The Case for Nationalism By James Reed

     I don’t have time to read books, and worse, now have no spare money to buy anything, struggling to pay the power bill, let alone get vital medicines to keep me alive. Every day I wait for a cheque to arrive in the post, but nothing comes. Which brings us to the new book on nationalism, since it is much like me, struggling to survive against globalism, while ageing and decaying all at once:
  https://www.amazon.com/Case-Nationalism-Rich-Lowry/dp/0062839640/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The book is Rich Lowry, The Case for Nationalism: How it Made Us Powerful, United and Free (2019). By way of summary: “Nationalism, of course, is not without its severe critics, and Lowry is at pains to debunk the widespread notion that nationalism is a “dirty word.” He thus seeks to answer various “anti-nationalists” who regard nationalism as nothing more than tribalism or equate it with white supremacy. To all such voices, Lowry says, essentially, relax, calm down, nationalism is a healthy force, synonymous with nothing other than patriotism. After answering critics, Lowry also offers a positive case that revolves around the proposition that American nationalism “in particular is not to be feared.” Whatever ills have in the past infected Europe, America is inoculated by its heritage, the Anglo-American tradition and the Scottish Enlightenment, which brought us “profound respect for the individual and the rule of law and is woven into the fabric of our country.” Far from shunning nationalism, Republicans and Democrats alike would do well to embrace it. Promoting nationalism, for Lowry, entails advancing a number of specific policies. Important among them is limiting immigration: “it is in the nation’s interest to have fewer and better-skilled immigrants coming here. Such a change would promote the economic prospects of Americans and the assimilation of immigrants, both important goals for national health.” Lowry would also step in to the educational arena to combat what he sees as the fissiparous ideology of identity politics, which not only divides Americans instead of uniting us, but also embraces “a hostility to the American nation as such, to its cultural supports, its traditions, and its history.” Above all, Lowry would advance what he calls “cultural nationalism,” which entails promoting all of the things that bring us together as one people, from the English language to our national holidays to our reverence for our Constitution and flag to our civic rites and common traditions and history.”

     So, Lowry is generally supportive of many of the things that Trump trumps about such as immigration control, and a rejection of the nonsense that America is just an idea, not a people. That is a welcome move, but it is probably too late to revive the idea of civic nationalism and integration that the author champions, since soon the tired old white population that has been the universal punching and kicking bag of the elites is going to keel over and die as a majority, with its little white legs making their last nervous kicks in the air, probably in about a decade or so. Then it is going to be anyone’s guess what happens, given that civil war is on the menu now, but there will be no nation as Lowry hopes. The Democrats are but an election away from simply destroying the West by chain reaction, including Australia, so while I think that projects like this one are of merit for sad nostalgic reading, the future is going to be raw and wriggling.