The past few years have seen the term “nationalism” take quite the beating, being warped and twisted by the main stream media as well as social networks. It’s important to remember just what nationalism really stands for.
While the term “Nationalism” has seemingly taken on a negative connotation over the past few years, be assured that being a nationalist is not, and should never be seen as disparaging. While surely there are multiple instances we can trace to the shift in attitude surrounding nationalism, none seem to be as apparent in America as the 2016 presidential election and the events leading up to it. With much of then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign being based around bringing jobs back to The United States rather than outsourcing our country’s workforce, the “Make America Great Again” movement relied heavily on nationalistic morals. This is seemingly where much of the divide and confusion stemmed from. As the 2016 presidential election rolled on, American citizens, politicians, and media sources alike who opposed the Trump lead, Republican campaign began to make unwarranted claims of “racism” due to the foundations his run was established on. While his opposition saw building border walls around the southern United States and tightening voting laws as an act of prejudice, in actuality these ideas were backed by the simple plan of strengthening America from within and taking the time to rely on ourselves as a nation once again for Jobs, Income, and Economic growth. Because of this, often times we saw the term “Nationalism” linked alongside “Racism” or “prejudice” by the Republican party’s opposition. Still to this day, this stigma remains despite President Joe Biden holding office now for his third year, this issue has surpassed a single isolated election.
The Issue with Aligning Nationalism to a Political Party
This issue is much deeper at this point than red vs. blue. Because of the events surrounding the 2016 election onward, people seem to affiliate nationalism with The Republican Party, however, the nationalism they align is this new misconstrued warped, evil view of it. Let it be perfectly clear,
Nationalism is not a party. Nationalism is not Republican. Nationalism is not Democrat.
At its core, behind all the mud-slinging, all the media discrepancy, all the slander campaigns, Nationalism is quite simply the belief in your own nation. Being a nationalist does not mean you agree wholeheartedly with any particular politician, political party, or even the United States Government as a whole because nationalism is not political. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting your country to succeed, being thankful that you have been blessed with the opportunities you have because of this nation, and most importantly, regardless of who may hold the oval office and how your beliefs align with theirs, being proud of the place you are from and wanting it to get better. Being a nationalist by no means implies you think America is flawless, on the contrary, it means you want to see it improve, grow, and become stronger and better than ever.
On September 11th, 2001, The United States of America suffered one of, if not THE most, tragic events on US soil to date. On that day and the days following, we as Americans were hurt, confused, angry, and lost, but we weren’t alone. We stood tall together. We cried, prayed, fought, and rallied together. We did this not as Republicans, Not as Democrats, but as Americans. In this tragic event, we were reminded how small we really are. More importantly, were reminded that in this crazy world, we still had each other, our fellow Americans. together we watched along at home as Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon, we wept together when President John F. Kennedy was taken from us right before our eyes, we rejoiced together as Osama Bin Laden was brought down by American forces. All of this we did together, as Americans.
That is what Nationalism is.
-Style
Style's Rebel Radio 