“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says Yahweh Sabaoth. (Zechariah 4: 6)
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The Heat is On
The heat is on. The U.K. is negotiating its exit from the EU, and Germany, the most powerful EU country, is staring at a new reality. Every country in the world is in play, even those that don’t know it yet.
When the fog clears, the world as we know it will have changed completely.
The U.S. has no choice but to reconsider its options. Our strategic alliances with Europe including NATO must be thought through to determine what is in our best interest. That’s what the U.K. did, and that’s what Germany will do eventually.
The bonds that tie the U.S. and Europe together are still in place, but they aren’t as strong now as they used to be. Ignoring that fact is in no one’s best interest.
For the Time Being, Germany is on the Front Burner
The surge in support for Germany’s anti-immigrant party in weekend elections is a stark reminder of the fault line that cuts through the European Union.
Chancellor Angela Merkel starts a fourth term with her victory tainted by the far-right AfD entering parliament for the first time after a particularly strong showing in former East Germany. Next door, the Czechs look set to elect a populist leader who opposes further EU integration and links her open-door refugee policy to terrorism. Poland and Hungary already have governments that relish reminding their western allies that Donald Trump-style nationalism is anything but defeated.
The former communist countries were the core EU aspirants in the late 1990s, with westward-looking leaders dismantling the legacy of the Soviet-backed regimes and attracting billions of dollars of foreign investment. But as members, they increasingly look more like EU misfits in Merkel’s backyard, taking billions of euros in aid while railing against the European establishment.
- See “Victory, warning: Germany’s mandate for Angela Merkel represents both continuity and challenge”:
The European Union can heave a sigh of relief that Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has emerged as the single largest party in German elections. But the task of cobbling together an alliance remains, and the challenge posed to the liberal Western order from far-right tendencies is far from receding. Merkel’s steadying influence on the EU from one crisis to the next marked her out as a leader who wouldn’t give up on the waning appeal of multilateralism. From bailing out Greece during the European debt crisis, admitting nearly one million Syrian refugees that took the pressure off other EU countries, and then steadying EU after Brexit, Merkel can rightfully stake claim as the preeminent Western leader of our times – given that the US and UK appear to have turned their backs on globalisation and no longer seem to care for a rules-based international liberal order.
But Germany’s path towards more purposeful interventions will be hindered by the rise of far-right tendencies characterised by nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment on home soil. Their manifestation in a country that successfully effaced its Nazi past makes it incumbent upon the two main parties, Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD), to energetically tackle the reasons for their diminished vote shares. Already, SPD has decided it will not be part of another CDU-led government.
For the last six months, there has been rising confidence in European political circles that populist and nationalist forces on the continent were being overcome.
With the Netherlands and France electing moderate leaders and Angela Merkel set for re-election, there has even been a certain conceit – that populism had turned out to be an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon, producing Trump and Brexit, but with sensible voters in the rest of the EU cleaving to the centre ground.
Any such narrative lies in ruins today. With the nationalist AfD winning at least 80 seats in the German parliament, and the far Left doing well at the same time, nearly a quarter of Germans voted for the political extremes. It is important not to understate the significance of this outcome.
French President Emmanuel Macron offered an ambitious vision for European renewal on Tuesday, calling for the EU to work more closely on defense and immigration and for the euro zone to have its own budget, ideas he may struggle to implement.
In a nearly two-hour speech delivered two days after the German election in which Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc scored its worst result since 1949, limiting her freedom to maneuver on Europe, the 39-year-old French president held little back in terms of sweep, self-assurance and aspiration.
But at a time when Europe is beset by tensions between east and west and battling to overcome nearly a decade of draining economic crisis, Macron’s earnest and at times high-brow discourse ran the risk of falling on deaf ears.
The French president sees an opportunity to climb the EU political ladder. For Macron, Merkel’s domestic vulnerability represents hope for his brighter future as an EU higher-up.
President Trump is on the Right Path
Candidate Trump’s promise during his presidential campaign that he would put America first and make our nation great again resonated with voters for a reason. A large and growing number of us see what’s taking place in the world and know that our country must change, too. If need be, we must be willing to go it alone.
The president simply said what we feel.
Ours is not a hunker down mentality. Our conclusions are based on facts and reasoning that reflect the world in which we live. Times change and people change. By the time the 2020 presidential election rolls around, the eyes of more voters will be open. Barring unforeseen circumstances, that should virtually guarantee President Trump’s re-election.
That’s why the establishment media’s 24/7 effort to destroy the president has had the opposite effect. It has solidified and expanded his base of support. The NFL, the NBA, and other sports leagues will understand that soon enough. So will the Hollywood elite. We’ve enjoyed as much of their nonsense as we can stand.
Finally, we have a leader who is willing to say what we believe.
Don’t let up. Too much is at stake to take anything for granted.
President Trump didn’t create the new reality, but he must deal with it. Thankfully, he’s doing his job and keeping his word.
FYI: I still believe that President Trump needs to hold Attorney General Sessions’ feet to the fire. There is more Senate in the Attorney General than is good for him or us—too much talk and not enough action.
Talk is cheap. In the Senate, talk is the coin of the realm.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
