Is Liking America No Longer Right-Wing?

The scandal of the moment in Germany is an open rift between the Foreign Minister and the Chancellor over how to handle Russia. For most of the twentieth century, this debate had clear coalitions. The Greens wanted American soldiers, and especially American nukes, out. Meanwhile, the conservatives were the committed trans-atlanticists. In the middle, the center left socialists wanted cooperate more with the Eastern bloc countries, often in hopes of helping suffering East Germans. This impulse culminated in a program where the West Germans would pay for the release of East German politic prisoners. Incentivizing a regime desperate for foreign reserves to keep taking more and more prisoners just to release them for ransom.

To an outsider, this spectrum now looks to have been completely reversed. It was the last conservatives government that made completing Nord Stream 2 a priority. Now, in this government, the Green Foreign Secretary is publicly calling to halt the pipeline to punish Russia’s menacing of Ukraine, leaving the socialist Chancellor in the lurch. From Signal:

“German government split on Nord Stream 2. Just weeks after taking power, two members of Germany's new three-party coalition government disagree on what to do about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which carries (more) Russian natural gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea. The leftist Greens, led by Foreign Minister Analena Baerbock, want to hold off on Germany certifying the pipeline until Russia backs down on its thinly-veiled threats to invade Ukraine. But senior members of the center-left SPD, the majority partner in the coalition, would rather leave Nord Stream 2 out of the ongoing talks between the US, NATO, and Russia to avert war because Germany needs a steady supply of Russian gas. Chancellor and SPD leader Olaf Scholz, for his part, is walking a tightrope between not undercutting Baerbock and keeping the Russian gas flowing.”

The further left you go in Germany the closer you approximate the United States policy in Ukraine and Xianjiang.

Antipathy for Russia and China is not just switching its political, so are views of the United States. If you are French president, who wants to move to the right on social issues, you publicly pick a fight with American media and academia for colonizing your country.

I don’t think this is a uniquely European phenomenon. While most professional Republican foreign policy people retain an across the board hawkishness, popular conservative intellectuals increasingly state open sympathy for aspects of Russia’s and China’s model. The WSJ did a tongue and check article give China strange new respect for limiting how much time kids can play video games. Darren Beattie commended Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that America is exporting a “Cultural Revolution” that is “aggressive toward whites.” Richard Hanania wants China to remain communist so that humanity will have a greater diversity of political models with which to confront collective issues. (For example, thinking that world benefited by China developed a superior strategy for responding to Covid). Tucker admires the Chinese military’s comparative masculinity, their restrictions on video games, and curbs on “sissy men” celebrity culture.

So are these statements significant? I think so. The political scientist Hans Noel has shown how the political pundits and “idea merchants” are often leading indicators of were the coalitions of mass politics are headed.

Fundamentally, people’s beliefs about foreign policy are usually based on the perceived justice of the foreign governments. That’s why before the Russian Revolution, Trotsky and Lenin admired America for being comparatively non-imperialist and expansive its suffrage. It’s why after the revolution Christians and Free marketers in the West then turned against Russian power, when before Russophobia had been an affect of the Tsar hating left. As the axis of politics swings from issues economic management towards issue of “culture”, it should no surprise that conservatives feel more comfortable with traditionalist authoritarian states and that the left feels more comfortable with the country whose main export is socially conscious media and entertainment. A commitment to American primacy will keep right-leaning American voters skeptical of China, but more broadly expect the affiliations of how is with and against America to reverse.