Bob Claude – Page 48 – New Nationalism

A Globalist’s Failed Attempt to Understand Nationalism

Bob Claude | March 8, 2018October 2, 2019

This article missed a real opportunity to craft a modern American liberal nationalism in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt’s New Nationalism speech. It first attempts to belittle nationalism by conflating the concepts of “nation” and “state”. While the modern-day state is arguably a recent phenomenon, nationhood is almost as old as humanity itself. Statehood is a creature of international law dating back to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. States are entities that have sovereignty over territory. Nations, on the other hand, are peoples with a common heritage, usually ethnic in nature. There are states that are not nations and nations that are not states. The African states created after the end of colonialism are the best example of the former and the world is full of examples of the latter, such as the Kurds.

In contrast, the United States was founded not on an ethnic or denominational basis, but on the concept that all were created equal and were endowed with basic human rights. As I mentioned in my previous post on MLK Day, there is, and never should be, such a thing as an ethnic American. While we have struggled, sometimes bloodily, to fully realize this vision, we should never forget how revolutionary the concept was during the monarchical, absolutist nationalism of the 18th and 19th centuries. We fashioned a nationalism that was committed to achieving the American Dream for all our citizens regardless of origin or religion in the hope that other nations would see the benefits of such a society and adopt this vision in their own unique way.

Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Domestic Policy

A Gaping Loophole

Bob Claude | January 18, 2018January 23, 2021

The absence of effective state, and especially national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power…. We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows…. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community.
Theodore Roosevelt, The New Nationalism, August 31, 1910

Much of TR’s classic New Nationalism speech is spent criticizing the influence of “special interests”, especially business corporations, on government and public policy. While his criticism is primarily based on morality and the good of the country, the situation is best explained by legality and practicality. Legally, corporate officers have a fiduciary duty to avoid wasting corporate assets and to maximize returns to their shareholders, which includes increasing the underlying value of their capital investment. They thus have an incentive and, arguably, a duty, to seek legislation that will help them accomplish that objective. It is the role of the people, through the democratic process, to ensure that this incentive is controlled and channeled by the law in a way that benefits the nation.

Foreign Policy, Realist Theory

One Cheer for Trump’s National Security Strategy

Bob Claude | January 2, 2018September 18, 2019

Our duty is to the United States….We should be friendly to all nations, and in any crisis we should judge each nation by its conduct in that crisis. We should condemn the misconduct of any nation, we should oppose its encroachments upon our rights with equal vigor…..according to what it actually does on the given occasion with which we have to deal
Theodore Roosevelt, America for Americans, Afternoon Speech in St. Louis, MO; May 31, 1916

The new National Security Strategy outlined in President Trump’s December 18 speech has the potential to be an historic change in American foreign policy. The good news is that it expressly adopts realism as our operating theory of international relations and thus “acknowledges the central role of power in international politics, affirms that strong and sovereign states are the best hope for a peaceful world, and clearly defines our national interests.” It rejects the Bush-Obama messianic goal of leading in the imposition of Americans values around the world in favor of a foreign policy “guided by outcomes, not ideology”. Indeed, it’s realism admits that “the American way of life cannot be imposed upon others, nor is it the inevitable culmination of progress”. These are the essential building blocks of a sustainable nationalist foreign policy.