2020 Election, General, Politics

Whither American Nationalism Now?

As we move on after the wreckage of the Trump administration, this call to courage from Theodore Roosevelt is both sobering and hopeful.  Nationalists made a mistake in putting their hopes in Donald Trump.  He damaged the nationalist brand, but not irreparably. The occasional successes of the last four years point the way to repairing the damage and rebuilding it on a positive policy platform. 

First, we have to accept the reality of the damage. True American nationalism seeks to build a common American identity across cultural and other boundaries. Instead, Donald Trump associated it an ugly white ethnic nationalism that fed identity politics, rather than fighting it.  A movement to create a progressive conservatism that strengthened America and the middle class instead enacted a major tax cut that benefited globalist corporations without requiring any corresponding investment in the nation. (see this previous post). Worse, it ended, not with a celebration of American culture and symbols, but with a sickening attack on the Capitol building, one of the citadels of American freedom itself.

However, there are unmistakable signs of success amidst these failures. The blue wave anticipated by Democrats never really materialized.  As this article illustrates, Trump’s nationalist trade and immigration policies were popular not only with white voters, but also minority voters. The shift towards a realist foreign policy and the withdrawals from Afghanistan and the Middle East caused heartburn among mainstream neocons and liberal hegemonists, but fulfilled Trump’s major foreign policy promises. All of this forced candidate Biden to talk about buying American, creating good jobs and getting tough on China. Thus, while Trump’s rhetoric often failed to meet the reality, there were still solid accomplishments.

American nationalists now need to hold President Biden and Vice-President Harris accountable for results that matches their rhetoric. Biden’s Democratic Party is still led by a Senate majority leader that represents Wall Street and a Vice President and Speaker of the House from the headquarters of Silicon Valley and Big Tech. Their goal of union-wage level jobs is commendable, but will be worthless if companies shift production to China and elsewhere overseas as they did during the Obama Administration. Calls for unity are nice, but are hypocritical if they result in a new woke identity politics that essentially is a left-wing echo of Trump’s ethnic nationalism.

In order to recover from this setback, American nationalists need to highlight our common concerns by building coalitions across party and other boundaries. If Biden pursues policies that really create secure good-paying jobs that strengthen America, we should cheer for and support such policies.  We also should remember the old maxim that all politics is local and start to build grass-roots organizations at the city, county and local level. Finally, we should avoid social issues so long as tolerance is observed on both sides.  

TR’s life was a study in indomitable courage against seemingly insurmountable odds, whether political, intellectual or military.  He experienced numerous failures as well as historic successes. As fellow American nationalists, we are called to pick ourselves up and continue the fight for a strong America and the American Dream for all.    

2020 Election, Politics

The Rebellion at the Capitol

The rebellion that took over the Capitol building has now thankfully been put down. Let’s be clear – no true American nationalist would promote or condone the kind of open revolution and vandalism at our nation’s Capitol that we saw today. The fact that it was incited by a sitting American President is even more shocking. President Trumps’ statement that called the rebels “special” to him and that he “loves” them only stokes the revolt. In contrast, President-elect Biden’s call for unity and rejection of this revolt should be our guiding principle. However, three things must first happen:

  1. All of the rebels need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, even for treason if sustained by the facts.
  2. Sen. Hawley and the other objectors to the Electoral College vote must immediately withdraw their objections. This is no time for political stunts.
  3. The next order of business for the Congress should be the impeachment and removal of President Trump for inciting sedition.

Only then can we move on to recover from this shameful day in our history.

2020 Election, Politics, Uncategorized

Donald Trump, Meet William of Occam

Living with uncertainty is a constant in life. We calculate and live with risk every time we step out of the door. One of those uncertainties comes from the practicality of relying on fallible human beings to operate mechanisms with which we have insufficient personal experience while we deal with other risks more within our control.  

During the Middle Ages, an English monk and philosopher named William of Occam formulated a famous axiom of epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge) for dealing with such uncertainties. Known as Occam’s Razor, it states that if there are two or more potential explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest explanation is the most likely.  Conspiracy theories rarely meet this standard since they require a geometric complexity of meetings, agreements and people to achieve the goal, which must all be accomplished in secret.  There is inevitably a simpler and more direct explanation for the result.  

Now, let’s apply this analysis to the results of the presidential election. We’ll start with the RealClearPolitics tabulations, which has not yet called the election for Biden. On their site, Biden has 259 electoral votes to President Trump’s 214. They awarded Nevada and Wisconsin to Biden, but still show Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania undecided. If we award him Alaska and North Carolina (where he is currently leading), it brings him to 232 electoral votes. In order to win, Trump must then prevail in a Wisconsin recount and overcome Biden leads in Pennsylvania and either Georgia or Arizona. Alternatively, he can lose the Wisconsin recount and win if he wins in Pennsylvania and both Arizona and Georgia. This requires him to find or invalidate at least 76,000 votes in three states with different voting systems and in multiple counties. Any fraudulent conspiracy that could have produced those votes would require an interstate series of agreements and the cooperation of tens, if not hundreds, of people in each state.  Moreover, the vast majority of those involved would have to keep the scheme a secret. Even if you believe the gap was caused by a series of election defects or mistakes, it would require different sources of malfunctions in multiple jurisdictions that would result in a 76,000 vote difference. 

There is no question that voting irregularities or mistakes should be investigated and rectified. However, the likelihood that irregularities occurring across multiple jurisdictions and using different voting methods produced a gap of over 75,000 votes is extremely small. There is a much simpler explanation – that the votes were cast by voters who indeed voted for Biden.  The results were close and not the “blue wave” the Democrats expected.  It would not be the first time significant numbers of voters split their votes for President and Congress between the parties and disappointed both sides.  But it is a well-known electoral phenomenon and the simplest and most likely explanation of the election results. 

It is thus time for all Americans to congratulate former Vice President Biden and Sen Harris on their victory and give them the titles they have won – President and Vice President-elect.  Republicans should insist on an investigation of any irregularities, but not expect a miracle. America needs to move on and American nationalists need to begin building and advocating their inevitable policy differences with the new administration.  If we do so positively and intelligently, we can still win important battles in the next four years and beyond.