U.S. President Donald Trump used his UN speech to pitch a political philosophy, calling for a global, or at least a European, MAGA movement.Alexander Drago/Reuters
Americans used to be accused of being liberal imperialists, imposing their liberal ideals – all men created equal, inalienable rights, free markets, yada yada – on the rest of the world.
What a long time ago that was.
When I studied political philosophy in university, way back when communism was still a real thing, we spent a lot of time on alternatives to liberalism. And modern liberalism, whatever exactly it was, was partly or even mostly Americanism.
George Grant’s Lament for a Nation, once the most famous expression of Canadian nationalism, was a cry of alarm against the steamroller of the American empire’s liberal universalism. He believed it would crush Canada’s ability to remain a distinct society rooted in its own traditions and conservative ways of thinking and being. “The impossibility of conservatism in our era,” Mr. Grant said, “is the impossibility of Canada.”
If that description of this country leaves you scratching your head, it may be because it never entirely made sense. Then again, it may be because what Mr. Grant predicted in the 1960s came to pass to such a degree that his Canada is now beyond both memory and imagination.
As for the United States as a liberal imperium, imposing technological progress, democracy and universal rights on the world, that is now also ancient history. Consider U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech this week to the United Nations.
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A lot of it was, no surprise, the usual Trumpian collection of petty grievances. He went on and on about that stalled escalator, video of which MAGA media is now dissecting like the Zapruder film. He whined that the UN hadn’t awarded him the contract to renovate its building decades ago, and hey, look at these cheap terrazzo floors. He complained that though he’s ended seven wars this year, the UN hasn’t given him a phone call of thanks. He’s also still waiting for his Nobel Peace Prize(s).
But above all, Mr. Trump used his speech to pitch a political philosophy. He was calling for a global, or at least a European, MAGA movement.
When it comes to defending Europe from Russia, the President is an isolationist. But when it comes to European domestic politics, he’s eager to back “his” side. It went mostly unnoticed by mainstream U.S. media, but the UN speech was a call for Europeans to follow his lead by rejecting the climate-change “hoax” and stopping immigration, especially of those from the wrong race or culture.
“If you don’t get away from the green-energy scam,” Mr. Trump said, “your country is going to fail. And if you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail. I’m the President of the United States but I worry about Europe. I love Europe, I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration.”
He said that politicians trying to be “politically correct” were “destroying your heritage,” through “the unmitigated immigration disaster and the fake energy catastrophe.”
“In closing,” he said, wrapping up a speech scheduled for 15 minutes that went on for an hour, “I just want to repeat that immigration and the high cost of so-called green renewable energy is destroying a large part of the free world, and a large part of our planet. Countries that cherish freedom are fading fast because of their policies on these two subjects.”
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It was similar to Vice-President JD Vance’s speech earlier this year at the Munich Security Conference. Audience members looking for the reassurance of U.S. backing for Europe against Russian threats were shocked to find themselves subjected to a harangue about how they were the enemies of freedom, and the opponents of the new team in Washington, because of their refusal to embrace their own far-right parties.
Nobody is shocked any more. Message received.
In Trump World, traditional European governments of the centre-right and centre-left are suspect, while post-liberal regimes such as Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s in Hungary are trusted.
The UN speech is another sign that Mr. Trump isn’t really an isolationist. He wants to spread his movement overseas, and he’s never going to be diplomatic or discreet about it.
Give Mr. Trump this: He knows what sells. Immigration and high energy prices have inflamed European politics, to the benefit of the far right. The President offers a simple answer, which already appeals to many voters: Blame immigrants and windmills, and save your economy and your culture by getting rid of both.
When will Canada become the subject of one of these speeches?