Those people wanting to transcend the nation state and create transnational political entities miss the vital point. All nation states were created, and sustained by war.
You'd think they would get it, because the left's love of "activism" is all based on some lefty leading a tribe of helpless victims to glorious victory on the political stage. And the memory of the victory sustains the victors as a powerful group for decades after the victory. See: the workers; women; blacks; gays; etc.
But what our lefty friends have succeeded in doing is weaken the nation state, both by their bureaucratic, administrative love of the transnational institution in which they have personal and career interests, and in the sub-national political movement where they teach the leaderless to identify as a sub-nation of helpless victims and lead them to glorious loot and plunder on the government free-stuff front.
Notice that at the sub-national level this exactly mirrors the nation-state politics model. You enroll people in a war -- in this case a sub-national political identity war -- and lead your troops to victory. If you win then you get to lead this sub-national group for the next 30 years because of the fake-tribal identity you have successfully forged.
But, I would say, if you do not find another war to fight and win then, after a generation, the unity that you forged will start to rust, and that is because there will be a new rising generation that wants to establish its own power foundation, and that may well conflict with the old generation.
Notice how this worked for the US. FDR successfully molded the workers of the 1930s into a political movement and then sent all their sons off to World War II and won it. The result was 20 years of a solid national American identity that only started to break up in the Sixties when the kids of the World War II generation started to come to maturity, and wanted their own place in the sun.
OK, so there was the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan managed to cobble that war into a 60-40 election in 1984. But once the Cold War was won the Cold War unity began to fray, and by the 2010s a new generation arose that knew not Ronnie.
So my prediction is that we won't see any unity in the US unless we get involved in another war in which the ruling class and the opposition agree on unity, as they did in World War II and off and on in the Cold War.
Notice how the unity actually gets formed. In World War II the Democrats were all for the war, because, influenced by the intellectual lefties, they were for the Soviets and against the Nazis, and the isolationist Republicans were led by chaps like Charles Lindbergh and Herbert Hoover. But, says La Wik,
I think there is an important principle here. In politics the different parties are always arguing the toss and busily dividing the people. But occasionally the opposition realizes that it has to go along to get along. And so you get unity. For a season.
So, in World War I, the German-Americans had to shut up. In World War II the isolationists had to shut up. In the 1980s the anti-war chaps had to shut up when Ronnie charmed the voters into his 60-40 landslide. In 2001 the Dems stopped their anti-war politics for 6 months while Bush avenged 9/11. And for that season of unity, which may last for 20 years, or for 6 months, you get a national unity forged.
All I am saying here is that if you are a rising politician in this notably divided time, you need to put yourself at the head of a movement that fights and wins a war. It need not be a guns-and-bombs war, but you need to create a situation where the opposition dare not oppose you after the start of the war, and you need to win the war. After the war is won then you have to exploit the victory to set you and your movement up for a generation of political hegemony. Until a new generation arises that did not live through the war.
Notice how, for 50 years, white conservative American have not dared to question the post civil-rights unity on race and gender, on pain of being run of out polite society as a racist, sexist homophobe. It's one of the most successful political hegemonies in recorded history. Until it isn't.
Right now we have a new left, symbolized by campus lefties, by AntiFa, and by young women like AOC, Omar, and Tlaib that think they are the new wave that is going to change America. They are a new political movement that aims to fight and win a cold civil war for cultural and political domination of the US. Folks like Nancy Pelosi are trying to keep them in check, because their way of politics has been to elect a bunch of moderate Democrats to Congress (as in 2006 and 2018) and then pass Obamacare, or something.
If Donald Trump were to win by at least 55-45 in 2020 that would put paid to AOC & Co. and create a Trump-based unity for a season. If Trump were defeated in 2020 that would be First and Ten for the AOCs.
But the point is that if you want to unify the American people you have to fight and win a war.
You'd think they would get it, because the left's love of "activism" is all based on some lefty leading a tribe of helpless victims to glorious victory on the political stage. And the memory of the victory sustains the victors as a powerful group for decades after the victory. See: the workers; women; blacks; gays; etc.
But what our lefty friends have succeeded in doing is weaken the nation state, both by their bureaucratic, administrative love of the transnational institution in which they have personal and career interests, and in the sub-national political movement where they teach the leaderless to identify as a sub-nation of helpless victims and lead them to glorious loot and plunder on the government free-stuff front.
Notice that at the sub-national level this exactly mirrors the nation-state politics model. You enroll people in a war -- in this case a sub-national political identity war -- and lead your troops to victory. If you win then you get to lead this sub-national group for the next 30 years because of the fake-tribal identity you have successfully forged.
But, I would say, if you do not find another war to fight and win then, after a generation, the unity that you forged will start to rust, and that is because there will be a new rising generation that wants to establish its own power foundation, and that may well conflict with the old generation.
Notice how this worked for the US. FDR successfully molded the workers of the 1930s into a political movement and then sent all their sons off to World War II and won it. The result was 20 years of a solid national American identity that only started to break up in the Sixties when the kids of the World War II generation started to come to maturity, and wanted their own place in the sun.
OK, so there was the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan managed to cobble that war into a 60-40 election in 1984. But once the Cold War was won the Cold War unity began to fray, and by the 2010s a new generation arose that knew not Ronnie.
So my prediction is that we won't see any unity in the US unless we get involved in another war in which the ruling class and the opposition agree on unity, as they did in World War II and off and on in the Cold War.
Notice how the unity actually gets formed. In World War II the Democrats were all for the war, because, influenced by the intellectual lefties, they were for the Soviets and against the Nazis, and the isolationist Republicans were led by chaps like Charles Lindbergh and Herbert Hoover. But, says La Wik,
After the attack on Pearl Harbor caused America to enter the war in December 1941, isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh's America First Committee and Herbert Hoover announced their support of the war effort. Isolationist families' sons fought in the war as much as others.Notice that the opposition only gave in after Pearl Harbor. They threw in the towel when it became political poison to be anything other than pro-war.
I think there is an important principle here. In politics the different parties are always arguing the toss and busily dividing the people. But occasionally the opposition realizes that it has to go along to get along. And so you get unity. For a season.
So, in World War I, the German-Americans had to shut up. In World War II the isolationists had to shut up. In the 1980s the anti-war chaps had to shut up when Ronnie charmed the voters into his 60-40 landslide. In 2001 the Dems stopped their anti-war politics for 6 months while Bush avenged 9/11. And for that season of unity, which may last for 20 years, or for 6 months, you get a national unity forged.
All I am saying here is that if you are a rising politician in this notably divided time, you need to put yourself at the head of a movement that fights and wins a war. It need not be a guns-and-bombs war, but you need to create a situation where the opposition dare not oppose you after the start of the war, and you need to win the war. After the war is won then you have to exploit the victory to set you and your movement up for a generation of political hegemony. Until a new generation arises that did not live through the war.
Notice how, for 50 years, white conservative American have not dared to question the post civil-rights unity on race and gender, on pain of being run of out polite society as a racist, sexist homophobe. It's one of the most successful political hegemonies in recorded history. Until it isn't.
Right now we have a new left, symbolized by campus lefties, by AntiFa, and by young women like AOC, Omar, and Tlaib that think they are the new wave that is going to change America. They are a new political movement that aims to fight and win a cold civil war for cultural and political domination of the US. Folks like Nancy Pelosi are trying to keep them in check, because their way of politics has been to elect a bunch of moderate Democrats to Congress (as in 2006 and 2018) and then pass Obamacare, or something.
If Donald Trump were to win by at least 55-45 in 2020 that would put paid to AOC & Co. and create a Trump-based unity for a season. If Trump were defeated in 2020 that would be First and Ten for the AOCs.
But the point is that if you want to unify the American people you have to fight and win a war.
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