Washington • In affluent neighborhoods around Washington, New York and Los Angeles — and, for that matter, Paris, London and Berlin — it’s common to denounce nationalism, to disdain supposedly mindless, angry populists, and to praise those with an open-minded, cosmopolitan outlook. Note that those involved are praising themselves.
Lord knows, there is much to fear about nationalism. Extreme nationalism has led to fascism, war, the persecution and slaughter of minorities, and the undermining of democracy in the name of national unity. In regularly denouncing the give and take of party politics as a force dividing and corrupting “the people,” nationalists can open the path to rule by ruthless, cynical autocrats.