Jingoism: Right-wing Identity Politics

Liberals, in virtually every instance, make the mistake of assuming that since their identity politics is exclusively race, gender, and sexual orientation, that right-wing identity politics must be the same, but opposite.
For example, since liberals identify with minority races, conservatives must identify with whites.
While there is a grain of truth to that, it's only a grain.

The reality is that most of white America has simply opted-out of the whole race debate. Most conservatives feel that liberals have put them on the defensive about race, so they refuse to engage on the issue at all.
Some liberals say that this is itself racism, but actually that is just liberals projecting.

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But just because most of the right-wing doesn't spend its time dwelling on their whiteness, doesn't mean they don't engage in identity politics.
It's just that their identity isn't about race. It's about nationality.

Ordinary people, who honestly pay taxes, love their land, are far more patriotic than false patriots.
Jingoism, false patriotism, is causing concern worldwide with the rise of people like the U.S. President Donald Trump.

jingoism: Excessive patriotism or aggressive nationalism especially with regards to foreign policy.

xenophobia: A fear of strangers or foreigners.

Liberals accuse Trump of racism, and they are correct, but usually for the wrong reasons.
Trump and the right-wing are primarily xenophobic, which is the kissing-cousin of racism.
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For example, Mexicans aren't a race. They are a nationality.
So when Trump says to be afraid of Mexicans because they are killers and rapists, that's xenophobia.

“[W]hen people are anxious economically, the politics of fear oftentimes can override the politics of hope," he said. That anxiety can express itself in anti-immigration rhetoric and "in cheap jingoism and militarism and nationalism that’s not grounded in our national security interests. And it’s a dangerous path."
- President Obama

I don't like admitting Obama is right, but the right-wing response to it speaks volumes.

In other words, if you oppose Obama’s Iran deal, or his cowardice in Syria and Ukraine, or his decision to destroy the power and might of the American military, it’s because you’re poor. If you oppose the wave of illegal immigration brought on by Obama’s executive amnesty, that’s just because you’re ignorant and poor.
...
More importantly, Obama has always despised the American people. A great majority of Americans support gun rights, oppose slashing the military, and think Obama’s foreign policy has been disastrous. But for Obama, that’s just evidence that Americans are benighted, inbred morons with two teeth.

To Ben Shapiro and conservatives, not bombing someone when you have the opportunity is cowardice.
Having the largest, most bloated and wasteful military budget in the world is no reason to cut it.
Obama may have deported more illegal immigrants than any president before him, but it was never enough.

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I'm of the opinion that most right-wing identity politics originate from jingoism, such as their twisted and limited idea of liberty.
To a right-winger the 2nd Amendment is the most important for defending freedom (although they can't tell you how that actually works), while they are mostly indifferent to the 5th and 6th Amendments, while having contempt for the 8th Amendment.

To a right-winger, tyranny can only come from the government, thus the government is the enemy of liberty.
Private tyranny is a concept that is simply denied, despite endless numbers of historical examples.
Which is convenient for certain wealthy interests.
The ruling elite have worked hard to destroy every institution that working class people might find solidarity in, but the need to belong remains.

This is because national attachment is central not just to the functioning of political institutions but also to the very structure of society. At the individual level, nationalism fulfills a basic psychological need to belong — it gives people a sense of security and status.
At the social level, it fulfills the essential function of consolidating the group and its identity above and beyond individual needs. Nationalism has (too) often been a force for exclusion, discrimination and violence...
It’s not so much the surge of national loyalties but the narrow, exclusive way in which ideas of “the nation” are constructed.

Along with religion, jingoism keeps society from falling apart, after the ruling elite have torn down all of the progressive institutions.
The ruling elite need that, because ruling exclusively with an iron fist is expensive and inefficient.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

but one important distinction here is that, regardless of what Ben Shapiro thinks, right wing jingoism this time around is decidedly anti-war - if we are defining 'war' as regime change abroad.

Even the Guardian thinks so:

Matthew Lyons, a longtime researcher and author on the far right, points out that there’s a “whole tradition in the US right of opposing military intervention overseas”.

Lyons says that this tradition, traceable to the America First Committee’s attempts to keep the US out of the second world war, receded in the cold war, only to be revived by so-called “paleoconservatives” like Pat Buchanan in the 1990s. (This week, Buchanan himself railed against Trump’s apparent capture by “the war party”).

“Alt-rightists such as Richard Spencer and rightwing conspiracists such as Alex Jones partly echo the paleoconservatives,” Lyons says.
...

For now, then, the most energetic and entrepreneurial parts of the right are anti-war. Until and unless a broader left anti-war movement emerges, they may remain as the most prominent advocates for that position.

That doesn't mean right wing jingoists don't endorse a powerful military; they just don't want that might squandered in Imperial adventures abroad. They don't mind paying for it; they just don't want to see it go to waste.

It's the classic Isolationist mindset: hunker down in Fortress America and let all the furriners fight it out among themselves.

But for whatever reasons, right wing jingoists these days are actually natural allies of Progressives in trying to end US military interventions abroad.

Something to think about.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

@Not Henry Kissinger
Just because they don't want conflict with Russia, and Democrats do, doesn't change much.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@gjohnsit

@gjohnsit The right-wing wants regime change in Iran

Who says?

Candidate Donald Trump campaigned against Washington’s foolish Middle East wars. President Donald Trump is threatening Tehran with the equivalent of fire and fury. After decades of American attacks on Iran, what Trump should be doing is changing course.

The president erupted against Iran on Twitter earlier this week in an outburst that was even more hysterical than his tirade against North Korea last year. “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,” he tweeted. “WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

The president sounded like a high school dropout who had just downed a six-pack and was now itching for a brawl. It’s he who should be cautious before enthusiastically threatening to visit death upon another nation and people. After all, as he once acknowledged, the results of U.S. warmongering have been ugly.

Neo cons and paleo cons have two very different ideologies when it comes to military intervention. Conflating the two as 'the right wing' doesn't change that.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

@Not Henry Kissinger
didn't want regime change in Iran was 1978.
That's neocons AND paleocons.

The only exception to this is libertarians.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@gjohnsit

so I guess you didn't read any of the American Conservative article I just posted?

Or do you just want to ignore whatever doesn't fit your preconceived narrative that there is nothing about US foreign policy the far left and far right can agree on?

How about this one with the fairly self explanatory title?

Don’t Trash the Nuclear Deal!

From a U.S. standpoint, the Munich analogy seems absurd.

Iran is making no demands on the United States. Its patrol boats have ceased harassing our warships in the Persian Gulf. Its forces in Iraq and Syria do not interfere with our operations against ISIS. And, according to U.N. inspectors, Iran is abiding by the terms of the nuclear deal.

Iran has never tested a nuclear device and never enriched uranium to weapons grade. Under the deal, Iran has surrendered 95 percent of its uranium, shut down most of its centrifuges and allowed cameras and inspectors into all of its nuclear facilities.

...

Trump the dealmaker should find a way to keep the nuclear deal with Iran. We are far better off with it than without it.

Coulda been written by Chris Hedges himself.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

@gjohnsit And I don't understand why you can't or refuse to perceive some of the common ground that exists between the left and the right.

The essay sounds like an attempt to rationalize your desire to call conservatives racist when they aren't necessarily racist. Nationalism apparently = racism to you.

Further, considering the way the government is unresponsive to the citizenry and the way government allows big business to ride roughshod over the citizenry, I too consider government to be the enemy (not at all times, of course); government is owned at all levels by the wealthy who do as they please to strip mine assets from people. So, I guess I'm also a right winger in that way.

If you support open borders, why don't you just say so?

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dfarrah

@dfarrah

The essay sounds like an attempt to rationalize your desire to call conservatives racist when they aren't necessarily racist. Nationalism apparently = racism to you.

Wow. I was expecting to get the exact OPPOSITE reaction.
Are you sure you read my essay closely?

Further, considering the way the government is unresponsive to the citizenry and the way government allows big business to ride roughshod over the citizenry, I too consider government to be the enemy (not at all times, of course); government is owned at all levels by the wealthy who do as they please to strip mine assets from people. So, I guess I'm also a right winger in that way.

That depends, but it might be true.
The question is: would getting rid of government fix that?

If you support open borders, why don't you just say so?

Now you're projecting.

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People II've known 50 years are finally openly being racist to my face.
I've seen them go from ranting about "Obama's black ass" 4 years ago to the unashamed return of the N word. Recently during a visit to Montana my own cousin assured me that N****** dont like cold so its easy to keep the vermin outta here. She described everyone in her neighborhood as united in hating cockroaches.
She asked did my kids serve in the military.
The military allows these people to live out their violent fantasies of killing POC.
The former confederate states are the deepest red because of racism.
Racism is the cornerstone of the right.

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@Battle of Blair Mountain
It's impossible to measure this.
But I believe that the openly racist are a relatively small minority.

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travelerxxx's picture

@gjohnsit

I believe that the openly racist are a relatively small minority.

Yes, probably right that the openly racist may be a minority of the general population. However, I am finding the same as Battle of Blair Mountain: "People I've known 50 years are finally openly being racist to my face."

Go back ten years - if one even need go back that far. Open racism was practically unknown but for small groups of idiots such as the David Dukes of the world. Even they knew when to keep their traps shut. Now? Since Trump? Not so much. Not so much at all. So, while the percentage of openly racist overall may yet be rather small, the number of people doing it is huge compared to what it was a few short years ago. I maintain that the number is increasing.

I am not seeing the push-back I would expect to see from such overt racism. Perhaps that will come with time. Right now, I suspect some of the open racism is done simply for shock value. People are often so taken aback when confronted with it, they are not prepared with a retort. This is especially true when such filth is spewing from the mouths of friends or co-workers we've known for years (as BoBM mentions). With family, one probably suspected it all along and it's simply confirmation.

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even left v. right-- and even worse good guys v. bad guys. Spend a little time with Jonathan Haidt.
https://youtu.be/VAgaEBHC_2I for some fundamentals
or this https://youtu.be/TWgM2gBRQrA for a more historical perspective
It will give you a much clearer way to view our differences & see our similarities and common ground. And IMHO we must find a way for the 99% to come together if the planet is to survive.

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chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

boriscleto's picture

He is being xenophobic and racist. Because it is known to mean brown Mexicans...I mean Spanish descended Mexicans are white. How can you even tell they're Mexican?

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

I agree with most of what you are getting at, I think. And.. I think I'm going to need some diagrams and figures to clearly understand what you are saying. This isn't necessarily your fault, more likely it's just my thinking pattern that is the problem here. But, if you were to draw a Venn diagram, where would the jingoists, racists, and xenophobes overlap?

For me personally, for example, I unfortunately know more than a few folks who are racist af. Their racism is almost 100% also xenophobic. Your writing implied to me, and I could be missing something here, that there are folks that are xenophobic, but not necessarily racist. Do you thinks such folks are common? Or rare?

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@peachcreek

Your writing implied to me, and I could be missing something here, that there are folks that are xenophobic, but not necessarily racist. Do you thinks such folks are common? Or rare?

All it requires is hating someone of another nationality that happens to be of the same race.

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lotlizard's picture

Nowadays, with passage of Israel’s nation-state law and stepped-up efforts worldwide to get the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism enshrined in law and custom everywhere, that’s a question that might also naturally come to mind in this context.

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