Category: Political Reform

2024 Election, Nationalist Theory, Political Reform, Politics

YOUR 2024 American Nationalist Voting Index

Bob Claude |

Americans have experienced a lifetime of political change in the last two months. During this period, we saw

  • the sad display of a president’s debilitation in a public debate, leading to his sudden withdrawal from the race;
  • the attempted assassination of the incumbent president’s opponent,
  • the coronation of a new major presidential candidate with little input from its party’s base,
  • and the withdrawal of a credible independent candidate and his endorsement of the major challenger.

All were sometimes justified under the rubric of preserving democracy, but in the end, were simply political maneuvers. The process of honest debate about the issues facing the average American that is the essence of democracy was lost among this round of political cynicism.

As we approach the election, it is time to re-focus on the issues rather than the horse race the media likes to cover. Thus, I will be reprising the American Nationalist Voting Index applying TR’s philosophy to the issues of this election beginning in September.  As in 2020, it will score the candidates on a spectrum ranging from +3 to -3.  A positive score indicates a nationalist position while a negative score will indicate a globalist position.  As before, it will cover the following categories:

  • Draining the Swamp (political reform)
  • Foreign Policy
  • The Square Deal
  • Conservation and the Environment
  • A Strong America
  • Political Philosophy (a new category)
  • Character
  • Final Score

Each article will begin with a summary of TR’s philosophy on the subject and then rate the candidates on issues within that category.  If you would like to see how the index worked in 2020, please click on the home page at  www.newnationalism.com , then click on the “Politics” header on the top and then the “2020 Election” topic in the drop-down menu.

Here’s where you can be a part of this effort. While this year’s index will (unfortunately) cover most of the same issues covered in 2020, please let me know of any issue you believe should be included in this year’s index.  You can post it in the comments to this article or send an e-mail to editor@newnationalism.com, THEN receive future editions of the index by subscribing to this website (see below). Finally, please share with all of your friends so we can spread the message to like-minded fellow Americans.

 I look to forward to your input. Together, we can defy the doomsayers and build the scope of the rifle necessary to hit the bullseye of a progressive nationalist presidency in this election as close as possible.

Domestic Policy, General, Nationalist Theory, Political Reform, Politics, The Crisis of the American Spirit, Uncategorized

The Crisis of the American Spirit – Introduction

Bob Claude |

America has faced and conquered crises over its history that have destroyed lesser nations. The common cause of these crises was the concentration of power in an elite whose outsized privileges threatened our democracy.  Whether it was British colonialism or the “Slave Power” of southern aristocracy, the key to its durability has been our confidence in the morality of our fundamental ideals and commitment to spreading opportunity to all Americans. This commitment never was implemented in a straight line and many Americans were left out for too long, but we always had the confidence that we would eventually prevail.

The US now stands at another hinge in its history more threatening than any foreign adversary. At a time when autocratic powers like China and Russia are confident to the point of recklessness, the American people are mired in doubt and anger about the future of the nation. You see it in statistics like the decline in the percentage of Americans who are proud of their country or the two-thirds of Americans who say the country is on the wrong track.  Statistics, however, cannot truly convey many American’s deep and boiling anger. It shows in songs like Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” or hip-hop protest songs about “DemoCrips and ReBloodlicans”.  These anthems come from dramatically different sources but express the same sense of betrayal.  They cry out against a hypocritical government and economy preaches opportunity but makes it impossible to achieve.

Theodore Roosevelt never forgot that he became President because of an anarchist’s bullet during a similar period of economic inequality and protest. Criticized as a radical because of his progressive ideals, he always insisted that they were intended to preserve the legitimacy of American free enterprise against more radical and dangerous policies.  TR knew that America could not be strong unless the American people were strong, and Americans could only be strong if they saw a better future for their children.  If we are to survive as a beacon of democracy, we must have courage to confront and conquer the current crisis in the American spirit.  We start by looking back and determining how we lost our sense of American community and shared commitment.

Next – The Confrontation with the Concept of limits

2022 Election, Political Reform, Politics

2022 Nationalist Voting Index – Political Reform

Bob Claude |

Longtime followers of this site will remember the American Nationalist Voting Index developed during the 2020 election to compare the two main presidential candidate’s positions on key issues. This series of posts will attempt to craft a similar list of nationalist issues for the upcoming midterm elections. 

We begin with the one most dear to Theodore Roosevelt himself – preserving and broadening our democracy to  give the average American an effective voice in Washington.  At a time when the durability and even the legitimacy of American democracy has been questioned, political reform is not merely desirable, but critical to insuring our strength here at home and our credibility as a champion of freedom abroad.

Freedom to Vote Act

This bill started out life as the “For the People Act” and proposed significant and important reforms in campaign finance, voter registration and rights, lobbying rules, election integrity and congressional ethics.  You can see more of my analysis of it under the “Politics – Political Reform “ tab on the website. Thanks to Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the bill was amended to eliminate many of the more overreaching provisions. Unfortunately, congressional ethics reform was one of the casualties of the process. However, as I discussed here, the Manchin compromise incorporated the best of the other reforms and deserved support from American nationalists.

Sadly, while the bill passed the House in February of this year, it failed in the Senate.  Your House member’s vote on it can be found at this link (ignore the reference to a NASA appropriation. If you click on the bill number, it will take you to the Freedom to Vote Act:

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/20229 

In the Senate, a motion to bring the bill to a vote failed and your Senator’s position can be found here

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00420.htm

Ban Congressional Stock Trading

Insider trading by corporate and securities elites has been unlawful for decades, but recent revelations have shown the current rules to prevent similar profiteering by congress members are largely toothless. Several bills to ban stock trading by members of Congress were introduced, but the Democratic leadership in both houses prevented them from coming to a floor vote.

Thus, the only record of congressional support for this reform is the identity of the co-sponsors of those bills. Here is the list of co- sponsors of the House bill (HR 6678, the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act)

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6678/cosponsors?r=43&s=1

A similar bill was introduced in the Senate (S 3494, the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act) and the list of co-sponsors can be found here

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3494/cosponsors

If your House representative or Senator is not on these lists, you may want to ask them what they’re trying to hide.

Electoral Count Act

The horrifying January 6 attack on the Capitol during the 2020 presidential election certification highlighted the weaknesses of the nineteenth century law governing that critical process.  One of the pretexts for the attack was the theory that Vice-President Pence had the unilateral power to reject the results of the election.  This bill clarifies that the Vice-President has no such power. It also prevents frivolous challenges by providing that any objection to a state’s electors must have the support of one- third of each house of Congress. 

This should have been non-controversial. However, it only passed the House and never came up for a vote in the Senate. You can see the results of the roll call vote in the House here at

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022449

A list of the co-sponsors of the companion bill in the Senate can be found at

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4573/cosponsors

Conclusion

TR spent much of his New Nationalism speech attacking the influence of special interests on the political process, comparing its importance to the fight against slavery in the Civil War.  If we are to avoid the modern-day civil war many observers fear, we must reinvigorate our own commitment to democracy to insure it works for all Americans, not just a narrow elite.