PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS CREATED A NATIONALIST POLITICAL PARTY

America is no longer a two party political system. Donald Trump has accomplished what no politician since our founding has been able to achieve.  He has created a third political party as strong and vibrant as the two traditional parties that have thrived since the Civil War. 40% of the voting public now support this new political party, marginalizing the Republican Party. President Trump has started labeling himself a nationalist at his political rallies. Accordingly, I will name our third political party, the Nationalist Party.

Many Americans are not familiar with nationalism as a political ideology. Because nationalist political parties have a long history in Central and Western Europe, examining these organizations gives us a reasonable method of understanding nationalism.  Generally, European nationalists are described as “right wing populists.” Historians agree that the most unifying position of Nationalist Parties until recently was antisemitism.  Within the past 20 years the unifying factor has morphed into Islamophobia. 

Nationalist Parties have thrived only when they were able to use propaganda and conspiracy theories to identify an “other” group of citizens on which to blame past economic and social disruptions.  This was most evident in three of the most notorious Nationalist Parties, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Franco’s Spain.  Nationalist Parties in their modern incarnation have been able to gain more main stream acceptance by substituting Muslims for Jews as the number one enemy of the state and by preaching “nation first” positions attractive to working class citizens still suffering economically from the last recession.

With this brief background on nationalism, we must examine the specific platform of Donald Trump’s Nationalist party.  It will be clear that this platform has little to do with traditional Republicanism.  In fact, many policy positions are so anti conservative that modern conservative political pundits have been unable to support them.  Republican politicians, on the other hand, have embraced Trump’s Nationalist Party in order to ensure reelection. Moreover, these Republicans can no longer count on their own fading traditional party apparatus to achieve tax cuts, to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or to place conservative Judges and Justices into the federal court system.

First, Trump’s Nationalist Party is vehemently against diversity. Homogenous rural communities are favored over urban multicultural ones.  Urban, diverse sections of the country are viewed as havens for providing sanctuaries for illegal immigrants and as election districts that overwhelmingly vote against the Nationalist Party’s agenda. Conversely, rural areas are valued for their attachment to authority, family and the native land.  But mostly, rural areas are valued for their votes.

 Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh is the most diverse neighborhood in Western Pennsylvania.  While the Jewish community is the backbone of the community, many others of varied religious and ethnic backgrounds seek to live there because of this diversity.   The Trump Nationalist party views Squirrel Hill and urban areas like it as the antithesis of everything it stands for.  The fringe element of his Nationalist Party, where hate is inflamed by the President’s rhetoric, will fully embrace the message sent to the Squirrel Hill Jewish community through the recent horrific act of domestic terrorism: “only white protestant Americans are welcome here.”

Second, Trump’s Nationalist Party is against most immigration into the United States and holds an elevated dislike for Islamic and Spanish speaking immigrants from below our Southern border.  Trump began his presidential campaign by attacking Mexicans.  Among his first acts as President, were attempts to unlawfully exclude many Islamic individuals from gaining entry into the country.  His policies of “building a wall” and punishing urban areas for not utilizing their scarce resources to round up illegal aliens are more political Nationalist Party statements than actual remedies to combat illegal immigration.

Third, Trump’s Nationalist Party deplores globalism.  This often misunderstood term can best be understood as describing a world that is: “characterized by networks of connections that span multi-continental distances.” Multinational Corporations, international military, economic and legal organizations, European countries banding together to form the European Union, and trade agreements are all examples of globalism.  Nationalists view globalism as placing the needs of the international community before the national interest. In fact, globalism generally promotes international cooperation and helps control economic crises.

During the presidential campaign, Trump was quoted as saying: “We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism. And under my administration we will never enter America into any agreements that reduce our ability to control our own affairs.” He has lived up to this pledge by canceling trade agreements; canceling the agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons; threatening to canceling the agreement with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons; and by berating our military and economic alliances around the world.

 Fourth, Trump’s Nationalist Party attacks the main stream media at every opportunity. After mocking and insulting penned-in reporters at his campaign rallies, Mr. Trump continued going after journalists the day after he was sworn in, over the size of his Inauguration Day crowd. Then came the “fake news,” “enemy of the people” Stalin like campaign against journalists who would hold him accountable for his words and actions.

By attacking the source of balanced reporting and fact checking, Trump’s Nationalist Party is able to manufacture yet another enemy and to accuse the media of working to take away his election victory and defeat his agenda.  The Nationalist Party must always be the victim, even as it controls all three houses of Congress.

Lastly, Trump’s Nationalist Party supports and admires authoritarian elected officials from around the world.  Most of these leaders have used the above elements of a nationalist platform to consolidate power and to develop illiberal democracies in their own countries.  These authoritarian countries that have received Trump’s blessing include Russia, Hungary, Poland, Egypt, Turkey, Austria and the Philippines.  I would include Saudi Arabia, which is a kingdom and not a democracy.

All of these countries have strong nationalist tendencies.  Trump would like to join their elite club by reconfiguring the principles of our constitutional democratic republic.  This would include increasing executive powers without the need to consult Congress, a reduction in the rule of law, a reduction in the economic influence of the Federal Reserve and the marginalization of the media.

It is often said that only in a democracy do people get the government they deserve.  In order to preserve our rights and liberties, we must vote.  Please keep in mind the platform of Trump’s Nationalist party when fulfilling this most sacred duty on Tuesday. Elections matter.