Is Nationalism Bad?

We must look at and realize the world is changing, changing for the better in my opinion.  Let us think about how things were in the world before the Cold War ended and then after it ended.

The political and societal elites in Washington, London and most recently Brussels began developing a new world, a world where our connection to our national identities were beginning to become separated.  The political elites on the left from many western countries were pushing us to become citizens of the world, in fact back in 2009 in Berlin former President Obama introduced himself not only as a "citizen" of the United States, but also of the world.  What does it mean to describe yourself as a citizen of the world in the context of being the leader of a country?

Well I believe it means money, products, and people would flow across borders in search of the highest return to themselves.  When politicians attempt to push or control this then power is shifted away from countries and given to individuals elected to represent the political thought of one world not one world made up of individual countries seeking to do what is best for the citizens of their country.

Well it appears that it has not worked out for most of the “citizens” of the world within their own countries.  Thus we are seeing a return to nationalistic thinking of many people around the world.  Look at Brexit, Paris, Germany and many western countries rebelling against their political elite who have put their best interest in front of what they believe is the best interest their countries.  Voters are now rebelling in a strong political community which share for most part a common language, a common history, and what is supposed to be a common culture.

What does nationalism mean in this context?  It means the people are distinguishing themselves between members of their political community and outsiders, and wanting the former over the latter.  For example Americans may come from all over the world, we may proclaim every religion, but we are all supposed to be bound together not just by our founding documents but by those memories of which President Abraham Lincoln spoke about, by our love of the land, by our love of its natural beauty, its inhabitants, its history, by what our people have achieved, what they have lost, what they have endured.

Is it comfortable all the time to think in this manner, no but it is necessary.

Let us look at what we are debating today. Reducing illegal immigration, reforming legal immigration to prioritize skilled workers and would-be citizens, asserting our best interest in national trade negotiations, spending on the military and defense research.

We the people want our citizens and legal guest in the United States to excel on their ideas rather than on social insurance and bureaucracy.

Many of us crave the idea, our idea of national community through the expression of our shared language, literature, art, film, television, music.  This my friends is the beginning of a nationalist agenda.

A necessary beginning in my opinion.

We must take care of ourselves before we can take care of anyone else.

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