National Conservatism Conference: Why Nationalism, and Why Now?

The second day of the National Conservatism Conference opened this morning with a series of short talks addressing why speakers believe a renewed commitment to American national identity is the solution to the present social and political divison in the U.S.David Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel and a member of the conference presidium, spoke about Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, all of whom he said were economic nationalists.

“The woke Left is bullying us into a neo-segregation in which we are judged by the color of our skin and not the content of our character,“ Brog said. He noted that patriotism, unlike nationalism, isn’t enough to fix the divisions in America: “Patriotism asks us to love our country. What we need now is more than love of country. We need to love our fellow citizens. We must feel connected to each other and a connection that is deep enough to overcome our superficial differences.”

“Now that President Trump has declared himself a nationalist, this idea is the subject of heightened interest and preemptive attack,” Brog added. He focused much of his remarks on Lincoln, citing a famous line from the 16th president’s first inaugural address:

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.