Trump, Brexit, and the Limits of Nationalist Identity

In 1916, the so-called “War to end all wars” was throwing its tantrum across Europe.  It was a war that came about largely, as are all wars, due to vast disparities between nations who were wealthy and those who were not.  But, to an equally large extent, it was a massive tangle of allegiances between the members of Empires that resulted in one of the most terrifying eras of nationalism the world has ever seen.  The rise of fascism in Spain, Italy, Germany, of militant expansionism in Japan, and the Cold War imperialist pissing contest between the Soviet Union and the US, have provided lessons in human nature for all of us to reckon deeply with if we are to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

 

And here we are in 2016.  The last two decades have seen the disastrous fallout of financial feudalism resulting in a handful of market crashes and trillions of dollars handed out to the institutions that caused them.  We have witnessed, in the EU, an unprecedented collaboration between European nations that was conceived in order to intentionally generate the kind of interdependence in trade, travel and civil liberties whose absence makes war far more likely.  (Said another way: the EU was conceived and was purposefully established to create a more peaceful future for Europe; with trade barriers gone, with more fluid travel between member states, and with consistent rights and privileges across borders, many of the conflicts that arise between those states are pre-empted before they begin. 

And yet, this kind of Federalism has its downsides.  Here in the US, the phenomenon which is being called “coercive federalism,” or more colloquially "Big Government," where the federal government forces States to comply with national mandates or risk losing funding, has grown in the last two decades.  (Ironically, the biggest perpetrator of this philosophy in recent years has been staunch Republican George W Bush with his No Child Left Behind Act and the trifecta of Patriot 1, 2 and the Military Commissions Act; stick that in your Big Government pipe and smoke it, Republicans).  In Oregon last year, a group of half-cocked, half-educated ranchers decided to stage an armed occupation of a Federally run wildlife refuge to protest federal control of grazing land that was making things difficult for them.  To be fair to the occupiers, I think there is certainly something to be said for local ranchers having a voice in the decision making process of federal grazing rights-- no taxation without representation, so to speak, however the issues underlying federal control were, I think, lost on them, like important protections of endangered species and the broader perspectives that federalism affords.  Add the fact that the main supporters who turned out for this protest were largely white supremacist separatists and the whole righty revolution lost any validity for me, except ethnographically.. 

Across the Atlantic, in the wake of Great Britain’s narrow vote to exit the European Union, we are seeing another kind of response to federalism—or in the case of the EU, more of a confederalism (a treaty-based contract where member states receive rights, securities and privileges of the larger body in exchange for the supremacy of the Union's laws if they ever conflict with their own.)  The issues that are moving people to reject what the EU represents have lot to do with fear: fear of the threat that ISIL poses to open borders; fear of scarcity when migrants and refugees flood into your area, fleeing war-torn places like Syria; but also the plain old xenophobic kind of fear that so often characterizes a racial majority. 

Underneath all of these fears and conflicts, lurks the specter of identity.  If we identify ourselves too narrowly in our groups—if I see myself primarily as British, rather than European, as an uneducated rancher rather than a member of an interstate republic, as Christian rather than spiritual, as white rather than human, then I will grow fearful and more likely violent when those smaller identities become threatened.  And even worse, I am more likely to threaten with violence those whom I identify as Other in order to maintain the righteousness of my identity.

The Brits who have pushed through the Brexit vote and Donald Trump who is the mouthpiece for similar fears in the US—these are the exemplars of a super-narrowed nationalist identity that is a dangerous precursor to Fascism.  Xenophobia, racism, discriminatory reactions, all of these are the direct results when some misbegotten notion of national pride becomes threatened by a broader identity.

If these are the things we have to lose by widening our sense of who we are, a loss that doesn’t have to include some kind of blanching homogenization of your own unique culture, is that really a loss you will grieve?

Thank You Mr. Trump for Outing Conservative Racism

There is a sort of identity crisis going on in the Republican party this election year.  Many have seen it; many are commenting on it, and though I'm reluctant to rehash the punditry bombarding us in from the mainstream media, I do have a few things to say about this identity crisis.

Identity is fundamental construct in the human psyche.  Our sense of who we are and our identification with particular social groups give us a sense of place and they allow us to form reference points in the development of our moral structure.  However, when our identities (particularly our social identities) become too rigid, they become attached to a core part of ourselves that gets very defensive when threatened.  It's a phenomenon called "Identity Quake" in psychology and conflict studies-- the notion that, when one part of our identity is challenged, such as a religious belief or a racial identity or a national membership, it shakes other core parts of who we are and triggers a violent defense response deep in the psyche.  See for cross reference: "American bipartisan politics."

Because of the dangers of too rigid an identity structure, it is profoundly vital that we occasionally revisit our memberships, even challenge the precepts of of the groups we participate in, question our own beliefs.  It is healthy, and it is a main feature of what allows us to continue to make spiritual and intellectual progress throughout our lives.    During this 2016 election year, many staunch members of the Republican party are undergoing just such a revision.

I should say here that I do not self-identify as a conservative, especially in the social sense.  But, as someone dedicated to human progress for the sake of the rest of the world, I am invested in understanding the underpinnings of conservative thinking, even if I don't agree with those precepts.  

One of the fundamental mainstays in traditional American conservatism seems to be the notion that "big government," or indeed government in general, is something to be watched closely and checked for its incursions into the power of the populus. The rights of the States to manage their own affairs without being told what to do by far-away bureaucrats, the "Don't Tread On Me" ethic, is a pretty consistent value.  Strangely, I notice simultaneously among many modern American conservatives  this blind obedience to patriotism, a sort of nationalist forgiveness towards the wrongs of History committed in the name of that same government.  I'm picturing the guy who drives truck around my home town with two huge flags flying up from the bed-- one Confederate and the other American.  Nationalist pride coupled with federalist suspicion.  That's an identify crisis if ever I saw one.

Another disconnect in the current state of the American Republican Party is this perennial ambivalence towards racism and a national identity that is profoundly Christian. The very same people who red-facedly argue in support of the First Amendment freedom of religion will in the very next sentence try to enforce Christian values and Christian teachings in the public domain, at the expense of the freedom of other religions. This contradiction is so blatant to those of us in the secular public and yet forms a sort of pathological denial and persecution complex in many conservative Christians in this country. The notion that, to set a limit on Christian doctrine in public education, which violates the very basis of the First Amendment in favoring one religion over another, is somehow a limit on the freedom of Christians to practice their religion, seems pretty absurd to me. 

Moreover, the racial components of conservative Identity confusion are becoming more and more apparent in the current political race in 2016.  The vitriol of Donald Trump and his ilk, proposing walls between the US and Mexico, proposing to forcibly deport tens of thousands of Americans of questionable citizenship, is revealing the ugly racist underbelly that abounds in this country, especially in light of how much support Trump is receiving from the right. 

While I can understand and even share certain conservative values, such as expecting individuals to do their level best to contribute to society, wanting to preserve certain traditions that are central to the identity of the American dream against rapid and profound change, these values have become lost in a xenophobic and dangerous nationalism that more and more resembles the Fascism of the European 1930s.   The arc of history in this country paints a very grim picture of exactly whom the American dream favors and if the inheritors of that privilege, white males like myself, white folks in general, fail to look courageously into history's eye, we slip inexorably toward the violence that is ignorance's only power. 

The good news in all of this is that fascists like Donald Trump are calling attention to this deep identity split in the Republican party, which I believe is the reason so many more moderate conservatives are feeling this unease in the course of this election.  And if Trump can force conservatives in this country to refresh their consideration of what those conservative values are, disentangled from racism and blind nationalism, then maybe his charge onto the election stage isn't such a bad thing.