OPINION:
President Donald Trump, in a speech in Texas, told the adoring crowd he not only considered himself “a nationalist,” but also wanted Americans to consider themselves one, too.
“Use that word,” he said.
Indeed. Citizens most decidedly should.
Of course, to the left, Trump might as well have advised calling blacks the n-word. But that’s because the left is filled with globalists. That’s because the media, propelled by anti-Trumpism and elitists who see the United States as one and the same with every other nation on earth, find phrases like “America First” offensive. These types make nationalism into a negative — another n-word to avoid at all costs.
But nationalism is not an n-word.
Factually speaking, nationalism is a good thing, a pride-in-nation thing that used to be taught as a must-have during civic lessons across the American public school spectrum. A nationalist was one and the same as a flag-waving, card-carrying U.S. citizen; nationalism, a pea in the pod to American patriot.
Globalists have since corrupted the word.
Leftists have deemed it dishonorable.
Anti-MAGA members of the media have tainted the title and turned it into something it’s not. Take a look at the frenzy in the press over Trump’s embrace of the word.
“Trump Lobs a Nationalist Grenade Into the Midterms,” ran one Bloomberg headline.
“[Jake] Tapper: Trump knows ’nationalist’ is offensive,” ran another from CNN.
CNN’s Jim Acosta, meanwhile, took to national television airwaves to paint Trump with a broad bigoted stroke, saying that when the president referred to himself as a “nationalist,” he laid the groundwork for “a lot of Americans to wonder or not whether [he’s] secretly considering himself a white nationalist.”
Then came this, from the Huffington Post, in a piece titled, “Why Donald Trump Declaring Himself a ’Nationalist’ Is So Loaded” — a feigned shock and awe at the president’s use of the once widely accepted word: “In one of the more jarring moments from President Donald Trump’s campaign rally Monday night, he proudly declared himself a nationalist.”
Well, so freaking what? This is only jarring to those who are squeamish at the idea of America believing herself to be best.
All good American citizens are, and ought to be, nationalists.
Nationalism is what united the 13 colonies to fight against tyrannical Britain rule. Nationalism is what drove, throughout history, the idea of American exceptionalism. Nationalism is what continues to course through the veins of any America-loving citizen in modern times.
The press, the Democrats, the progressives and others of the left and RINO right, pro-United Nations as they are, have been on an anti-nationalism tear against this president since the dawn of his political time.
In January, Foreign Policy wrote a piece called, “Trump’s Nationalism Is Arbitrary, Dangerous, Incoherent, and Silly.” In November 2017, the Atlantic wrote, “The Nationalist’s Delusion: Trump’s supporters backed a time-honored American political tradition, disavowing racism while promising to enact a broad agenda of discrimination.” In August of 2015, the New Yorker penned a piece, “Donald Trump and the White Nationalists.”
But what’s cool about Trump is he doesn’t play the left’s game. And he certainly doesn’t toe the globalist’s line. He takes the left’s negative n-word connotation of nationalism and flips it back to the positive by embracing the label as his own — by smacking a truth right into the deceptive faces of the left. America first, right?
We should all be so bold. We should all be such nationalists.
Nationalism is good for the country; it’s great for national sovereignty. It’s simply the wind beneath America’s exceptionalism wings.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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