Modern Nationalist leaders are on accent across the world and according to them, radical Islam is the fascism of today which world has to fight as one.
Never before has an election in one country had such a polarising effect on the world politics. Never has the establishment in USA been so unequivocally and solidly backing a candidate. And yet, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald J Trump. The media was solidly backing her. Out of the 100 most circulated newspapers, 57 had openly endorsed her and another three had called for defeat of Trump. Hillary’s TV blitz, carried through bought advertisement slots, had overwhelmed Trump’s ad campaign which started only in June. On satellite and national cable, Clinton outweighed Trump 3 to 1 in the number of ads. On local cable channels, Trump did not even place any ads while the Clinton campaign flooded them with 330,000 ads. Since launching her primary campaign in January 2015, Hillary had spent over $219 million of TV ads, which does not include ad spend by her supporting groups and committees. It is rare for any candidate spending more than his or her rival to lose. Hillary having spent $687 million compared to Trump’s $307 million should have got landslide victory. She was funded by the finance, insurance and real estate sector which had donated over a $100 million to her, giving just $5 million to Trump. Hillary polled more votes among blacks, single women and Muslims. Trump was more popular among young white male and minority groups like the American Hindu Community. The investigation on the 2012 jihadist attack on the U.S.’s diplomatic outpost in Benghazi Libya and charges of complacency towards radical Islam affected Hillary’s prospects. While Trump was full of praises for India and other’s Nations fighting radical Islam and cronyism. Hillary was soft on radical Islam and herself faced charges of malpractice.
Cronyism along with Nationalism is playing a vital role in changes in political fortune. The rise of Freedom Party in Austria, movements like the Sweden Democrats, the National Front in France, and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands across Europe are transforming the political landscape just like Donald J Trump’s victory marked the end of era in US Politics and marking beginning of cold war style west retaliation on radical Islam. Support for Israel has become part of this platform. According to these Nationalist leaders, radical Islam is the fascism of today, and they propose a cold war style response against radical Islam. Such claims would have once been met with outrage across the world, but not any more now. In recent months, the resurgence of nationalism across Europe has become so powerful that parties from the political mainstream have been forced to tilt sharply to the right as well, Even the most seemingly far-fetched electoral upsets have begun to seem plausible. Even in Germany nationalism is back, right wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has broken into the mainstream. In a local election in early September 2016 the AfD got more votes than the conservative party of Chancellor Angela Merkel in her own electoral district (both finished behind the Social Democrats). In another local election, held in Berlin on Sept 2016, Merke’s party recorded its worst result in the capital ever. Similarly the impeachment of Madam Dilma Vana Rousseff of Brazil in August 1016 and the impeachment of the President Park Geun-hye of South Korea by its National Assembly; whereas here her own party members voted against her, signalling an ignominious end to a term that had become mired in corruption scandals, pointing to rising tide against state sponsored corruption.
Globally different breeds of Nationalist political leaders are on the rise – the political “outsiders” – they are all nationalist and come with a professional mind-set. In Japan, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid his respects at Yasukuni. He was sending message to the world that he wanted to pay his respect to those who had fought for the country, Abe talks about “Restore Japan.” his economic-reform package, dubbed Abenomics, is a projection of the PM’s vision to return Japan to greatness. According to him, he is a patriot first who would like to restore Japan. In 1946, after Japan’s defeat in the war, Shinto was stripped of its status as the national religion. The Abe era is the renaissance of Shinto in Japanese politics just like the revival of traditional values. For Japan to rise again and stand up to the aggressive China the Nazism of today, Japan needs a patriot like Abe. Their orientation to governance is like Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore who transformed Singapore by bring discipline in society and took help of Israel for building its army to safe guard the nation and providing investors with the right investment climate.
The shift in political discourse that began with 9/11, with issues like radical Islam, belligerent China and the role of financial market in economy has become central in public discourse. People want leaders who can provide an alternative to the politics of secularism. People want decisive response to jihad and respect for their culture and end of institutionalised cronyism and meritocracy. So, people across the world want change, leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister of Israel, Vladimir Putin of Russia Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Prime Minister Modi of India are making great progress. The Victory of President elect Donald J Trump and the rise of Nationalist forces in Europe are a turning point in the world history since the fall of Berlin Wall. World over people are keen to be led by leadership that can take tough decisions, Do the right things in their national interest bring about real economic growth rather than just cater to interest of financial cartel’s. People want the Nationalist leaders to make the world a better place for you and for me and every one else.
