Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Conservative nationalism is a worldwide trend today, although it is difficult to discern in all its intricacies. The conjunction of apparently alien forces has a strange common ideological component: it includes conservative nationalists of the traditional right and militants of some long-standing leftists. What unites them, however, is a common denominator: they consider themselves revolutionaries or transformers called to destroy neoliberalism, big corporations, multilateralism, and the environmental and climate change justifications that, they say, hold back development.
They also agree in their political conviction, both left and right, that tolerance of diverse opinions is only a pretext to weaken and divide society. Their certainty resides in the fact that the strength of society to advance and transform itself is based on the presence of a strong leader and the abandonment of individualism. This is the only way to save the people, they say.
In Europe, Asia, and Latin America, alliances and movements are taking power, which have significant similarities for all their differences. In Europe, some governments resemble populist right-wingers whose agendas coincide in surprising approaches. Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and the Netherlands are governed by political coalitions that do not see Putin’s Russian government as reprehensible and could live with Ukraine under Putin’s boot. Marine Le Pen, in France, is leading the polls, although the elections are a long way off. She remains representative of the conservative nationalism of the ancien régime. She admires Putin, as does Trump, and both hate NATO.
Trump sided with Putin in his open confrontation with Ukrainian and European liberalism. Trump is the engine of that “anti-establishment” nationalism and anti-multilateralism that seeks to consolidate the new American hegemony based on ignoring climate change and the claims for justice of social sectors different by race or sexual preferences. His recent threat to NATO is simply a reminder that his government is a threat to the post-World War II liberal order. The United Nations Organization symbolizes all that they reject as interfering.
All these leaders consider themselves to be the great transformers of their societies.
In Latin America, the tone is more strongly inclined towards economic nationalism, just like Trump, and against the imposition of international organizations as carriers of reprehensible and rejected ideologies, such as democracy, freedoms, and respect for the vote. None of that is wanted. Venezuela expels the United Nations “for interference”. Although leaders of the Cuban leadership and Bolivia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Venezuela, and El Salvador consider themselves heroes in their lands and, therefore, revolutionaries, in reality, their nationalism “transforms” them into conservatives with agendas of democratic regression, international isolation, with endemic economic crisis and being predators of the environment, being a restriction to social diversities. They declare themselves transformers of their nations and saviors of their peoples because they always speak in their name.
The name Fourth Transformation in Mexico is not a Mexican occurrence. It is the influence of other leaders, more intelligent and knowledgeable than the Mexican, about what is being talked about in the conservative nationalist circles of the world, in terms of agendas and perspectives for change (or “making the Revolution”, if you prefer).
Putin is well-regarded by all these Latin American rulers. They like his repressive and controlling style and the marked confrontational tone with the liberal, multilateral, and democratic world. They seem to say in unison: Death to liberalism and multilateralism; long live the nationalism that preserves our power! This is precisely why they are called conservatives.
They do not yet articulate themselves organically, but a confabulation of so many conservative nationalists could lead the world into a dark age of authoritarianism, fanaticism, and economies with diminishing returns. And lead us, why not, into a new era of endless modern wars?
[email protected]
@rpascoep
Further Reading: