There has plenty of good news to celebrate here at the end of 2023, the promise that populist movements can continue to catch fire.

In a rebuke of socialism, Argentina elected libertarian Javier Milei. In a similar rebuke of globalism, the Netherlands elected nationalist Geert Wilders. And here at home, Charleston, South Carolina, elected its first Republican mayor since Reconstruction!

But with that good news, we’re also seeing bad — the consequences of governments that willfully, cruelly reject the will of their people. As we saw recently in Ireland, after a migrant went on a stabbing spree that put five native Irelanders in the hospital — including three children — the country’s globalist government has demonized and even arrested its own people for their dangerous! far-right! ideology!

Apparently, not wanting to be stabbed is now the first on-ramp for the “alt-right pipeline.”

Criminal violence notwithstanding, mass migration is causing other problems in Ireland and elsewhere, contributing to an affordable housing crisis. We are experiencing the same thing here in Utah: A few years ago, we were one of the best for housing affordability, but have now become the absolute worst. Despite this, elected leaders like Spencer Cox want to cram 100,000 more migrants into our crowded communities because it’s (good heavens) “good for the economy.”

With so much of the world in chaos in the lacuna of strong leadership in D.C., people everywhere are realizing the need to fight to protect their freedoms. And millions upon millions across the world are looking at America to take charge before it’s too late.

The Taliban is stronger than they were on 9/11, the U.S.-Mexico border is ruled by criminal gangs, Russia is rebuilding the Soviet Union, the Jewish people have suffered the worst atrocities since the Holocaust, and China is poised to take over the world.

Amidst all this chaos and tragedy, one fact is irrefutable and intractable: If Donald Trump were still president, none of this would be happening.

While many were skeptical of Trump when he announced his candidacy in 2015, as president he showed that populism succeeds where globalism fails. Certainly, America has no responsibility to police the world, but when we project strength — without misusing that strength — we don’t need to police the world. When Trump was president, Russia didn’t invade anyone, the Middle East knew peace and economies everywhere were thriving.

With him out of the way, the globalists are running rampant, upending the peaceful post-Cold War world order in favor of their own.

The term “globalism” has a seductively positive connotation: a peaceful world where all of God’s children hold hands and sing. Indeed, much of globalism of the last 20 years has been positive — such as the incredible 21st century reduction of poverty worldwide,. But increasingly we’re seeing that good twisted to evil. Globalism now means a world where power is consolidated into the hands of an elite few, who engineer mass chaos to enrich themselves while forcing us to eat insects.

Meanwhile, the term “nationalism,” which has always had a positive connotation of patriotism and service, has been twisted into a slur.

Tyrannical groups like the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and others want to dictate how everyone on the planet should live: insisting life will “never be better” than when we own nothing and have no privacy. Not exactly John Locke’s “right to life, liberty, and property.” When the super-rich insist they’re creating a more equitable world, but only if they become even more powerful, maybe they’re not telling the truth.

The best form of government is a decentralized one closest to the people it’s meant to serve. The farther removed leaders are, the less responsive they are. Our Founding Fathers wouldn’t serve lords in London, nor should we serve any in Davos or Beijing. Mass consolidation of power is usually bad for everyone but the small groups it empowers, no matter how much they may insist they’re doing it for “the greater good.”

In every movie where someone says they’re serving the greater good, they’re always the bad guys.

People all over the world are rejecting authoritarianism, whether its in Argentina, the Netherlands, South Carolina or Ireland. We’re all hopeful that the same can happen across America in 2024. Next November can’t come soon enough.

Jared Whitley is a longtime DC politico, having worked in the US Senate, White House and defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult Business School in Dubai.

Newsletter