The patriotism that Margaret Thatcher once mentioned is one of the “pillars of greatness” of the country.
Today it has been 50 years since Mrs. Thatcher became the leader of the British Conservative Party. She is one of the politicians who has inspired me the most. She was just as passionate freedom warrior as Patriots, and she understood that the country would not survive without any ground in its traditional values.
“Patriotism” means that we cherish the history of our people and feel concern for the future ever since we are gone. For our country and what it stands in , meaning you are ready to make sacrifices. When you take it away, greatness will fade. The freedom of the nation, even the survival of the nation, is at risk.”
Today we live in an incredible time and are full of optimism for the future. In May, I will be speaking at the CPAC conference held in Budapest, Hungary. The theme is “The era of patriots has begun.” And it has it! In America, Donald Trump has guided us through the oceans of politics. He does a political miracle, but that seemed almost impossible a year ago. At the same time, it is to roll back the awakening and illegal immigrants.
President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher walk Reagan's dog Lucky on the White House lawn. (Photo: Jim Hubbard/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
In Europe, we plan to do the same thing. The American constitution allows Trump to quickly place his political mark on the country. In my home country, Netherlands, like most other European countries, we are obligated to build a Union government and seek compromise. Our decision-making process takes time – in my opinion it's too long. But there is no doubt about that. In Europe, awakening and illegal immigration are also ending. Trump's victory serves as an accelerator of patriotism on both sides of the Atlantic.
Throughout the West, our national identity is rooted in Judaism and Christian values. Both awakening and multiculturalism undermines this identity. The battle between awakening and mass immigration is on both sides of the same coin. It's the same fight. And it's an existential battle.
It awakens and reduces individual identity to skin color and sexual preferences. It is separate from what traditionally defines our identity. Our relationship with our family, our neighbours and our country of origin. Wokeism redefines identity as inherently self-centered and subjective, and identity is traditionally defined in relation to others: objective loyalty to family and country.
You don't need to be a Christian to acknowledge the deep truth of what 13th century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote. As a result, humans are primarily debtors to his parents and his country.
The slogan for the next May European CPAC conference is “God, Hometown, Family.” Margaret Thatcher definitely agreed, so Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump and Thomas Aquinas agreed too. We stand in the tradition of age and are in the footsteps of giants.
Another deadly enemy of our identity is mass immigration and multiculturalism. This enemy aims to destroy our identity by fundamentally changing the composition of our neighbours and nations. It overflows us with immigrants from a number of foreign cultures that can never be assimilated.
This is what Angela Merkel did in 2015 when she threw the German-European border wide to millions of foreigners. “Wir Schaffen Das – we can do that,” Merkel said. Today, Friedrich Mertz, the new leader of the German Christian Democrats, is trying to distance himself from Merkel, so who would have guessed! – Germany failed to “do it” miserable. Later this month, German voters will make this abundantly clear.
Awakening and multiculturalism find their roots in the idea of the so-called Frankfurt School, a group of Marxist philosophers who settled in the United States in the 1930s. There, they came to dominate liberal thinking. It is not by advocating for Marxist anti-capitalist economic reforms, but by promoting social engineering.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites in the 1980s marked the death of Marxist as an economic theory. Influenced by the Frankfurt School ideologue, today's leftists focus on changing moral and cultural foundations of Western society. They advocate for the use of the state as a radical cultural force aimed at destroying traditional Western cultures, and as the Jewish-Christian morality on which it is based. .
The American Democrats and mainstream European parties are hijacked by these ideas. Last November, it was very clear that Americans would not tolerate it. Even in Europe, voters flock to patriotic political parties, such as the Party for Freedom for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands.
This is what we believe:
The perceptual so-called “classical liberals” have always been aware that freedom and democracy cannot exist without the traditional moral order. Margaret Thatcher's leader, Nobel Prize winner Friedrich von Hayek, also had a major influence on Ronald Reagan, but it capsules the wisdom, life experience and the knowledge of a generation that precedes us. He was a classic liberal because he was a traditionalist that transformed. And someone who was definitely less foolish than us.
There was a famous moment during her party policy meeting, when Mrs. Thatcher denounced the table a copy of Hayek's constitution of freedom and declared, “This is what we believe!”
As early as 1922, Hayek's own leader Ludwig von Mises pointed out that socialism can only flourish if individuals are atomized and loose from their connections to what they identify. did. When the family disappeared, Mises wrote: “Society is only facing separate individuals. There is nothing left except for individuals and nations.” Ronald Reagan essentially went to the American nation in 1984 with a prayer breakfast in Dallas, Texas. When I said that, I basically conveyed the same message.
Our Judaism and Christian civilization – it is important to stick to our homeland and family. They are the bedrock of a free society. That's why we have to protect them. In his Ludwig Mises Memorial Lecture at Hillsdale University in 1977, Ronald Reagan famously stated: And it is never more than a generation away from extinction. Every generation must learn how to protect and defend it. Or it's gone and gone for a long time. ”
Half a century after the beginning of Mrs Thatcher's rise in power, it is fitting to remember her wise words and political heritage. President Trump respects her political legacy. That's true for me too.
Geert Wilders MP is the leader of PVV, the largest party in the Dutch government and parliament.
