Dakota Beacon

            Highly recommended to readers of The Passing Scene is the website American Greatness (https://amgreatness.com). The Passing Scene is hardly a fount of brilliance, but it certainly can point to sites that are. In particular, readers must check out at American Greatness the article by John Fonte titled “Who Makes the ‘Rules’ in a ‘Rules-Based’ Liberal Global Order?” published August 12. This brief, easy-to-read piece clearly lays out the struggle between democratic sovereignty and transnational progressivism. Regardless of the term used, each basically means the same thing: transnationalism, globalism, new world order, global governance, liberal global order.

            Fonte points out there are a variety of institutions around the world housing globalism. These in part include the leadership of the United Nations, bureaucrats from the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Court in The Hague, International Criminal Court, and the European Court of Human Rights.

            This list could be expanded by a social base exemplified by the European Union (EU). The EU is a good model to represent supranational governance: EU officials who actually govern Europe, Administrators of the European Commission, Judges of the European Court of Justice, and other EU officials serving in a variety of agencies.

            In addition to international government organizations, there are also the non-government organizations or NGOs. An NGO is a nonprofit organization that operates independently of any government. It is typically one whose purpose is to address a social or political issue. Since the end of WWII, NGOs have had an increasing role in international development. Organizations include: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Greenpeace, George Soros’s Open Society foundations, and the “Davoisie,” or, the global corporate leaders who attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

            Does this mean they are all bad actors promoting evil intent? That would be a false premise. What it does mean is that the aggregate of these players and organizations definitely think poorly of the ability of the populations of the world to rule themselves. In the view of the globalists, people of the world would be far better off being guided and led by a select group of right thinking elite who best understand the true needs of people and how those needs should be met. This is elitism at its best.

            The above are international players. But what about American players? Forces of global governance would include major foundations, American academia, the American Bar Association, and American global corporations. American international relations scholars can be cited as well. As Fonte directly puts it, “Their argument is that national democracies cannot be relied upon to formulate the global “rules” because they disregard the interest of foreigners.” He goes on to say, “…In other words, for American transnationalists, global experts in international law, human rights, the environment, gender equity, and the like, would have greater legitimacy in the creation of ‘global rules’ than democratically elected officials. This is a prescription for post-democratic rule.

            In 2000 John Bolton wrote a warning in a University of Chicago law journal article about the coming conflict between “Globalists and Americanists.”

As Fonte points out, “A decade later, the Obama Administration in the name of the liberal global order was strong-arming democratic nation-states into adhering to progressive social policies concerning radical feminism, abortion, LGBT, and gender issues.”

            In contrast, in 2018 Trump told the UN, “[S]overeign and independent nations are the only vehicles where freedom has ever survived and democracy has ever endured…so we must protect our sovereignty and our cherished independence above all…We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.” In rejecting globalism and emphasizing Make America Great Again, President Trump has upset more apple carts than can be counted.

            Fonte concludes by giving a thumbs up to President Trump and his administration. “For decades conservative thinking has ignored the globalist challenge. The good news is that the Trump Administration is taking the conflict between democratic sovereignty and global governance seriously.”

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).