Donald Trump's politics of tribalism
Europe's far right gained a big boost from anger and anxieties following the 2008 financial collapse and the refugee flood from the wars in the Middle East and North Africa. In the past, we have seen all sorts of extremists rise to power on populism and nationalism, usually in the wake of big societal changes, particularly those involving race, religion or ethnicity.
That's why Trump's alarm over immigrants "changing the culture" in Europe brought delight to white nationalists. As Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project observed, it comes "straight out of the white supremacist/white nationalist playbook."
In the endless battle to keep this new tribalism from ripping our civilization apart, the United States has a distinct advantage: our long-running tradition of welcoming newcomers and encouraging their assimilation into the social mainstream.
That's still a new thing for the industrialized nations of Europe, for example, where language and ethnicity are closely tied to national identity. Much of the domestic anxiety over new arrivals in Europe comes from policies that have left immigrants in ghettos, separated from the mainstream culture and economic opportunities.
America, by contrast, is the land of makeovers and reinvention, people who are attracted by the opportunities this nation offers to build a better life and a new identity -- Americans.
The more we encourage the virtue of inclusion against the lure of the tribe, the better we can keep our proverbial melting pot simmering, without boiling over.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
