Alternative for America: The Dangerous Embrace of European Anarchism

J.D. Vance’s inaugural foray into international diplomacy made headlines last week, as he challenged Europe’s leaders on their record of free speech and civil liberties. While some of his critiques were well-founded and legitimate, his ignorance in regard to the inner workings of European politics was clear to all. Elon Musk, on the other hand, knows fully well what he’s accomplishing through his warm embrace of various extremist political movements in Europe, especially in Germany. His irresponsible and erratic behavior, and the revisionist narrative that he continues to promote in Europe threatens not only the immediate stability of the European community, but Jewish interests as well.

By appealing to the racist undercurrents of European society, the populist American Right is opening a Pandora’s Box of anarchy. The deepening integration of American and European political spheres will eventually lead to the unleashing of the demons of the past through undiplomatic and unregulated means. This circumvention of bureaucratic safeguards and international oversight would spell disaster and plunge the West into chaos as the scars of the past century reopen.

The deep traumas of the European psyche never did disappear. Similar to a patient suffering from PTSD, European society still bears the immense psychological burden of the pain, suffering and guilt over the carnage that it inflicted upon itself and others over the past century. This mental anguish, partially a result of external pressures applied over the years by the victorious Allies and partially a consequence of an independent process of self-reckoning and repentance, has irreversibly affected the development of Europe in countless ways. With the eightieth anniversary of VE day fast approaching, the contemporary influence of such distant events may appear to dwindle, but, in reality, the raw emotions of the past remain mostly unresolved and untreated.

Instead of directly addressing the underlying factors that lead to the implosion of European society in the twentieth century (e.g. colonialism, capitalist greed, government corruption, religious dogmatism, etc.), Western leaders chose, for the most part, to ‘move on,’ paying lip-service to their victims and, in the case of Germany, compensating Jews and Israel financially for the Holocaust. Nevertheless, business continued as usual. Cold War politics drew most of the attention of each side’s respective leaders, relegating the task of self-reflection and improvement to marginalized schools of philosophers. A psychological defense mechanism was constructed over the ruins of Europe in the form of militarily-supported bureaucracies (NATO and the Warsaw Pact), mass-surveillance, foreign political interference, totalitarian social control, and ideological panacea that promised progress, prosperity, stability and protection. Though motivated by their own immediate political interests, the combined efforts of both sides of the Cold War unconsciously repressed the collective trauma of the World Wars, allowing for Europe to invest its time and money in reconstruction.

When the Cold War ended in the nineties with the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., this defense mechanism began to weaken. Without the constant distractions of Cold War politics, and upon receiving greater political autonomy as a result of the withdrawal of both US and Soviet troops, it became increasingly difficult for Europeans to ignore the elephant in the room, the conversation that they had been dreading for fifty years. In response, the European Union was formed, founded on the collective fears of Europeans of falling yet again into the trap of competing nationalisms and political extremism. However, as time would tell, the EU failed to establish itself in the hearts of its subjects, owing to its limited political resources and its excessive reliance on foreign military support. Unfortunately, the prevailing establishment refused, yet again, to directly address the existential, profoundly human corruption that fueled the bloodshed. Either out of corrupt regard for their own interests, or out of sheer professional incompetence, Europe’s leaders failed to reconcile their nations with their pasts and instead resorted to doubling down on suppressing their destructive urges and creating political diversions elsewhere (e.g. Oslo Accords, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Putin, China, etc.).

In the meantime, the political paralysis caused by such heavy-handedness weakened the resolve of European leaders to take on the question of migration. Declining birthrates and the economic fallout of America’s dangerous financial collapse in 2008 further damaged European political and economic prospects, leaving it dangerously unprepared for a rapidly changing world. The Syrian refugee crisis of 2014 and Brexit only added more fuel to the fire. With the rise of increasingly vocal opponents of the European project, Europe’s leaders face unprecedented resistance not only to their policies, but to the entire system they represent.

A moderate Euro-skeptic myself, I can sympathize with some of the problems that many on both political extremes point out. Still, I’m not convinced that a total rejection of the European project is practical, at least not in the foreseeable future. As an Ashkenazi Jew of Eastern-European descent, I have reason enough to fear European populism. I worry much about the underlying antisemitism still present in many of the predominant Euro-skeptic movements on both the far-Right and far-Left. Unlike many Zionist activists, I don’t distinguish between the antisemitic rhetoric of racist neo-Nazis and Hamas-sympathizers, since I see them both as fundamentally immoral and dangerous, but I also won’t defend the superficial, inherently corrupt robocracy of the EU either.

A transatlantic alliance of the populist-Right, as promoted by Musk, Meloni, Milei, and Marine Le-Pen threatens to inspire a parallel alliance among the populist-Left, exposing not only Europeans, but Americans as well, to the polarizing legacy of European extremism (usually vehemently antisemitic). The irresponsible empowerment of such extremists would necessarily result in anarchy. In this cycle of instability, American banks would directly fund the poisoning of their own political sphere, making Western democracy increasingly unviable. We will have finally internalized the perversions of European politics and inherited Europe’s traumatic past.

In order to avoid such a hellish development, we must first invest in the reinforcement of the democratic protections of the individual, sovereign states of Europe, refocusing our efforts on resolving domestic issues locally, without EU/NATO interference. Moreover, the international community must take the necessary humanitarian steps to rehabilitate European society in response to the resurfacing traumas of the past century. We must recognize the failings of the Cold War-era reconstruction (e.g. lackadaisical de-Nazification efforts and links to organized crime), and readdress the inherent dysfunction that gave rise to fascism in the first place. Without such ‘therapy,’ Europe will never be able to process its collective experiences and free itself from its deep depression. Owing to Europe’s still-great influence on global affairs, it must not be allowed to collapse under the heavy burden of its past and should be encouraged to atone for its sins by exploiting its self-consciousness to help fix the world.