America-Firsters Gather

By Donald Jeffries

Mainstream media coverage would lead one to believe that those who support Donald Trump are uneducated rubes. The picture painted is that of cursing, racist white males, MAGA hats proudly displayed, watching NASCAR as they knock back mass quantities of cheap beer. There has emerged, however, an intellectual movement that shatters this stereotype.

A group of “national conservatives,” consisting of academics, journalists, and politicians prominent on the right, recently gathered in Washington, D.C.’s Ritz-Carlton hotel. Yoram Hazony, author of the book The Virtue of Nationalism and an organizer of the conference, dubbed the event “the coming together of diverse bands of conservatives.” The group included a full spectrum of conservative thought, with venture capitalists, Calvin Coolidge fans, libertarians and isolationists among those represented. A common thread was the belief that this country’s institutions and form of government remain “the most logical vessel for political organization known to man,” to quote National Review.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whose drift toward populism evokes comparisons to Pat Buchanan, was a keynote speaker. His comment, “The main threat to your ability to live your life as you choose does not come from the government anymore, but it comes from the private sector,” received rousing applause. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) railed against what he termed a “cosmopolitan consensus” that places unquestioning faith in our marketplace. This brought back memories of Trump’s frequent campaign rhetoric about the “rigged system.”

Mainstream criticism of the event, and of national conservativism in general, came from outlets like the Niskanan Center, a group that openly states that its “main audience is Washington insiders,” and online news and opinion site “The Bulwark,” which was co-founded by warmongering neocon William Kristol. “The Bulwark” warned that such gatherings were likely to lend “respectability to nationalism’s poisonous side.” Presumably, these organizations were not comforted by the presence at the event of war hawk extraordinaire John Bolton, currently national security adviser to Trump.

National conservatism originated in Europe and Asia, as a movement concentrating on upholding national and cultural identity. It is widely believed to have influenced the successful Brexit movement in Great Britain. In America, it is considered a direct repudiation to the rugged, Ayn Rand-inspired market fundamentalism of the Paul Ryan and Scott Walker-type Republicans; concerned with not merely the lack of cohesion in American society, but the increasingly bitter cultural divide that could potentially erupt into a second Civil War. Stressing national identity, Hazony explained, “You can’t have cohesion over nothing. You have to have cohesion over something shared.” Open borders and political correctness on steroids guarantee that there can be no common purpose or shared values within the U.S. population. Issues like transgender bathrooms and after-birth abortion would be extremely polarizing in any culture.

Establishment opposition to the concept of national unity was clearly expressed by the Intelligencer: “Put simply, national conservatism’s day has come too late. Their movement’s leading thinkers and social base do not want social cohesion for its own sake—they want it on white traditionalist America’s own terms. Tucker Carlson and his audience aren’t interested in reviving the civic nationalism of Barack Obama but rather in restoring social conservatism’s long-forfeited cultural supremacy. And in the 21st-century United States, that latter mission is incompatible with promoting national unity.” As the article noted, during the postwar boom, when the American economy was at its peak, 80% of the population were white Christians. That number has dropped precipitously to 43%. Considering the nonwhite, non-Christian nature of most of American immigration now, and the decline of religion in everyday American life, that number is sure to drop even lower.

Sen. Hawley has become national conservatism’s most passionate proponent on Capitol Hill and bemoans America’s descent into “faction.” As Hawley stated in his opening speech to the conference, “The great divide of our time is not between Trump supporters and Trump opponents, or between suburban voters and rural ones, or between Red America and Blue America. No, the great divide of our time is between the political agenda of the leadership elite and the great and broad middle of our society. And to answer the discontent of our time, we must end that divide. We must forge a new consensus.”

As National Review put it, “NatCon opposition to ethnicity-based identity politics rejects obvious white nationalism while tacitly endorsing some instances of divisive nativist rhetoric, and that the movement seeks to displace, as Hazony said, neoconservatism, neoliberalism, libertarianism, and classical liberalism.”

Donald Jeffries is a highly respected author and researcher whose work on the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations and other high crimes of the Deep State has been read by millions of people across the world. Jeffries is also the author of two books currently being sold by AFP BOOKSTORE.