 2014 the party won seven seats in the European election as a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists. After securing representation in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments by October 2017, the AfD became the third-largest party in Germany after the 2017 federal election, claiming 94 seats in the Bundestag, a major breakthrough for the party as it was the first time the AfD had won any seats in the Bundestag. The party is chaired by Jörg Meuthen; its lead candidates in the 2017 elections were AfD Co-Vice Chairman Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel who now serves as the party group leader in the Bundestag. Since 2017, AfD is the largest opposition party in the Bundestag.Leaders of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Bundestag group vote during the first plenary session of German lower house of Parliament in Berlin, GermanyAlexander Eberhardt Gauland (born 20 February 1941) is a German politician, journalist and lawyer who has served as leader of the German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag since September 2017 and co-leader of the party since December 2017. He has been a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) since September 2017. Gauland was the party's co-founder and is its federal spokesman and the party leader for the state of Brandenburg.Alice Elisabeth Weidel (born 6 February 1979) is a German politician and the Leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag since October 2017. She has been a member of the Bundestag (MdB) since the 2017 federal election during which she was the AfD's lead candidate together with Alexander Gauland.Jörg Hubert Meuthen (German: [ˈjœəg ˈmɔʏtn̩]; born 29 June 1961) is a German economist and politician serving as Federal spokesman for Alternative for Germany (AfD) since July 2015.[2] He is professor for political economy and finance at the Academy of Kehl. He was frontrunner for the AfD at the 2016 Baden-Württemberg state election and has been a Member of Parliament and parliamentary leader since March 2016. Since the end of 2017, Meuthen has been a member of the European Parliament and deputy chairman of the EFDD. He is the leading candidate of the AfD for the 2019 European Parliament election.The party has been described as a German nationalist, right-wing populist, and Eurosceptic party. Since about 2015, the AfD has been increasingly open to working with far-right extremist groups such as Pegida. Parts of the AfD have racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and xenophobic tendencies linked to far-right movements such as neo-Nazism and identitarianism.Identitarian Movement activists protest in Berlin in June 2017The ideology of Ideology the Alternative für Deutschland is a mix of German nationalism, Right-wing populism, Euroscepticism, National conservatism, Social conservatism, Economic liberalism, Anti-Islam, Anti-immigration, Anti-feminism and Direct democracy. Pegida in the NetherlandsPegida in Germany
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Post by pieter on Jul 21, 2019 16:23:56 GMT -7
Jaga,
Right-wing nationalists in Europa and the USA define and defend a "true" national identity from elements deemed to be corrupting that identity. Some were supremacists, who in accordance with social Darwinism applied the concept of "survival of the fittest" to nations and races. Right-wing nationalism was influenced by Romantic nationalism, in which the state derives its political legitimacy from the organic unity of those it governs. This generally includes the language, race, culture, religion and customs of the nation, all of which were "born" within its culture. Linked with right-wing nationalism is cultural conservatism, which supports the preservation of the heritage of a nation or culture and often sees deviations from cultural norms as an existential threat.
Nationalism is based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests. Nationalism, translated into world politics, implies the identification of the state or nation with the people—or at least the desirability of determining the extent of the state according to ethnographic principles. Nationalism stresses the particular and parochial, the differences, and the national individualities.
American nationalism was a typical product of the 18th century. British settlers in North America were influenced partly by the traditions of the Puritan revolution and the ideas of Locke and partly by the new rational interpretation given to English liberty by contemporary French philosophers. American settlers became a nation engaged in a fight for liberty and individual rights. They based that fight on current political thought, especially as expressed by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. It was a liberal and humanitarian nationalism that regarded America as in the vanguard of mankind on its march to greater liberty, equality, and happiness for all. The ideas of the 18th century found their first political realization in the Declaration of Independence and in the birth of the American nation. Their deep influence was felt in the French Revolution.
One of the consequences of World War I was the triumph of nationalism in central and eastern Europe. From the ruins of the Habsburg and Romanov empires emerged the new nation-states of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Romania. Those states in turn, however, were to be strained and ravaged by their own internal nationality conflicts and by nationalistic disputes over territory with their neighbours.
During World War II Stalin appealed to nationalism and patriotism in rallying the Russians against foreign invaders.Ethnic nationalismEthnic nationalism, also known as ethno-nationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation is defined in terms of ethnicity. The central theme of ethnic nationalists is that "nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry". It also includes ideas of a culture shared between members of the group, and with their ancestors.
While some types of ethnic nationalism are firmly rooted in the idea of ethnicity (or race) as an immutable inherited characteristic (for example white nationalism), often ethnic nationalism also manifests in the assimilation of minority ethnic groups into the dominant group (for example as with Italianisation). This assimilation may or may not be predicated on a belief in some common ancestry with assimilated groups (for example with Germanisation in the Second World war).
Some nationalists, defining the national community in ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historic, or religious terms (or a combination of these), may then seek to deem certain minorities as not truly being a part of the 'national community' as they define it. Sometimes a mythic homeland is more important for the national identity than the actual territory occupied by the nation.
Racial nationalism is an ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity. Racial nationalism seeks to preserve a given race through policies such as banning race mixing and the immigration of other races. Specific examples are black nationalism and white nationalism.Right-wing populismRight-wing populism is a political ideology which combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. The influence of Right-wing populism has grown in the last 2 decades in Western-Europe and the USA. First with the rise of Neo-Conservatism with the George W. Bush government and after that with the rise of Donald Trump and the Trump administration in the USA. The Right-wing populis rhetoric often consists of anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the perceived Establishment, and speaking to the "common people."
In Europe, the term right-wing populism is used to describe groups, politicians and political parties that are generally known for their opposition to immigration, mostly from the Islamic world and in most cases Euroscepticism. Right-wing populism in the Western world is generally—though not exclusively—associated with ideologies such as anti-environmentalism, neo-nationalism, anti-globalization, nativism, protectionism, and opposition to immigration. Traditional right-wing views such as opposition to the increasing amount of support for the welfare state and a "more lavish, but more restrictive, domestic social spending" scheme is also called right-wing populism and it is sometimes called "welfare chauvinism".
Cheers, PieterSources: Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica
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Post by Jaga on Jul 21, 2019 22:15:17 GMT -7
Pieter,
you are right that the nationalism seems to mature, but the rise of nationalism all around the world is not a good thing, since it leads to division rather than cooperation. The American nationalism has a specific "evangelical Christian" coloration that makes it even stranger since they chose as their leader a guy with very non-Christian values credentials....
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Post by pieter on Jul 22, 2019 8:04:12 GMT -7
Dear Jaga,
Nationalism, National conservatism, rightwing populism seem to mature in Europe due to various factors which vary per country. In the Netherlands 911 caused a deep shock and life changing effect for many people (just like Americans). Next to that the political assasinations of the politician Pim Fortuyn (19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002) and the Dutch film director, film producer, television director, television producer, television presenter, screenwriter, actor, critic and author Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh (23 July 1957 – 2 November 2004) in 2002 and 2004 also changed the Netherlands. Conservative, nationalist and rightwing Populist voters, activists (militants) and politicians stated 'the bullet came from the left', and blamed every mistake and wrongdoing in the Netherlands to the political correct 'leftwing church' (the collective of leftwing political parties, unions, journalists, university professors, television, radio, education system), the political establishment (the political elite in the Netherlands of the 'old' center left and center right political parties -in the American context, the Republicans and the Democrats, Washington D.C., the Congres and the Senate). These people were and are Eurosceptic (Anti-Brussels, anti-EU, anti-Euro -they want the old currency the Dutch Gulden [Guilders] back, like German, Flemish and French nationalists the Deutsch Mark, the Belgian Franc -in the form of a Flemish Franc of course- and the French Franc), they are against the new European EU elite of the Euroepan Commission, the European president and the Euroepan parliament and the European bureaucracy of European civil servants in Brussels, Luxemburg and Strassbourg in Belgium, Luxemburg (state) and France.
These National rightwing Populist are no orginal German and Austrian Nazi's (NSDAP, SA, SS, Hilterjugend, Bund Deutscher Mädel, Gauleiters, SD, Gestapo, Nazi Wehrmacht officers), no Neo-nazi's, no Italian Fascists, no Spanish Falangists (supporters of Francisco Franco Bahamonde, who ruled Spain from 1 October 1936 until 20 November 1975), nor Austrofascists ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrofascism ), nor the Southern American rightwing Junta (Chile, Paraguay -Alfredo Stroessner-, Argentina and Brazil), nor supporters or people with roots in the old Greek military junta of 1967–1974, commonly known as the Regime of the Colonels. These new 21th century, Rightwing Populists, are very intelligent, trained, cleaver (smart), cunning, smooth, modern, pragmatic, communicative, skilled, perfectionist, fierce, motivated, fanatic and dedicated people.
These people abandonned the original early 20th century Nazism of the twenties, thirties and forties, they abandonned the Neo-nazi Skinhead, Hooligan and typical far right ideological extremist fringe of the late sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. They learned organisation skills, political marketing, political communication, political lobbying, grassroots activity and debating in the old center right Christian Democratic and rightwing conservative liberal parties of Continental Europe. A minority of the far right or extreme rightwing New Rightwing Nationalist Populist activists, party members, supporters and politicians are former hard left and center left people, former leftwing socialists (Marxists) and Social Democrats with a working class background or leftwing academic (leftwing intellectual) background.
The dangerous attractiveness of this New 21th century Rightwing Nationalist Populist movement and political parties is that it copied tactics, strategies, graphical design, the form (the look and the feel) of the old (Modern 20th and 21th) center left and center right democratic political parties. Positive, modern, pragmatic fonts for their texts, fresh and bright and optimistic, positive, modern, corporate and social (house) styles. A more moderate, rightwing (in staid of far right/extreme right) image, with elements of the center left and left. Many far right European Rightwing national Populist parties merge their majority of rightwing Populist, national conservative, nationalist and ultra-rightwing views with center left and leftwing social and cultural ideas. These parties are very smart in integrating 'Old left' and 'New left' ideas, leftwing populism and leftwing nationalism into their programs. The Old European far right core merged in these parties with centre right classical liberal and christian democratic and catholic social (Corporatist) ideas. The difference with Donald Trump and his Trumpist administration and Republican party is that many of these European Rightwing National Populists have a very leftwing social-economical and financial agenda. They are very Etatist and also against the Financial economical elite of Bankers, Stock Brokers, insurence agents, Real estate developers, top Business people, corporate lawjers and autorney's.
These Rightwing National Populists know exactly how far they can go with their xenophobia, racism, discrimination of minorities, misogyny (anti-feminism), slur campaigns (mud slinging), attacks on democratic politicians, hatred for leftwingers, migrants, Muslims, Jews, everyone who isn't native European (aliens, outsiders, people of other race and etc.). Rightwing populism often started in the far right wings of the rightwing conservative Liberal parties and the Christian Democratic parties.
For instance during the late eighties and the 1990s, the conservative-liberal Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein was very successful as the political frontman of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Dutch: Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie), the VVD. The party of the present Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte. As an opinion leader, he was known for his daring and controversial positions on such issues as multicultural problems in Dutch society, political dualism between government and parliament, and the structure and expansion of the European Union. Frits Bolkestein is one of the founding fathers or predecessors of the present day Dutch Rightwing Populists Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet. Geert Wilders for instance started his formal political career as a parliamentary assistant to the VVD party leader Frits Bolkestein, specialising in foreign policy. Wilders held this job from 1990 to 1998. During this time Geert Wilders travelled extensively, visiting countries all across the Middle East, including Iran, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Bolkestein was the first Dutch politician to address the consequences of mass immigration for Dutch society, including a sharp criticism of Muslim immigrants. He set an example for Wilders not only in his ideas but also in his confrontational speaking style. Political analyst Anno Bunnik later described Wilders as a "sorcerer's apprentice" to Bolkestein. So, Geert Wilders was both trained, politically educated and worked as a conservative liberal member of parliament for the VVD. The Center right VVD remained the largest party in the March 2017 election (though was reduced to 33 seats); therefore, Rutte remained as Prime Minister of the new coalition cabinet, The Third Rutte cabinet. The Third Rutte cabinet is a party coalition of the centre right conservative liberal VVD with the centre right Christian-democratic CDA, the centrist Social liberal D66 (Democrats 66), and the centre-right social conservative ChristenUnie (Christian Union), a predominantly Orthodox Protestant, Dutch Reformed and Evangelical (bible true christians) party. The ChristenUnie by the way has Roman-Catholic voters, members and even local/regional politicains (councilmembers). Roman Catholics feel at home in the Christian Union, because it is a christian party which stands open to all streams of christianity. Conservative Roman Catholics consider the large Christian Democratic CDA to secular conservative and to less Christian. Geert Wilders PVV, Thierry Baudet's Forum for Democracy, the Leftwing Populist and leftwing Nationalist Socialist Party and the migrant Populist Denk (Think) party attack the VVD-CDA-D66-ChristenUnie government coalition whenever they can.Frits Bolkestein as the Liberal party leader in the Dutch parlaiment in 1989. He was known for his sharp criticism of Muslim immigrants.The Dutch prime minister, who was originally of the more progressive liberal wing of his VVD party and moved to the center of his party with Frits Bolkestein, who was of the rightwing to far right wing of the VVD party.Jaga, the fact that nationalism seems to mature, does not mean that I am glad with the rise of these new kind of mature nationalisms. With you I do believe that that is not a good development. But democracy is democracy and as long as the left, center left and center right remain weak, divided and self obsessed, the far right National Populist movements and political parties will continue to grow like they are doing right now. The rightwing National Populists thrive on discord, division and polarization rather than cooperation, synergy, unity and mutual interest. In the Netherlands the agnostic, secular Rightwing National Populist Thierry Baudets moved into the direction of Christians and Christianity, because in his view European civilization is based on the Greeks, Romans, Renaissance, the enligthtenment, the reformation, European Humanism and last but not least Christianity. Like other West-European Rightwing National Populists he looks with admiration towards Hungary and Poland which have kept their monocultural, christian and national idenities. In the West European nations he sees the divisive power of multi-culturalism, relativism, Oikophobia, alienation due to the influence of non-Western cultures in our societies, the political establishment (the old democratic political elite). Baudets comes up with the word Oikophobia and explains this as a term that stands for a type of self hate of the (left) elite towards their own traditional culture. According to Baudet this becomes visible in the society in the dominant preference for open borders within Europe, modern art, multiculturalism. In his book Oikofobie. De angst voor het eigene (Oikophobia. The fear of home) Baudet follows Roger Scruton's criticism on cultural relativism and multiculturalism. Baudet clearly wants to conquer the 'christian vote' from the 'christian political parties', the CDA, the ChristenUnie (Christian Union) and the SGP (the Reformed Political Party). The SGP stands for the Christian right, Social conservatism, Theocracy and Euroscepticism.
Here you see that Baudet speaks for Dutch Reformed Calvinist Christians from the Dutch Bible Belt. This is the Dutch Christian right, the Dutch version of the American Evangelicals.
These are Orthodox, dogmatic, very strict, Fundamentalist and Nationalist Dutch Christians, Jaga. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Political_Party ) More hard core christians than these you can't get in the Netherlands. Baudet went into a Lions nest and was tested and tasted by these Christians. Also hard core Zionists, Pro-Israel, because Israel is the promissed land, and these guys take everything from the Old Testamant and the New testament to the letter. Amongst some Dutch Americans in rural American communities and Dutch Reformed Calvinist towns and villages like Friesland, Holland, Delft and Zeeland, you will find a lot of conservative, Nationalist Republicans and probably Trump supporters. Pete Hoekstra the United States Ambassador to the Netherlands since January 10, 2018, is a typical example of such a Dutch American Calvinist conservative Republican. Hoekstra had a conservative voting record, consistent with the conservative nature of the 2nd congressional district. He opposed abortion rights, opposed expanding health care benefits for children, opposed gay adoption rights and gay marriage, and voted against paid parental leave for federal employees.
I aggree with you that the American nationalism has a specific "evangelical Christian" coloration. That fact for sure makes it even stranger that these 'American christians' chose as their leader a guy with very non-Christian values credentials. The West-European Rightwing National Populists like Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet love the Hungarian, Polish and Russian leaders Viktor Orbán, Jarosław Kaczyński and Vladimir Putin next to Donald Trump and the British Brexit Populists Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.
Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pieter on Jul 22, 2019 11:14:37 GMT -7
Anti establishment, anti-European political elite, anti-EU political ad of the Eurosceptic leftwing nationalist and leftwing Populist Socialist Party
The migrant Denk (Think) political party at the remembrance day of the abolishment of the Dutch slavery
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Post by Jaga on Jul 22, 2019 22:41:53 GMT -7
Pieter, thanks for info about European nationalism. We seem to observe the growth of nationalism everywhere around the world it feels like. Trump now accused the 4 women, American congressmen of being "racists and not very smart". He is also saying that he could kill 10 mln people in Afghanistan in 10 days: crooksandliars.com/2019/07/trump-brags-hed-win-afghanistan-war-week
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 6:02:21 GMT -7
Jaga,
I agree with you that Nationalism is growing all over the world. Like I already stated in my previous messages, the fact that present day Nationalism is better organised, more mature, better designed (logo's, party colors, house style, poster, flyer and banner material), better propagated (Agitprop), better marketed (political marketing), better communicated (Public relations and communication advisors), better trained (staff training), better political management, better links with the population and the ability to address the grievances, irritations, frustrations, the gut feelings, the anger, the aversion and thus dissatisfaction of the electorate (the voters, civilians, the people) with the political establishment of the old Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, Conservative, Conservative-liberal, Social Liberal, Liberal Democratic, Socialist and Green Parties of the European Centre right, centre left, right and left makes the present day European Rightwing Nationalist Populist movement a force to be reckoned with.
The New Rightwing Nationalist Populist for the first time in history manage to unite themselves with other European Rightwing Nationalist Populists, despite the national, financial-economical and cultural differences. Some Rightwing Nationalist Populist parties are more Laissez Faire, Capitalist oriented like the German Alternative for Germany and Thierry Baudets Forum for Democracy, while other Rightwing Nationalist Populist parties like Geert Wilders Freedom Party (PVV) and Marine Le Pen's National Rally (French: Rassemblement national) have a more leftist, Etatist, social security agenda. But what unites them all is their aversion and rejection against immigrants, their anti-refugee stance, their hard Euroscepticism (anti-EU, anti-Brussels, anti-Euro currency, anti-Schengen, Pro-border control and fortified European outer borders whom keep African, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, Asian, Eastern-European and Asian (Pakistani/Afghan) refugees out) and their shared idea of a Europe of ethnic native European nations. They stand for the Europe of the Germanic, Slavic, Latin-Romanesque and Celtic peoples, without Africans, Middle Easterners and Asians.
They don't say it out loud Jaga, Kaima, John, Karl, Jeanne, Ludwik, Eric, and other Forum members, but these European Rightwing Nationalist Populists stand for a Europe of the ethnic Native European Peoples. There is a White Nationalist, 'Europe for the Europeans', Nativist, Identitarian, Peoples nationalist agenda behind these European Rightwing Nationalist Populist movements. Old differences, tensions and resentments between the Germanics and the Slavs are forgotten, old scores between Germanic and Latin-Romanesque people (the German-French tension of the past) disappeared. West-European Rightwing Nationalist Populists look with envy, admiration and European pride towards the ethnic monocultural and Christian nations Poland and Hungary. They see their own nations as lost, multi-cultural, mixed, Muslim & secular multicultural left territories, while they see Central-Europe (Poland and Hungary) as native European, ethnic White, Christian nations. They wish that their countries (the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France) could be like Poland or Hungary.
Poland is seen by West-European Rightwing Nationalist Populists as a good example of a country with a homogeneous, white, native European, Christian population. A pure ethnic native European country in contrast with their own multi-cultural, hetrogeneous, populations.
West European nationalists and Rightwing Populists went to Poland to the Nationalist Polish independence day marches on 11 November and were impressed by the thousands of Polish flags and the fanatism, energy and power of the Polish nationalists. The Polish marches were larger, better organised and more influential and thus impressive than West-European nationalist marches. Jaga, I heard Dutch neo-Nazi's and British, German and American nationalists, rightwing Populists and Identitarians praise the Polish marches and Poland as an example of a true Nationalist, monocultural (read ethnical pure) and Europan Christian nation. Jaga, one Indonesian lady I know from Arnhem ( a non-Muslim, but someone who knows Indonesia and the Netherlands and Europe, an international experienced lady, who had an international education at an international school and worked for international companies) told me a few years ago: "Listen to what I say Pieter, in a few years time they will kick out the Muslims from Europe."
If I look at the agenda of the European Rightwing Nationalist Populists and monitor them for one decade, there is one constance factor. Their anti-Islam, their anti-Muslim and their anti-migrant and anti-refugee message. The European Rightwing Nationalist Populists are very strict, stubborn, indoctrinated (by their leaders and movements) and fierce in their anti-Islam and anti-Muslim stance. They state that Islam is not a religion, but a totalitarian ideology. They over and over again repeat that Muslims are no Europeans, that Islam is an alien religion and that Muslims are aliens. And they are very open, direct and not shy about it. Again I repeat for the West-European Rightwing Nationalist Populists Poland and Hungary are examples of countries with pure Homogenous populations while Western-Europe is a terrible mix of countries with heterogeneous populations of white, black, coloured, Asian and all kind of terrible ethnic Muslim groups in the eyes of the West-European Rightwing Nationalist Populists. The support base of these West-European Rightwing Nationalist Populists are the working class and lower middle class peoples in the old working class neighbourhoods in European cities and towns. In these old working class neighbourhoods in European cities and towns you have large minorities of non-Western (non-European) migrants and former refugees and sometimes majorities of non-Western (non-European) migrants and former refugees.
Right-wing leaders hoped to capitalise on improved poll ratings and wanted to form a powerful bloc in the EU Parliament
The native European working class and lower middle class peoples in these neighbourhoods feel threatened, overwhelmed, overpowered and alienated by the situation they live in since the eighties, nineties and in the early 21th century. I can understand them, and some integrated and assimilated migrants understand them. These people live in completely segregated societies. The multi-cultural situation in many West-European countries Jaga is that various monocultures live side by side, in the same space, next to each other as involuntary neighbours.
The English Defence League marchs in Newcastle on Saturday July 12th, 2016 calling for the repatriation of immigrants in the wake of the EU referendum vote.
In these segregated societies, districts and neighbourhoods on one side you have the influence of the European Rightwing Nationalist Populists and *the leftwing Populists with their leftwing nationalism (often collaborating with the Rightwing Nationalist Populists and other conservative powers who want restriction of immigration) and on the other side you have the multi-cultural left, cosmopolitan liberal centre right, ethnic migrant nationalist groups (Turks, Kurds, Berbers, Iranians, Afghans, Somalians, Sudanese, Nigerians, Bosnians, Albanians, Arabs and etc.) and Islamist migrants. In between the 2 sides you have a group of native Europeans and migrants that can get along and form a mixed culture, sometimes with mixed marriages and relationships.
The European Rightwing Nationalist Populist movement is still growing in Europe, because the refugee crisis is still going on, mass migration does still exist, integration of many groups of migrants failed and assimilation does not take place. The lack of integration of many Middle Eastern, African, Afghan, Pakistani and Caucasian people is the main cause of the growth of ethnic peoples nationalism and the Rightwing Nationalist Populist movement in Europe.
European democracies in my point of view are still strong and the united front of moderate, democratic native Europeans and well integrated migrants blocks the road to power of the extremist groups from left, right, ethnic migrant nationalism and Islamism. Cheers, Pieter* - Examples of cooperation between rightwing and leftwing populists was the cooperation between Liga Prawicy Rzeczypospolitej (League of the Right of the Republic) and Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (Polish: Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, SRP) in Poland in the PiS-Samoobrona-LPR coalition government of 2005–2007 and in Italy the present day coalition governmentof the leftwing populist Five Star Movement (Italian: Movimento 5 Stelle [moviˈmento ˈtʃiŋkwe ˈstelle], M5S) with the Right-wing populist Lega Nord.
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 8:12:07 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 8:16:09 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 8:18:17 GMT -7
Dr. Agnieszka PasiekaE-Mail: agnieszka.pasieka@univie.ac.atI am a social anthropologist interested in the issues of religious and ethnic diversity, nationalism, migration, social history. Having trained as a sociologist, I am now a committed ethnographer, and aim to bridge the disciplinary traditions of anthropology, sociology, and history in my research.
My doctoral dissertation and the subsequent book, Hierarchy and Pluralism. Living religious difference in Catholic Poland, discussed the situation of religious and ethnic minorities in the context of church-state relations in Poland. It was based on a year-long ethnographic study of a rural community in Southern Poland, which, as a result of the region’s turbulent history, a series of ethnic cleansings and migrations, is today both ethnically and religiously diverse and as such stands in contrast to the rest of the - rather homogenous - Polish socio-cultural landscape. I continued researching these subjects in my first postdoctoral project which investigated the intersection between religion, ethnicity and class. As a part of this project, I conducted a 6-months long historical-ethnographic research with the descendants of Polish immigrants living in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
My new project, “Transnational nationalism. Far-Right Nationalist Groups in East Central Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries,” aims to study networks of youth far-right nationalist organizations in East Central Europe. Using historical and anthropological methodology, the study strives to investigate the transnational dimension of far-right nationalist organizations: the networking of ideologies, tactics, and modes of action. The project entails archival research, interviews with the organizations’ members, and participant observation during nationalists’ gatherings and demonstrations. In this way, the project aims to investigate the long-term relations between different far-right organizations and a repertoire of symbols and ideas the present-day movements draw on to develop a theoretical framework for an analysis of nationalist movements’ networks.
Publications: - 2017 “Taking far-right claims seriously and literally: anthropology and the study of right-wing radicalism.” Slavic Review 76, no. S1: S19-S29. - 2015. Hierarchy and Pluralism: Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland. Palgrave Macmillan.www.focaalblog.com/2018/12/12/who-is-afraid-of-fascists-the-polish-independence-march-and-the-rise-of-the-far-right/
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Post by kaima on Jul 23, 2019 9:27:59 GMT -7
This would seem to be more accurately a battle for the Soul of America rather than just for that of the Republican Party. We are currently defining our values for the future. Kai
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 13:25:47 GMT -7
The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 13:51:15 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Jul 23, 2019 14:43:28 GMT -7
George Friedman (Hungarian: Friedman György, born February 1, 1949) is a Hungarian-born U.S. geopolitical forecaster, and strategist on international affairs. He is the founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, an online publication that analyzes and forecasts the course of global events. Prior to founding Geopolitical Futures, he was chairman of Stratfor, the private intelligence publishing and consulting firm he founded in 1996. Friedman resigned from Stratfor in May 2015.
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