Argentina and the Netherlands’ message for America: Sovereignty matters
OPINION:
Is a global right-wing revolution brewing? That’s the transparent fear among the media and cultural elites in the wake of November’s electoral victories by Argentina’s Javier Milei and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders.
Yet the stakes are much bigger than whether established liberal parties are losing to conservative upstarts. Around the world, voters are desperately trying to reclaim their sovereignty. This fight is even more important in the United States.
At the heart of Mr. Milei and Mr. Wilders’ appeal is their desire to restore sovereignty, both for their countries’ citizens and their nations as a whole.
That’s clear in Argentina, where Mr. Milei promised to dramatically shrink the government in favor of individual liberty. Argentines have suffered under decades of top-down control, which has crippled their economy, stolen their wealth, and created widespread and worsening poverty. Argentines seem to intuitively understand that to save their country, they must regain their power instead of letting the government overpower them.
In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the fight over sovereignty is more national, though fear for individual liberty is still clear. Mr. Wilders tapped into widespread Dutch frustration with the erosion of their culture amid unchecked immigration, especially from the Middle East. He also opposes giving the European Union more power, which has inevitably come at the expense of the Netherlands’ ability to govern itself.
Mr. Wilders wants his country to embrace its innate vibrancy instead of becoming just another shade of gray in a drab monochromatic continent and world.
In both countries, voters are on to something. They understand that they are the rightful owners of their country — that government should work for them, not the other way around. But this powerful principle isn’t just driving electoral revolts in South America and Europe. U.S. citizens are demanding the restoration of their sovereignty, too.
The United States was the first country that recognized the centrality of sovereignty to human flourishing. Our founders understood that you and you alone deserve agency over your life. They wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights to stop others from dictating how we live, work, worship and associate. This principle explains why America has thrived more than any society in human history.
Our founders also understood that national sovereignty is closely connected with individual sovereignty. In the same way that you and I shouldn’t be controlled by others, our nation shouldn’t be controlled by other regimes or institutions. The United States should be accountable only to its citizens. If we give up national sovereignty, our individual sovereignty is threatened, too.
Which is exactly what has happened — and is still happening. For decades, liberals have expanded government power at the people’s expense while giving away our national authority to bodies like the United Nations, the World Health Organization and beyond.
Despite the promise that ceding sovereignty would pay dividends, it has worsened our problems and led to growing dissatisfaction with America’s direction. A stunning 75% of Americans say our country is on the wrong track, yet it’s increasingly difficult to find a better road since the people’s power has been whittled away.
The political right has fought this downward spiral by trying to restore sovereignty, yet in recent years, some in the conservative movement have become confused. “National Conservatives” and populists are increasingly willing to limit liberty in the name of ensuring cultural cohesion. They want centralized economic planning, restrictions on speech, and a government so strong, it can dictate how people live, work and act.
It’s a blatant subversion of the consent of the governed, and while these conservatives seek praiseworthy ends, their means are destructive and self-defeating. They’re essentially arguing that individual sovereignty should be sacrificed for the sake of national sovereignty. You can’t have one without the other, and if liberty is squashed, then a country cannot thrive.
That’s why Argentines rose up last month and elected Javier Milei: to restore their freedom from government gone wild. It’s why the Dutch elected Geert Wilders: to regain their freedom from foreign cultures and a centralized European Union.
In the U.S., voters may soon deliver their own rebuke to the status quo, potentially electing leaders in the mold of Mr. Milei and Mr. Wilders, such as Donald Trump. The question is, will those leaders truly fight to restore sovereignty or undermine it in the name of reclaiming it?
• John Tillman is CEO of the American Culture Project.
