In a rant right out of the gate, the first sentence of an article on the National Catholic Reporter online refers to a prayer vigil at the Mar-a-Lago Club thusly: “Featuring apocalyptic rhetoric tinged with Christian nationalism and grievances popular in far-right circles, the March 19 “Catholic Prayer for Trump” event at the former president’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, presented a bleak portrait of life in the United States.”
The dark warning against “nationalism” has been an unfair epithet going back most recently to the early 1990s. It was used to evoke images of totalitarianism against Pat Buchanan in his campaign to defeat President George H. W. Bush in the Republican Primary of 1992. Quixotic as his campaign may have been, he was America First long before Trump came down that golden escalator in 2016. Trump was a more engaging figure than Buchanan and came at a time more sympathetic to populism. Words like nationalism, populism, and protectionism are still used to malign many unapologetically pro-American candidates who dare to ring a fire bell in the night.
It seems as though intellectually lazy commentators habitually hurl this objection at just about anyone who sees the ebb working against the average American and cries foul. Criticism aside, a question remains: Do negative trends exist which make life more difficult for average folks? The answers to these questions are why Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. While Trump goes to Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio and assures the electrician and auto worker that the best days of America are not behind them, the elitist and corporatist feel no shame in sacrificing the working class to the globalist movement.
Rather than deal in hypotheticals, consider.
According to an AFL-CIO report from 20 years ago, almost 20 percent of workers in a mid-June 2003 survey had been laid off during the first three years of the Bush Junior Administration. Since January 2001, the US had lost almost 2.5 million industrial jobs with manufacturing employment having fallen to its lowest level since 1958. Studies show that during the Bush II administration, 50,000 American factories were shuttered, causing six million Americans to lose their jobs. The Obama administration offered no respites. Are concerned Americans just supposed to accept this development?
Is it nationalistic to look at this tweet by a sitting US Senator which documents how inflation has ravished kitchen tables over the last few years, and call for a change?
SINCE BIDEN TOOK OFFICE:
Groceries: +21.2%
Eating out: +21%
Baby food: +29.6%
Pet food: +22.7%
Rent: +20%
Electricity: +28.4%
Natural gas: +30%
Apparel: +12%
Used cars: +20.3%
Air fare: +31.4%
Public transportation: +20.8%
Real average weekly wages: -4.2%
Is it nefarious for an economic nationalist to notice a new report by Zillow outlining that under President Trump, a household income of $59,000 a year could “comfortably afford the monthly mortgage on a typical U.S. home, but under Biden, that number has risen to over $106,000”? Should the average voter just avert their eyes so that they don’t get called bad names? Is this important or not?
While the working classes get pinched, the ruling class does not experience the same obstacles to enrich itself. The tax code, in the form of 25 billion dollars in tax credits, is being used to protect and reward those who are connected. One of the reasons that Hollywood studios feel secure to continue making terrible movies, which force a woke message down the throats of our children, is that they have a safety net. Tailor made tax codes, tax credits and tax breaks that are provided to studios are not extended to people in middle America. Not only does the lunch-pail brigade not have these safety nets for emergency costs or bad investments, but the cruel reality is that Joe six-pack is taxed to subsidize the elites and the rotten messages they push upon our children. What a cruel irony. If this continues, we may never know if the garbage coming out of Hollywood would stop if they had to finance their own box office bombs.
It has been too long since Hollywood made Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Now, many elected officials are more devoted to their sources of income than to their constituents. Politicians seem to have found ways to make money even in times when Americans are struggling.
Barack Obama’s net worth has increased from the time he entered office from three million dollars to over 70 million. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is worth over 75 million dollars. Senate Minority Leader McConnell is worth over 35 million dollars. The salary of the President is $400,000 per year and Senators earn around 175 grand annually. Quite the amassing of fortunes. Well timed stock trades are lucrative. Book deals, speech deals, and access to politicians are big business.
The Left v Right struggle is underwhelming due to the Republican Party’s lack of any substantive backbone, but the conflict between right and wrong is still going strong. According to a CBS news report, it would cost an estimated 5 billion dollars to rebuild the US city of Maui after the historic fires that ravaged it.
Meanwhile, using math provided by the Council on Foreign Relations, the 75 billion dollars given to Ukraine could rebuild Maui (here at home) 15 times and still leave enough to build a wall on our southern border.
On that note, it does appear that the US government is not opposed to building borders, as long as said borders are nowhere near America. The recent $1.2 trillion pork package did fund enhanced border security. Between now and September 30, 2025, $380,000,000 has been set aside to fund borders in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Oman. Jordan’s portion is to be “not less than $150,000,000”. In 2016, the Republican Party – led by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan – united and in control of the House and Senate, traitorously refused to fund Trump’s border wall.
Also, Fox News uncovered that not-so-hidden in the trillion-dollar spending bill is funding for:
$850,000 for a gay senior home
$15,000,000 to pay for Egyptian’s college tuitions
$400,000 for a gay activist group teaching elementary children about being trans
$500,000 for a DEI zoo
$400,000 for special clothes designed to help teens hide their gender.
It begs the questions; how do these things benefit the middle class in this country, and was it worth risking a government shutdown to fund this excrement? A rational person may be excused for not even knowing what a DEI zoo is. Short necked giraffes? Kangaroos who limp?
Another of the great threats of nationalism is when it impinges on the Left’s march to subvert our culture. It is generally accepted that a nation subsidizes that which it wishes to expand. Therefore, according to what has been recently funded, the trans movement must be a key component to our culture. This is another example of the divergence between the government and its governed. While the government is funding trans this and trans that, traditional Americans are pushing back. It appears that Planet Fitness is going the way of the LA Dodgers, Anheuser Busch, and Target. While Planet Fitness supports the right for shaving men to use the female facilities, the silent majority have decided to vote with their pocket books and have issued a 400-million-dollar verdict on the gym chain.
Another issue of major concern in this era of election-year covid variants is health. Is it wrong for dastardly nationalists to suggest that the US should consider manufacturing a significant portion of its antibiotics, aspirin, and other critical health supplies? China currently produces 42% of the global supply of antibiotics, followed by Italy, India and Switzerland.
Two thirds of aspirin and other pain relievers are produced in China, which is poised to become the sole producer.
Meanwhile, it is becoming clear that the US is increasingly reliant on China for non-medicinal medical supplies. Are these realities of no concern to the anti-nationalist brigade?
Videos of the invasion of El Paso, which are making the rounds on news broadcasts and social media are the latest indictment of globalism.
These poor souls on foot are among the illegals who haven’t been given the advantage of air travel, courtesy of Joe Biden, into the interior of the country. It is apparently not enough to allow border crossers to come across, but it is the policy of the current administration to go to the illegals and fly them, gratis, into the country.
The TSA effort has become a pitiful farce. US citizens stand in the airport security line with no belt, no shoes, forms of identification obediently in hand, and mouth wide open. It is hard not to notice the passengers being photographed for the first time so that they can, theoretically, be identified in the future. Some of them will undoubtedly be photographed again, front and the side pictures, to be hung in the Post Office. The January 6 crowd are on the no-fly list, while this group travels with no ID, no security vetting, no way of confirming who they are or how to contact them in the future.
There are cogent arguments to be made for why all of this hurts the interest of Americans. But the list goes on. Vagrants in big cities are depriving homeowners of their right to property. Reprobates are now giving step by step instructions to illegals on how to make fools of Americans by invading their homes and squatting.
Happening now in Massachusetts, there is a gross indictment of a ruling class who refuses to enforce the border. While the Lindsey Graham wing of the Republican Party is fond of committing middle class sons and daughters to war, they struggle to repay, honor and protect the returning soldiers. Their failures include substandard, bureaucratic care through the VA and abandoned veteran housing. A veteran home in Boston has just been turned over to migrant families. Even if this is a symbolic gesture at this point, the message is that even American heroes have become an afterthought.
Any temptation to claim that Kamala Harris is an utter failure as border czar, ought to be suppressed. Instead, realize that invasion is the plan. Democrat politicians entice foreigners to come to this country and turn them and their families into lifelong Democrat voters. The Republican establishment goes along with immigration because it provides cheap labor for Chambers of Commerce and big businesses. Members of the upper echelons of society want to assuage their guilt, so they don’t object. There is, however, no compelling argument for how this helps the blue-collar worker.
Though this theory may seem far-fetched, empirical evidence suggests that it is not. One of the bedrock benefits of citizenship is the right to vote. Sadly, even that unique privilege is being diluted and usurped. Illegals are now being given the right to vote. The Democrat plan to radically transform America is working faster than they could ever have imagined, thanks to neutered Republicans and those political operatives who shame Americans into silence. The right to vote in our nation’s capital has now not only been granted to non-citizens, but it has been upheld upon appeal.
This is the case that Donald Trump should take before the American people. It is a compelling case. And, assuming a fair election, there is a reasonable chance for his victory. Perhaps his best arguments come in the form of anti-endorsements. That the Bushes, Cheneys, Romneys, Ryans and Pences of the world refuse to endorse him endears him to his base. The folks, in both parties, who stand for perpetual war, endless spending, spying on Americans, protecting Epstein, big pharma and the military industrial complex all hate Trump. That is telling. Real people, the pulse of America, remember that Trump, along with his considerable baggage, brings peace, strength and two-dollar eggs, milk and gas.
This article was written by Louis Biad, a contributor to Catholics for Catholics.
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