The Upside of Nationalism By David Sirota

America-first fervor could be the driving force behind economic populism

You don’t need to listen to presidential speeches or watch party attack ads to know that full-throated nationalism is now lodged in the ideological center of American politics. Look at social networking expert Valdis Krebs’ January chart to see what we—the royal We—are reading. Krebs amassed data from Amazon.com, examining what other titles buyers of conservative and liberal political books purchased in 2007. Most of this “also bought” data showed buyers of one liberal book buying other liberal books—and conservatives doing the same on their side.

Krebs’ chart, which draws a line connecting each “also bought” book, looks like a dumbbell, with two big clusters on the right and left—a cliché of the media’s “polarized America” meme. However, right in the middle are two books that both liberals and conservatives purchased: War on the Middle Class and Independents Day by Lou Dobbs, America’s most famous nationalist.

As economic anxiety grips America, the controversial CNN anchor vents history’s conservative and liberal expressions of contemporary nationalism—an ideology built around a self-interested, America-first fervor. When Dobbs tilts right, he rails against undocumented immigrants and “broken borders,” tapping into nationalism’s law-and-order pride and its xenophobic-tinged desire for cultural stasis that typically spikes during recessions. When he goes populist, he is the only major TV journalist in America to express nationalism’s disdain for global economic policies written by, and for, a transnational elite.

As evidenced by his surging ratings, Dobbs reflects powerful mass emotions. And thanks to the presidential election, some of those emotions may forge a political mandate. The key word is “some,” because the GOP nominee will be Arizona Sen. John McCain. Unlike most congressional Republicans, McCain has shied away from the anti-immigrant edge of today’s nationalism, effectively shoving the most extreme immigration positions off the presidential stage, at least in 2008.

Thus, today’s nationalistic sentiment will likely crystallize as economic nationalism—good news for progressives.

‘What do we do now?’
As the campaign wends its way through the heartland’s crumbling factory towns, the election is pivoting on debates over globalization and economic sovereignty.

Polls from the Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine show
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3577/the_upside_of_nationalism/

This is an excellent article.