President Donald J. Trump participates in the G7 Working Lunch on Inequality at the Centre de Congrés Bellevue Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019, in Biarritz, France, site of the G7 Summit. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
Globalism was already under assault before COVID-19 struck, writes Kassy Dillon in The American Mind. The virus has only intensified the world’s mistrust of the globalist vision. She writes (abridged):
The world was already in crisis before COVID-19 hit: a crisis of identity and ideology. Brexit challenged the European Union’s vision of an interconnected continent, and the election of Donald Trump signaled a distaste among voters for economic, cultural, and military globalism.
The current wave of revolutionary anti-Americanism doesn’t change that. Here, like abroad, COVID-19 has only intensified the general mistrust of globalism.
Even amid increasing conflict, nationalism is on the rise and people are looking inward to their own communities. Nationalism carries risks, but globalism has brought with it corrupt institutions and trade that is proving to be riskier amid today’s crisis. In response, more Americans are robustly embracing a healthy nationalism.
The new localism reflects a return to the strongest foundations of American life. As Alexis de Tocqueville observed, and Abraham Lincoln soon thereafter affirmed, American democracy fostered a unique culture of equality.
Many enthusiastic globalists criticized President Trump for banning travel from China in the early days of the pandemic. Joe Biden took two months to endorse the ban after calling Trump xenophobic for his coronavirus response.
The call to bring U.S. drug manufacturers back to the U.S. has been loud. Several bipartisan bills, such as the “Pharmaceutical Independent Long-Term Readiness Reform Act,” would encourage or force companies to move their factories to the U.S.
Meanwhile, American national identity lends itself to an even fiercer defense of local and popular sovereignty. President Trump made it clear very early on in his political career that he does not subscribe to globalism:
The power of central governments appears to be weakening.
Kassy Dillon is a political commentator, host of The Kassy Dillon Show, founder and president of Lone Conservative, and a graduate student at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.
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