“The questions raised by the present state of our politics, which might fairly be described as an American civil war without arms, are these: How does a nation so divided stand united in the world?” asks Pat Buchanan in his most recent column, “A Nation at War with Itself.” The battle of 2020 is on, big time. And president Trump is right to ignore the mob on the left out for blood—his impeachment. Buchanan explains:
Trump’s defiance of House subpoenas will fire up his base, which sees the world as he does and has never cottoned to what President Gerald Ford cherished as “the politics of compromise and consensus.”
Whatever may be said about the “deplorables,” they are not obtuse. They do not believe that people who call them racists, sexists, nativists and bigots are friends and merely colleagues of another party or persuasion.
Trump’s defiance of subpoenas, however, will force the more moderate Democrats to join the militants in calling for hearings on impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee, which is where we are headed.
But didn’t Trump win the 2016 election? Of course he did. But the left will never admit defeat until he’s impeached—at their own peril. Buchanan continues:
Should impeachment succeed, a wound would be inflicted on the American body politic that would take years to heal.
In the longer run, however, the question being raised today goes to the long-term health of the republic itself.
America surely does not lack for diversity. Its diversity — racial, religious, cultural, ethnic, ideological, political — is visible and ever-growing. What is missing is the concomitant of unity.
Moreover, it is the more racially, culturally, religiously, ethnically, and ideologically diverse of the parties, the Democrats, that seems the more splintered than a Republican Party that is supposed to be afflicted with the incurable and fatal disease of Trumpism.
The questions raised by the present state of our politics, which might fairly be described as an American civil war without arms, are these: How does a nation so divided stand united in the world?
And if it cannot stand united in the world, how long does it remain a great nation?
The fight is on around the world as witnessed yesterday with Europe’s far-right fire brands Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen showing a united front against big-government European Union elites. Sound familiar? The WSJ reports:
Far-right politicians from around Europe held a rally in a historic square here Thursday, addressing a modest crowd of a few hundred, but proclaiming a continent-sized ambition: to remake the European Union.
“The European Union is attempting to erase our nation states,” Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders, who shared the stage with French firebrand Marine Le Pen and others, told a smattering of flag-waving nationalists at the rally. “But we say no more to them!”
Hard-line nationalists in Europe have ridden into power in Italy and Austria, but fallen short of their ambitions in France and the Netherlands. Ahead of next month’s elections to the European Parliament, nationalists are reaching across borders to try to build an alliance they hope can reshape that legislature.
Acting together doesn’t come easily to the continent’s far-right, which political scientists define as nationalist parties to the right of Europe’s mainstream center-right, with hard-line immigration and law-and-order policies, xenophobic rhetoric and sometimes illiberal, authoritarian leanings. Even within that definition, there is a variety of views.
It isn’t clear how far the parties will get. The parliament’s powers are modest, since national heads of government wield most power in the EU. Broadly liberal, pro-EU forces are still expecting to dominate.
Still, the elections will test the strength of an energized far-right’s views, offering a signpost to Europe’s politics in coming years.
“What’s happening is just a general fragmentation of European politics,” said Sara Hobolt, a political-science professor at the London School of Economics. “The gradual loosening of ties between voters and parties has left much more of the electorate up for grabs.”
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