The Most Hated Man in America

In an age of individuals, when many people have never felt a deep and abiding sense of duty to something external to themselves, it is only too easy to be dismissive of a collective good such as nationalism, or to simplistically equate it with “white supremacy.” For many of us today, the state is merely something that enforces laws and to which we pay taxes. Beyond those necessities, it has no claim on us.

Now this is another way of saying that our fellow citizens have no claim on us. Of course, given the boundless egoism of human nature—the natural desire, in other words, to exert our will and advance our interests in every situation—such a belief is quite appealing to many. And yet, there are serious consequences for this notion of the state. Treating our country as nothing more than a business—the crude approach of the left and mainstream conservatism alike—destabilizes our relations with fellow citizens. Where there should be solidarity, there is division. And in time, the many who do not gain from open borders and global capitalism make their resentments felt. They elect men like Donald Trump, for example, now the most hated man in America

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This is one of the better recent op-eds I've seen when it comes to explaining the knee-jerk hostility that not only liberals but establishment "conservatives" have towards the Trump Presidency. While part of this is just the political establishment's resentment of someone not vetted by the Beltway winning the highest office of the land, the bulk of the hatred is due to ideological opposition towards nationalism by both wings of uniparty:

Nevertheless, the business interests of both parties are well served by birthright citizenship, the donors and interest groups to which both are answerable wanting the cheap labor. Democrats, moreover, want the voters. But the American people, who suffer for the same reason that the economic elite profit from excessive low-skill immigration, feel otherwise; and indeed, that is why they elected Donald Trump.

Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration is one aspect of his general nationalism. Since a liberal, in Robert Frost’s words, is “a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel,” we should only expect the left to equate Trump’s nationalism with “white supremacy.” What’s rather unfortunate is that Trump’s nationalism is so often opposed by the right, or rather, the phony right that is neoconservatism. Representative here is Jonah Goldberg’s Oct. 30 article in National Review, “Why Nationalists Should Worry about Trump’s Nationalism.” After conceding that there is some value in nationalism, Goldberg proceeds to undermine his argument....It is rather ironic, though characteristically clueless, that Goldberg should name his book after James Burnham’s 1964 book of the same name, because Burnham railed against the very left-wing views that Goldberg espouses under the name of conservatism. Goldberg’s idea of “conservatism” involves spreading “universal human rights” and democracy—by war, if necessary. Now from an historical point of view, this is the very antithesis of conservatism. But despite his scholarly pretensions, Goldberg is oblivious of intellectual history, and so he does not scruple to condemn a major conservative figure such as Joseph de Maistre.

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