Future historians of the American right are going to have a devil of a time figuring out what the hell happened as the second decade of the 21st century came to a close. But every day I become more convinced about at least one of their conclusions: The nationalists blew it.
Now, for those who don’t enjoy the nuances of conservative taxonomy, I should explain that I am using “nationalist” broadly, to include various camps on the right that think the U.S. has been too globalist and too reverential of the free market at the expense of social cohesion and a patriotic sense of national unity.
Nationalists are a diverse group. They don’t all agree with each other, and they don’t all go by the “nationalist” moniker.
Regardless, what unites them all is the notion that the Trump presidency and its emphasis on “America First” brought a long overdue correction to our politics. Nationalism, they argue, is an essential part of a healthy society, because it offers a unifying ethos – a sense of collective identity and social solidarity.
They often go in different directions from that starting point. Some favor building walls, both literal and figurative, around America so we can keep away both foreign wares and foreign workers. Others are eager to find a rationale for a hawkish anti-China agenda. Some simply spout a lot of slogans to provide a semblance of an ideologically coherent argument behind Trump’s erratic governing style.