The Alternative for Germany Party has caught the attention of some U.S. Republicans, who are exploring the prospect of a Western cultural hegemony.
On Monday, October 19, Marc Bernhard, a representative of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) at the German Bundestag, will deliver a speech on «Mass Migration and the Future of the West» at Georgetown University in Washington, at the invitation of the College Republicans. Repressive policies toward immigrants and widespread forced repatriation—often without the required legal protections, even in cases of illegal status—are common ground between the two parties on either side of the Atlantic.
However, their similarities are not limited to this. They also share a vision of governing the nation through the use of force, relying on police and military, and both nations desire to distance themselves from political and legal constraints imposed by international organizations that would dilute their pride.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio made this clear in his speech at the Acropolis in Athens, a site symbolic of European culture: «The thumos, as the ancient Greeks called it – the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride – is the heart of great civilization. And without it? Without it, nations lose their will to fight, the will to strive, the will to survive. Today, too much of the West has forgotten this quality. Over time, we in the West came to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional. We felt embarrassed that our achievements set us apart from the rest of the world. Our prosperity somehow became a source of guilt. We no longer believed we deserved and had earned our greatness. The word “nationalism” became a dirty word. And so we tore down our monuments; we condemned our own history. And in too many places, we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit. In the process, we opened our borders and outsourced our industry, and allowed our militaries to wither and to decay. And with every passing year, we seemed to outsource more of our sovereignty, transferring our decisions to global bureaucracies far beyond the reach of our control.»
Given this context, the meeting between some American Republicans and the German AfD seems almost inevitable, though its implications could be far more dangerous than the partial rewriting of history both parties are attempting at home. But that’s not all.
Rubio’s speech in Athens proposes a proud rewriting of history that disregards the consequences of the «greatness» of the West and omits events that would disrupt its apparent coherence as a model for Western Europe to adopt in order to emerge from its «long slumber.»
«Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice. We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power: to take back control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialize our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future. We choose to reach for new frontiers: in advanced manufacturing and super intelligence; in drones, weapons, and warfare; in chips, minerals, cyber, and every other domain of human possibility. To unleash our energy, to rebuild our factories, to return our astronauts to the moon and launch a new age of exploration in space.Now for all their lofty ideals, the ancient Greeks were not naive. They understood that nations have interests. They understood that statecraft requires prudence and diplomacy, but they also understood that it requires the ability to wield force when prudence and diplomacy fail. They understood that power requires not only having the means to defend yourself, it requires the credibility that you are willing to use it. This is the classical understanding of politics and of statecraft that the Trump Administration hopes to reclaim – reclaim not just for our country, but for the whole of our civilization.»
To give shape to this new Westernism of force and power, some American Republicans now seem to be looking to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as their Trojan horse to breach the hated citadel of the European Union and dismantle the awareness gained in the wake of World War II that «nationalism» means hostility, aggression, and the loss of basic human rights. Perhaps Republicans, especially Catholic ones like Rubio, should pay closer attention to the analysis of what the AfD means for Germany offered a few weeks ago by the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Heiner Wilmer.
«It has been demonstrated that the AfD party has an ethno-nationalist character. There is no place for this ideology based on ethnic nationalism inside or outside the house of God, nor in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. I sincerely hope that the truth will set us free in this case as well by deciphering vague slogans and debunking campaign promises lacking any realistic foundation. As the Church, we will not back down. On the contrary, we stand against pitting fear against solidarity. We stand against it when people are pitted against one another. We stand against it when democratic institutions are weakened. This is neither a left-wing nor a right-wing stance. Our standard is not party politics or ideology, but the Gospel and the inalienable dignity of every human being that stems from it. Sometimes, we must be a thorn in the side.»
