Victor Davis Hanson // National Review
Almost everything French president Emmanuel Macron has said recently on the topic of foreign affairs, the United States, and nationalism and patriotism is silly. He implicitly rebukes Donald Trump for praising the idea of nationalism as a creed in which citizens of sovereign nations expect their leaders to put the interests of their fellow citizens first and those of other nations second. And while critiquing nationalism, Macron nonetheless talks and acts as though he is an insecure French chauvinist of the first order.
The French president suffers from the usual dreams of some sort of European “empire” — Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler . . . Brussels? He probably envisions a new Rome steered by French cultural elites whose wisdom, style, and sophistication would substitute for polluting tanks and bombers, and who would play Greece’s robed philosophers to Europe’s Roman legions: “It’s about Europe having to become a kind of empire, as China is. And how the U.S. is.”
But aside from the fact that the immigration-wary eastern and financially strapped southern Europeans are increasingly skeptical of northern European imperial ecumenicalism, can Macron cite any “empire” in the past — Persian, Roman, Ottoman, British — that was not first and foremost “nationalist”?
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Deair sir, thank you for your most accurate assessment. Near the Parliament in Berlin is the U55 underground station with historical images of Napoleon, the Kaiser, and Hitler parading through Berlin. Your phrase, "northern European imperial ecumenicalism," speaks directly to the historical truth that our German and French elite have grabbed for power to "unify" Europe and each time done it disastrously. As these same elite bemoan the rise of nationalist parties in other EU member states to push back against their hegemony, they are reacting in a most imperial fashion, distant, dictatorial and demeaning to those with other political points-of-view, all they while they chatter on about democratic principles which they only like when they win. Might I add one more image? After the defeat of National Socialism, half of Berlin lay under that other "imperial" regime which we know as Soviet Socialism. While the "northern European" dream was quashed for a while until the fall of the DDR and the USSR, the city is testimony that some form of imperial dream has washed over it for centuries. Frau Mekel and Monsieur Macron are not substantively different. God help us.
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We enjoyed your interview with Mark Levin last weekend, especially the fact that it was long enough to cover a range of subjects that are of importance to our future culture. We also enjoy seeing you on Tucker Carlson and other FOX programs. We are glad that you are part of the conversation.
Two Completely Unrelated Items -- NBC: President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that Mexican officials should ship the thousands of Central American migrants seeking entry into the U.S. back to their countries of origin by any means necessary, claiming that "many" are "stone cold criminals." Trump suggested that Mexico send the migrants back to countries such as Guatemala and Honduras by airplane, bus, or "anyway you want." The president also threatened to shut down the U.S. Southern Border "permanently" if needed ----------------------------------- Fall of the Western Roman Empire: The crossing of the Rhine by a mixed group of barbarians which included Vandals, Alans and Suebi is traditionally considered to have occurred on 31 December 406. The crossing transgressed one of the Late Roman Empire's most secure limites or boundaries and so it was a climactic moment in the decline of the Empire. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. That, in turn, occasioned the rise of three usurpers in succession in the province of Britannia. Therefore, the crossing of the Rhine is a marker date in the Migration Period during which various Germanic tribes moved westward and southward from southern Scandinavia and northern Germania. hummmmmmmmmmm?inOmaha
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And of course France and the Uk spent and is spending billions to subsidize Airbus so there could be a European competitor to Boeing. Sounds pretty nationalist to me - plus French tariffs on agricultural products etc
Very encouraging. So few realise what Europe should have done, what Europe should be doing, what is actually happening to Europe right now, and how it is all polarising. The streets of Poland are lovely and clean compared to Parisien streets, and this is but a tip of the iceberg. Macrons employment of the tactic of psychiatry on Le Penn is not only unmanly, but it is also a repeat of the tactic used on Hersilie Rouy who was locked up in a French mental institution because relatives wanted an inheritance. Warnings were given to Rwanda, but few heeded these, and the river was stained pink with human blood. Warnings are being given and have been for some time, but how many are interested? History is bound to repeat itself if lessons are not learnt. Afghanistan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iraq, North Africa, Turkey, have all changed. Surely there is a lesson to be learnt here.