After the Soviet Union break-up, Wall Street and Washington promised a peace dividend and a small world (after all). Thus spoke the globalists until candidate Trump alerted voters to the problems of globalism and open borders. Pro-globalism is now the red-headed stepchild in politics: what leader will admit to fathering anarcho-globalism after the “dividend” bought rural poverty and urban illness?
The hypocrisy of global elites (like Joe Biden) is sickening. In January, they called Trump “xenophobic” for closing US borders to Chinese flights. In March, they called him “irresponsible” because New York wasn’t prepared. Mind you, they derided candidate Ross Perot for opposing NAFTA, and kept at it when candidate Trump warned voters of what (drugs, terror, and under-priced goods) was flooding America. The point here is that liberalism must stop short of permissiveness.
Anarcho-globalism is permissiveness run amok. The free flow of foreign goods, ideas and people into open societies has resulted in defective Chinese hospital masks and testing kits entering the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey, and Russian bots sowing lies on American web sites, and infected Chinese entering Italy. This should not be news to intellectual elites: xenophobia could have saved native Peruvians from Francisco Pizzaro and his European germs.
It is permissiveness that subjugated the world’s open economies to international accords (e.g. NAFTA), because it’s now obvious democracies in America, Israel, Italy and Japan have been disadvantaged by the UN, WHO, and WTO:
- The UN will not stop the development of nuclear weapons in Iran or North Korea.
- The WHO took a junket to China and mis-informed the World, rather than perform real due diligence.
- The WTO is doing nothing to stop Russia and Saudi Arabia from bankrupting the world’s energy companies.
What open-minded American trusts China’s coronavirus numbers, or Russia and Saudi Arabia to protect global energy interests, or Iran and North Korea to advance world peace? In fact, an open mind would have advised presidents Trump and Obama that good-faith negotiations are impossible when the enemy is the cultural and socio-economic opposite of the USA.
President Bush nailed it: there is an Axis of Evil that Americans should not trust. I’d argue the US should be wary of any global forum (e.g. UN) that gives Iran or North Korea a seat at the table. We know China, Russia and the Saudi Kingdom are acting against America’s economic interests; therefore, voters should take Biden’s calls for global consensus into consideration. I suspect 2020 voters fear “unhygienic” strangers more than “xenophobic” rednecks.
As a final note, America First is not Deutschland Uber Alles. MAGA voters want to change the average American’s situation – not change the average American’s identity. There are Jewish Republicans, who want lower taxes and fewer regulations. There are working-class Blacks, who support closed borders. COVID-19 fears make MAGA’s case: (1) 1992 globalists were naive to believe China, Iran and Russia would play nicely with other nations, and (2) look to America first to care for Americans (you aren’t required to hate).