{"id":25,"date":"2017-10-01T10:55:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T10:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/letter\/?p=25"},"modified":"2018-05-07T06:35:07","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T06:35:07","slug":"the-republican-nominee-began-the-debate-on-the-hofstra-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/2017\/10\/01\/the-republican-nominee-began-the-debate-on-the-hofstra-university\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republican nominee began the debate on the Hofstra University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"750\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pz7U6sVFaJw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Kai and Andrea discuss what positions are left on Trump\u2019s economic team and what Trump meant when he told the country\u2019s tech leaders that his team has \u201cno formal chain of command.\u201d<br \/>\nWe\u2019re five months into Donald Trump\u2019s rollercoaster presidency, Brexit is rocking the foundations of the EU, and Islamist terrorism threatens our way of life \u2013 the old order is crumbling. There is a new ideological conflict, but who are the combatants?<\/p>\n<p>\u00abThere\u2019s something happening here; What it is ain\u2019t exactly clear.\u00bb -For What It\u2019s Worth, Buffalo Springfield 1967<\/p>\n<p>This lyric, written 50 years ago about another time could apply to our world now. What we understood about the sixties revolution after it happened was that it was a reaction to a deep unhappiness with the established order that had brought two world wars. People didn\u2019t know what exactly they wanted, but they certainly didn\u2019t want what they had come to see as normal.<\/p>\n<p>Now, five months into Donald Trump\u2019s America, as we watch Brexit threaten the foundations of the European Union and stand appalled at increasingly nihilistic Islamist terrorism it is clear something is happening. The old order is crumbling. That\u2019s easy to interpret. The difficult part is who is opposing who? It is a fast emerging conflict, but broadly it is between opportunist, populist, revanchist and nationalistic politicians and their followers against the ancient regime of liberal, consensus leaning, globalist internationalists.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump is the standard bearer for the first group, but he has fellow travelers in Britain and across Europe. This, let us call it a movement, is not slavishly committed to political correctness or multiculturalism. Russia is being connected to Trump by the Western media. But a lot of this is down to the fact that Vladimir Putin, too, refuses to kow tow to the second group.<\/p>\n<p>For the last 30 years liberal, consensus driven, globalist politics dominated the rich, influential power blocs. The United States and the European Union (EU) through the 1980s and 1990s dominated world politics. And the two power blocs, intertwined with the military alliance of NATO and supported by the United Nations formed one all dominating, usually cohesive conglomerate.<\/p>\n<p>The EU, though it expanded to 27 countries, and was supposed to represent a homogenous group was and is dominated by an axis of Germany and France. The EU will not deviate toward policy that adversely affects the interests of this axis.<\/p>\n<p>The United Kingdom stood up to the French-German axis, and now it has left. Russia, re-emerging with confidence, would not be intimidated. But all this the EU and its dominating powers could handle. Then Trump became US President. This wild card has blown all the old certainties away.<\/p>\n<p>Rapidly the accepted pillars of global politics have crumbled. The old way of doing things, driven by the liberal democracies and leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel was stuttering. A week ago, in a Bavarian Beer Hall, Angela Merkel was driven to say: \u201cThe times when we could completely rely on others are, to an extent over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merkel supporters \u2013 and even her internal enemies \u2013 nodded at her bellicose language.<\/p>\n<p>She was saying that Trump\u2019s America, the \u2018want away\u2019 British and the cynical Russians and everybody else can\u2019t be relied on anymore. They disagree, and they must be wrong. There is a general acceptance in the global, opinion setting liberal media that these three power blocs have wronged the EU power brokers.<\/p>\n<p>This scolding from Merkel was inspired by Trump\u2019s tour through Europe when he did some scolding of his own.<\/p>\n<p>At a G7 meeting in Sicily Trump criticized America\u2019s traditional European allies over NATO obligations and made clear that he was willing to go it alone on climate change and trade.<\/p>\n<p>The Old Guard, led by Germany its close EU colleagues, are characterizing Trump, the British and other nations and political movements who oppose them as right wing and reactionary. The language of their criticism carries innuendo. Those who oppose them are violent, racist and backward thinking. The narrative from the European leaders in the EU to the departing British has been that they are a nation of fools led by inward looking politicians.<\/p>\n<p>America too is, they say, a misguided country led by a backward, isolationist leader in Donald Trump. These views are strongly supported by large swathes of the media. The Western media is predominantly liberal, leftist and supportive of consensus politics.<\/p>\n<p>I contend that it is the consensus, liberal politicians that are out of step. It is they who are suddenly seen to be tied to an out-of-date and exhausted ideology. The reaction of the European democracies to Trump indicates history has overtaken them.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said at a NATO meeting in Brussels at the end of May \u201cNATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it was met with shock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kai and Andrea discuss what positions are left on Trump\u2019s economic team and what Trump meant when he told the country\u2019s tech leaders that his team has \u201cno formal chain of command.\u201d We\u2019re five months into Donald Trump\u2019s rollercoaster presidency, Brexit is rocking the foundations of the EU, and Islamist terrorism threatens our way of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-full-width-image-and-title.php","format":"video","meta":[],"categories":[29,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentthemes.com\/wp\/pionus-news\/variation-four\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}