This past week I noticed in a number of articles in which the MSM referred to Trump creating a new “Nationalist Party “ during a 24 hour news cycle. It quickly dissipated. We should be alarmed as a nation when the words Nationalist Party are used to describe the devolving Republican Party. While it may not be news to many here, the usage is a quantum leap of journalistic gravity for the country in general. The political and media establishments have spent months trying to understand the origins and ideology behind Donald Trump’s ascendancy within the Republican Party. Confused by Trump’s peculiar and contradictory blend of economic nationalism, celebrity showmanship, and white-identity politics, political analysts have described Trump and his core followers as either an undisciplined populist movement based on anger and anti-elitism or a more sinister proto- fascist movement seeking to harness rank prejudice and violent predilections into an authoritarian governing agenda.
Nationalist parties in Europe are designated as inflammatory anti- immigrant, far right, Christianist, racist and nationalistic in fervor. The consolidation of the Trump campaign of these elements by appointing Bannon and Conway to his campaign staff as members of the dominionist Council for National Policy; has created the rumblings of a new American Nationalist Party. Christian Nationalists are running Donald Trump’s campaign and they are not unlike the right-winged nationalists of Europe. Given what we know about Trump at this point, it seems most accurate to describe his politics as an American version of the right-wing nationalism that is prevalent in many European nations today.
Eight European Nationalist Parties have endorsed Donald Trump for President.
1. France-There could be no greater right-wing endorsement for Trump than the former leader of France’s National Front Party, Jean-Marie Le Pen: "If I were American, I'd vote Donald Trump ... but God bless him!"
2. Italy-Matteo Salvini, and his party, the Northern League, represents one of Italy’s most right-wing outfits. In April, Salvini actually met with Trump prior to a rally in Philadelphia. Describing the Republican presumptive nominee’s campaign as “heroic,”
3. England
Nigel Farage, head of the United Kingdom's right-leaning Independence Party, was quoted in the Independent as saying, "I think that a man that has run a business, and made a fortune, maybe we are underestimating his ability.”
Tommy Robinson, leader of the UK branch of the anti-Muslim group Pegida, added his own fine character reference. In a interview with Buzzfeed News, Robinson said he welcomed a Trump presidency. “It would make it an acceptable debate to have,” said Robinson, referring presumably to the fascist notion of banning citizens based on religious preference.
4. Netherlands
Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Dutch Freedom Party (who sort of looks a bit like Trump), recently threw in his two guilders on Twitter. Wilders, who has called for more severe immigration policies following the Paris attacks, offered this pearl of a prediction: “I hope Donald Tromp will be the next US President. Good for America, good for Europe. We need brave leaders.”
5. Belgium
Filip Dewinter, leading member of Belgian far-right party, Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang).
“Mr. Trump, we have this in common, we speak the truth,”
6. Greece
An increasingly influential political party in Greece, Golden Dawn came third in the country’s last parliamentary elections. Like Trump fans, Golden Dawn supporters are similarly outspoken in their views on immigration spurred by the state of the Greek economy.
7. Sweden
Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the Swedish Democrats, expressed his party’s far-right anti-immigration stance in praising Trump’s. “I agree with Trump that we should reduce immigration, reinforce border controls, and keep better track of who is coming into our country,” he said in an interview with Expressen, a Swedish broadcaster.
8. Hungary
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban was profiled in a Washington Post article published last fall titled, “Call him Europe’s Donald Trump."
A fair comparison, although there is technically one big difference. Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Viktor Orban’s already gone and done it.
The roots of Nationalist Parties can be summed up in one word; conformist. Nationalists of the 1920’s and 1930’s rose to power with anti-immigrant, racial, ethnic and religious violence towards minority communities.
Conform to the party propaganda or be ostracized, deported or murdered by violent means. It always starts with the talk of violence. Conformist oriented organizations like the police, the military and the Church historically fall quickly in line. The demographic base of many far-right and nationalist parties and movements in Europe that have successfully harnessed disillusioned white working- and middle-class voters across the spectrum with an anti-austerity, anti-immigration, and anti-globalization agenda that protects the jobs and welfare benefits of native-born populations. This nativist agenda drove 1920’s nationalism just as it drives it today.
If the terms Fascist, proto-fascist and Nazi seem too hyperbolic for the news media and serious writers, then you have your new evolutionary, politically correct term… Nationalist Party.
It seems as though Mr. Farage, of the UKIP, is coming to Mississippi for a Trump rally soon. We may need to do as the French did in 2002 and expose them for who they really are and holding them to 20% of the national vote. (wouldn’t that be nice.)
