So, “national sovereignty” has become a political battle cry for the nationalist right, though, as with most things, they understand the principle of national sovereignty about as well as an adolescent does. In the worst cases, which is far more often than not, sadly, their understanding is on the level of an angry toddler.

When something doesn’t go their way, they shriek hysterically, whining about how unfair it is that people living in other countries get to operate their economies however they want as though they also have national sovereignty. But that’s kind of the point of national sovereignty that their missing, isn’t it?

Every other nation on the planet has exactly the same national sovereignty that the United States does, and when they directly or indirectly compete with companies and workers in the United States, even if it’s by employing policies that Americans don’t like, they are, in fact, exercising their national sovereignty.

The whole interfering in the market with state subsidies, not respecting private property rights, and other “unfair” trade practices? That’s just socialism, people. Even if it’s inherently immoral and provably inefficient, it’s their economy, and they can run it however they want to because of national sovereignty.

Now this won’t come as a surprise to most people who read my articles, but trying to start a trade war with another nation in order to coerce that nation to not run their economy how they want is actually a violation of the other country’s national sovereignty. So why don’t the nationalist right get this?

Well, for the most part, it’s because the nationalist right is made up of a lot of different people, the politicians and the rank and file voting public. The nationalist right doesn’t get this because the nationalist right rank and file voting public are… unsophisticated. Well, that’s a bit too polite. Basically, they’re stupid.

Now, not all of them are stupid, but enough of them are, that it’s a true statement a majority of the time. Some are, in fact, not stupid. They are well aware that trying to impose hostile trade policy against other nations violates their national sovereignty. These people simply don’t care, because they’re evil.

Now, “evil” is an inherently loaded term, so I’ll break it down. They’re “evil“, because they know that they are violating the national sovereignty of other nations. They also know that violating the national sovereignty of other nations is wrong. They do what they know is wrong, because they want to get reelected.

Where I was raised, doing the wrong thing, even when you know what you’re doing is wrong, for the sole purpose of benefiting yourself, is pretty much the definition of evil. Some would say that some of these politicians are simply scared to stand up to the nationalist right of the Republican Party.

That’s not necessarily untrue. There are politicians that are like that, but they are still “evil“, because, let’s face it, they really are still just looking out for themselves. They’re just also cowards.

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Liberty is For The Win!