Nationalism Vs Patriotism

Donald J. Trump released a statement that he is proud to be a nationalist and went over a few key things about what that term means to him. The first thing he says is that “Other countries, rich as well as poor, are taking advantage of the U.

S.” (Elving 2). The next thing that stated in this article is if Trump is talking about white nationalism. Lastly, they outline the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Let us start from the beginning just what does trump mean by “Other countries, rich as well as poor, are taking advantage of the U.S.” (Elving 2).

What he is eluding to here is that the United States is losing a lot from other countries through globalism. The practice and implementation of foreign policies on a global scale. Trump uses this with the mantra “Thier taking our manufacturing jobs” (Kohn 1) to explain the U.S. unemployment level. The narrative here is places like China that have the most manufacturing jobs are creating pull factors into their country. China has many good paying manufacturing jobs, so people want to migrate there for better-paying work. They are pulling people in for these jobs. Trump sees this as a threat to the united states because more jobs overseas will mean a better economy over there. As Trump stated, he is a nationalist, so he is proud of the U.S. and finds its superior to other countries. If the United States has less manufacturing jobs, then foreign countrys will overtake our economy, and we will no longer be superior. With all this talk about being superior people started accusing Trump of white nationalism.

White nationalism is the theory only white people can be a part of America. If you were to use the word nationalism in other countries, this would be true. In most countries when nationalism comes up, its tied to a singular concept such as race or ethnicity. In America, though it is a different story because we have been a “melting pot of race” (Hanson 3). America has multiracial for most of its time as a country, so when Trump refers to nationalism, he is referring to everyone in the country, not just whites. America is not the most diverse country in the world it is in the middle. U.S. cultural has contributed to this idea of us being a melting pot of cultural because we have diverse ethnic places in almost every major city. We have china towns, ghettos, Indian places, ethnic-specific churches, and fast food. With all these diverse places they lead to the theory of a melting pot of races. Which is why when Trump said he was a nationalist everyone jumped to the conclusion he was talking about being a white nationalist when in reality Trump believes the United States is superior to other countries, not other races. Now people think Trump used the wrong word and he should have used patriotism instead of nationalism.

Patriotism defined as a great love for your country and its people. On the other hand, nationalism defined as the feeling that your country is superior to another. Trump is getting all this criticism because people think he used the wrong word. Trump knew what word he was saying and still said it thinking your country is superior to another is not a negative. People are expecting harsher foreign policies when Trump uses the word nationalism not patriotism. However, Trump’s whole campaign has been about foreign policy and immigration; The media blows this out of proportion just because he is the president.

In conclusion, the media is making the word nationalism out to be some white supremcy word even though the U.S. and its president have used the word all the time to include everyone. Trump’s opinion on it is he does not want to give up manufacturing jobs and be overtaken economically by another country. Then some people believe he used the wrong word. Even if people do not support Trump, but they should support being a nationalist of our great country. It is another one of these situations where people are sensitive to everything nowadays. If people say Merry Christmas instead of happy holidays people get upset and protest. If people use the word nationalism, they get on national news, and they call them a white supremacist. It is the sad reality of a world we live in where free speech is only free when your not offending someone.             

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