In 1919, Lenin formed the Communist International, COMINTERN. Its stated purpose was to promote Communist revolutions worldwide. Its actual function was to allow the Soviet Union, when caught meddling in another country’s internal affairs, to say, “Oh, that’s not us, that’s the COMINTERN. We don’t control them.” In Lenin and Stalin’s Russia. Right.
Historically, it has been harder for parties on the right to work across national boundaries. Most of those parties were and are nationalist, and nationalism makes for uncomfortable international bedfellows. Each wants most of the blanket. But today we see nationalist conservative parties such as Germany’s Alternative for Germany, France’s National Rally, Austria’s Freedom Party, and Britain’s Reform Party facing issues that cross national boundaries. Not only could they benefit from working together; in some cases the challenges can only be met by doing so. We need a Conservative International, or CONINTERN.
Three cases illustrate the point. The first is immigration. The United States and Britain can deal with illegal or other undesirable immigration on their own. President Donald Trump is doing so in the U.S., and the same Channel that saved Britain from the French and German armies could stop the immigrants if the British government had the will to do so. But Europe finds itself in a different situation. The migrants must be stopped at the borders of Europe itself. Once they get in, they will find some weak-kneed government that will allow them to remainstay. Europe’s open internal borders then permit them to move wherever the welfare payments are best. A CONINTERN could coordinate national responses in those countries that choose not to be overrun by people who will never acculturate.
The dimensions of the migrant threat will only grow. A combination of birth rates, climate change, state failure, and economic disasters will create a massive flow of people from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern over the remainder of the century. It will be the equivalent of the Volkerwanderung, the movement of whole peoples, that brought down the Roman Empire. Conservatives throughout what is left of Christendom will need to work together to stop it. A CONINTERN could develop both the means for effective defense and the will to employ those means, something not to be expected from establishment political parties. At least for Europe, only a trans-national approach will work.
A second threat that needs a CONINTERN to counter it is the coming world-wide debt and financial crisis. All around the world, both governments and individuals are living
beyond their means and piling up ever-greater heaps of debt in order to do so. At some point, lenders will panic and stop lending at rates anyone can afford. When the disco ball goes dark, the party will be over in dramatic fashion. Imagine a world with no credit.
Populist conservative parties have a common interest in preparing for the collapse. Some will be in power, and they will have to advance effective solutions to remain in power. (Note to President Trump: this means you). Others, out of power, can win elections by being the only kid on the block with a credible response. Thankfully, I’m not an economist—an economist is someone who makes you an offer you can’t understand—but I think that when people panic, only one thing remains certain: Gold is valuable. By working out gold-based solutions before the crisis hits, real conservative parties can position themselves to grab the golden snitch. A CONINTERN would be ideal for that purpose.
A third challenge already facing populist conservatives in some countries, especially Britain, is the existence of a large Lumpenproletariat that lives on the dole. I’m talking about physically and mentally able people in economies facing labor shortages. They live on welfare because they are allowed to do so. Not only are they a financial burden on the state—see debt crisis, above—the fact that their lives have no purpose leads to drugs, violence, and despair. We do people who can work no favors when we save them from having to work.
Here, a policy solution is easy to envision. It is restoring the old Protestant distinction between the deserving and the undeserving poor. The latter are those who can work but won’t. All the state need do is cut off their welfare payments.
But populist conservatives face a political challenge doing that: many of the undeserving poor vote for populist conservatives. Here, a CONINTERN could pioneer a trans-national drive to restore the dignity of labor. Conservatives’ belief in the local and small-scale could help create a new Arts and Crafts movement. Schools could put more emphasis on learning a trade. Deregulation could allow ordinary people with skills to easily set up shop. Here, a CONINTERN would function as a forum where people with similar values could share ideas and experience-based knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.
Let’s steal an idea from Comrade Lenin and create a CONINTERN. It will add to his miseries in hell and please Czar Nicholas II in heaven.
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