On Thursday, at the eve of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, the president of the United States delivered a speech in Warsaw to cheering throngs of paid, bused-in supporters. “This is my first visit to central Europe as president,” he said, “and I am thrilled that it could be right here,” pausing to take a breath, and then pausing between the next words, “at this... magnificent... beautiful... piece... of land. It is beautiful. Poland is the geographic heart of Europe,” he declared, “but more importantly, in the Polish people we see the soul of Europe. Your nation is great because your spirit is great,” he intoned, “and your spirit is strong.”
Toward the end of his address, he said that “the fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.” He then posed three rhetorical questions to his cheering audience:
Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?
Peter Beinart, writing in The Atlantic, observed that “the West is not a geographic term. Poland is further east than Morocco. France is further east than Haiti. Australia is further east than Egypt. Yet Poland, France, and Australia are all considered part of ‘The West.’ Morocco, Haiti, and Egypt are not.” Beinart adds that “the West is a racial and religious term.” He continues,
To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white. Where there is ambiguity about a country’s “Westernness,” it’s because there is ambiguity about, or tension between, these two characteristics. Is Latin America Western? Maybe. Most of its people are Christian, but by U.S. standards, they’re not clearly white. Are Albania and Bosnia Western? Maybe. By American standards, their people are white. But they are also mostly Muslim.
When the president of the United States asks if “the West has the will to survive,” he has traded the megaphone for the dog-whistle. His statement “only makes sense as a statement of racial and religious paranoia. The ‘south’ and ‘east’ only threaten the West’s ‘survival’ if you see non-white, non-Christian immigrants as invaders. They only threaten the West’s ‘survival’ if by ‘West’ you mean white, Christian hegemony. ... He’s not speaking as the president of the entire United States. He’s speaking as the head of a tribe.”
The fundamental question of our time is whether white supremacy can be overcome, a banner loudly and proudly flown by the head of the most powerful country on the face of the Earth.