Pro-Soros cash, anti-Trump Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan MEP used his column in the Washington Examiner this weekend to slam the American Conservative Union — the conveners of the Conservative Political Action Conference — for inviting French firebrand Marion Marechal Le Pen.
Ms. Le Pen — who was one of the most controversial and well-received speakers of the conference last week — has long-been lauded as the French right’s next hero, and as a result, was invited to address the CPAC conference in order to “hear her out”.
Her speech was so well received that long-standing National Review columnist Mona Charen was booed and escorted out of CPAC with security for attacking her on the main stage, two days after Ms. Le Pen spoke.
Now Hannan — who used to be invited to CPAC in the days when it was run by Never Trump types and Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) — has called Ms. Le Pen’s involvement “disastrous” and attacked her in the Washington Examiner.
An ideological ocean separates Anglo-American rightists from Euro-authoritarians. Or, at least, it did until very recently. That ocean has been narrowing since Republicans began taking up positions that they recently denounced as protectionist and autocratic.
He lists a number of things he is supposedly opposed to, and that European and American nationalists are supposedly in favour of, as examples, including: “admiration for Vladimir Putin; higher taxes for the rich; hostility toward immigration; assertion of national sovereignty; protectionism; more welfare spending; anti-Americanism; suspicion of financiers; obsessive hatred of George Soros; mild dislike of Jews; pronounced dislike of Muslims; family values”.
If he was being intellectually honest, he could easily apply the taxation stuff, as well as the welfarism, and anti-Americanism to a wide array of politically-minded Europeans (and to a lesser extent the British). But Hannan uses these broad European traits to attack only Ms. Le Pen, while distorting anti-Islam beliefs as being “pronounced dislike of Muslims”, and failing to acknowledge it is the real right that has been staving off far-left and real far-right attacks against Jews. As for the Soros and Putin points… this audience will recognise for themselves what Hannan is doing, straight from the NeverTrump playbook.
Hannan does however concede “[i]t’s true that Marion comes from the traditionalist Catholic wing of the National Front, and displays little enthusiasm for the far-left economics espoused by her aunt…” but adds, with his Ouija board in hand: “Reagan Republicans would not have countenanced sharing platforms with a party that was anti-NATO, anti-trade, and anti-American”.
The idea that NATO — including an Islamist Turkey for which Hannan has played cheerleader — is anything close to what it was under Reagan is highly questionable. The phrase “anti-trade” is nothing short of a weasel word for a Hamiltonian realignment of (especially) manufacturing, and “anti-American” is unfounded and amounts to nothing more than ad hominem.
Former Breitbart News Executive Chairman laid out the Hamiltonian idea of the American System in his recent interview with Charlie Rose for 60 Minutes:
America was built on her citizens. … Look at the 19th century. What built America’s called the American system, from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts. [It was] a system of protection of our manufacturing, financial system that lends to manufacturers, OK, and the control of our borders. Economic nationalism is what this country was built on. The American system.
This is what Marion Le Pen invoked in her speech at CPAC: “I want America first for the American people, I want Britain first for the British people and I want France first for the French people.”
Only someone who doesn’t want the interest of their nations and its citizens put first could oppose such statements. But for the Soros-backing, Never Trumping, Turkey-aligned Daniel Hannan, this opposition doesn’t seem to come too hard.
Mr. Hannan is speaking at the LibertyCon conference in Washington, D.C. next week, sponsored by “Muslims for Liberty”, the pro-open borders Koch group “Libre”, the Charles Koch Institute, Facebook, and more.
Raheem Kassam is the Editor in Chief of Breitbart London
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.