Standing up against Liberals requires a straight back

A Conservative dancing to the Liberal tune

Mr. Auster, who runs the VFR blog, features a reader's anecdote in a recent article:

A reader heard NY Republican candidate Carl Paladino tell Sean Hannity on the radio today that he has no problem going into homosexual bars......What a thing for a gubernatorial candidate--let alone a conservative gubernatorial candidate who has strongly criticized the normalization of homosexuality--to say.

Mr. Auster then draws a conclusion he has drawn before:

When he first appeared on the scene, Paladino seemed like a tough-guy Italian-American maverick ready to do battle with liberalism. In reality he's a babe in the liberal woods, helplessly eager to show himself a "good guy" by liberal and homosexual standards. This latest embarrassing statement of his is further support for my position that you cannot effectively challenge the ruling liberalism unless (a) you understand liberalism, and (b) you stand outside liberalism, on non-liberal ground that is independent of liberalism.

Where does Wilders stand?

On the same day I read a quote from a book "Choose Freedom" or Kies voor Vrijheid by Mr. Geert Wilders. The quote concerns his reasons for admiring his teacher of the political handwork Frits Bolkenstein. Mr. Bolkenstein opposed the excesses of Multi-Culturalism in the 90ies. Geert Wilders writes:

Bolkenstein taught me, choose a point of view, support it with a basis of good arguments, do not be afraid of criticism and do not yield an inch, certainly not when the Leftist community in political and media circles in the political centre of The Hague attack you and try to corner you.

Mr. Auster says that an attack on Liberalism must be mounted on a foundation of non-liberalism.

Is Wilders a Liberal or not?

Is Wilders' attack on Multi-Cultural Liberalism non-liberal or is his critique grounded in another, older or classical form of Liberalism. If it is the latter, than his attack is in danger to develop to the same stage that present day Multi-Cultural Liberalism has reached, namely of an anti-western movement, hostile to the Dutch nation and the other historic nations of the West. I will address this question in a second post.

Muslims, immigrants, public charges or not?

Muslim and other immigrants a boon to the receiving nation?

Yesterday IslaminEurope - Commentary featured a story on the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) asking Dutch Ministers to calculate the costs and revenues of immigration. Later yesterday there was a vote on the issue. All parties were against Dutch Departments to calculate the revenues and costs associated with immigration. All parties apart from the Liberal-Conservative VVD, Wilders' old party.

There was a big show of moral indignation at PVV MP Sietse Fritsma's request. But it is clear that the PVV is not finished. During a speech in Parliament on 18 september last year Mr. Wilders (Dutch) said:

This Multicultural society is a expensive hobby. A Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) study of a few years ago has shown that the average non-western immigrant family casts the Dutch taxpayer 230.000 euro.

The strategy of Mr. Wilders

The PVV is going to make this matter of whether immigrants are public charges the main issue in the rest of the year and leading up to the 2010 election. We have not heard the last of this.

The other parties are going to be in a lot of trouble over this. Them trying to keep the facts under wraps makes them look vicious and deceitful. And once the facts are out Multicultural society will have taken a crippling injury.

Right wing moves against criminal aliens

Right wing wants to turn burden of proof against criminal aliens

This blog recently featured stories about criminal Moroccan brothers in Amsterdam, who the police and Immigration Service (IND) wanted to have expelled. The brothers had incredibly long rap sheets. Both are ultra violent. Menaces to society. The were declared undesirable aliens. During the appeal the judge prevented one of the brothers from being expelled, as the IND could not prove that the facts that had been used to show he had no residence permit were correct.

During a debate between Deputy Minister Nabahat Albayrak (Labour) on one hand and Liberal Conservatives (VVD) , Freedom Party (PVV) and other right wingers on the other the notion was put forward that the interest of security of Dutch society takes precedence over the interests of a Criminal Alien (Dutch). The burden of proof for legal presence in The Netherlands should rest on the immigrant, not on the state.

Writing the refersal of the burden of proof into law

This Fall Deputy Minister Nebahat Albayrak, a Labour Party Affirmative Action candidate of Turkish origin, has to come up with a way to write such a refersal of the burden of proof into law.

Freedom of Speech in The Netherlands

Freedom of Speech is important in orienting society

In a democratic society the people are involved in steering the Nation. This makes it important that the people can orient themselves on where the Nation has to go. In order to orient, there must be Freedom of Speech concerning all matters pertaining to the state of the Nation. If there is a narrow judicial elite which decides on what can and cannot be said it will be impossible for the people to know what issues are and so it is really those who set the boundaries of debate who set the course.

Multicultural society overwhelmed by disfunctionality and the Dutch backlash

Issues of disfunctionality of Dutch Multicultural Society could not be publicly addressed after limitations on the Freedom of Speech were initiated by lawmakers in 1983. This led to disfunctionality overwhelming the densely populated country, which has a cultural tradition of extreme bluntness and outspokenness. The dam burst in 2001 with the gains made by the populist Pim Fortuyn and his party. Mr. Fortuyn's assassination ended the immediate consequences of the power gained by him and his followers.

Running into the boundaries of Political Expression

Since then especially Mr. Geert Wilders has been fuelling the debate concerning the threat of Islam against The Netherlands. Mr. Wilders has run into the boundaries of Free Speech. Because the ability to speak one's mind is a important cultural value in The Netherlands, people is receiving more and more support from well educated Dutch citizens. They see him as a defender of their Freedom.

Stealing Wilders' Thunder

Mr. Wilder's old party, the Liberal-Conservative VVD is losing these affluent voters. Freedom of Speech is a value that fits well into their program and in late May, just before the European elections the VVD-leader Mark Rutte came out with a proposal to completely decriminalize speech.

Mr. Mark Rutte announced his proposal for full Freedom of Speech and was subsequently interviewed on Dutch TV show Knevel en van den Brink. During the interview Mr. Rutte defended full Freedom of Speech, including the Freedom of Imams to call gays inherently sinfull, similar to the homosexual Mr. Fortuyn, who had said:

Imams should have the freedom to call me a pig and I should have the freedom to call their religion backward.

A full transcript of the Freedom of Speech interview is at Danish blog Balder. Remarkably Mr. Rutte also said:

Well there are idiots who deny the holocaust, I would want to know who that is, then I can show them; boys, I got a whole library full of evidence, and there are still people alive who went through all those horrible things, or lost members of their family, let's look at the facts.

This was picked up by the media who made a lot of hay against Mr. Rutte and his idea to decriminalize political speech. Former VVD leader Bolkestein, Wilders' mentor, supported decriminalizing political speech on June 3rd. Mr. Rutte must have been thunderstruck when the Freedom Party (PVV) declared being against the freedom to deny the Holocaust! This most likely in order not to lose PVV's halo as a Pro-Israeli and generally Jew-friendly party.

In the end the hullabaloo died down within a few days. The PVV achieved a historic victory in the European elections on June 4th. And the VVD did not as badly as expected, so perhaps their move to protect Freedom of Speech did pay off after all. This possibility will not have escaped the political strategists at the headquarters of Dutch political parties, especially PVV and VVD. headquarters. It is therefore to be expected that support for Freedom of Speech will continue to be strong in the future.

The State of the West

Standing up for your country is taboo

Standing up for the West brings few benefits for those who engage in it. It does not bring quick fame and fortune. On the contrary, Patriotism and a Pro-Western attitude brings many disadvantages. Many people avoid standing up for country and culture.

Mr. Steinar Lem is a brave Norwegian Environmentalist who wants Norwegian society protected from mass immigration. A translation of an article by him in the Norwegian press was featured on the Gates of Vienna blog.

“Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, and in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic.”

Social ostracism

The dogma of the desirablility of non-western immigrants is strong. So strong in fact that Mr. Lem challenges it because he has no future anyway. He will die in one or two years: “If I had not been seriously sick with cancer and been working, I could not have written this”

Using pseudonyms

Others are less circumspect. Dennis Mangan, an American blogger writes under his own name. He recently featured an article about the merits of writing conservative opinion articles under pseudonyms rather than under one's own name.

I am not really a 70 year dead guy writing from the other side of the great divide. My nom de plume is of the great Dutch orientalist Snouck Hurgronje. I would say it is braver to write under one's own name. And it can have a positive effect on people, when they see people standing up for the national question and the Cause of the West.

As the West suffers more and more damage it is to be expected that more people will publicly support Western Patriotism. It is through suffering and defeat that Western Patriotism will advance. The question is, whether the Patriots will be on time to save a sustainable piece of what they cherish.

Rudderless Right

The Dutch "Right" seems to be in serious disarry.

After the 2002 "Fortuyn" elections it was the Left who was in disarray. It saw its ideology questioned for the first time, many of its leaders de-robed and discredited and its party structures badly shot up. The Left was rudderless and mastless like French Men o' War at Trafalgar. Bliss it was to be alive and right-winged in that false dawn.

The Left reformed its formations

After some time the Dutch Left restructured itself, adapted to some of Fortuyn's truths and gave the rest of Fortuyn's philosophy a wide berth. These days most of the press is blatantly multi-culturalist and statist again in its reporting and commentary.

The Dutch Right was in charge and reformed the economy

Back in 2002, the days of chaos and turmoil, after the assasination of Fortuyn a shortlived government was formed consisting of the Christian Democrats, the Liberal Conservatives, and the populist Fortuyn List. Due to the ineptitude of the latter party the Balkenende I coalition broke up after a few months. The Balkenende coalition was named after its Christian Democrat leader.

The Right was still strong in the minds of the people. The Christian Democrats and Liberal Conservatives were able to form a new government with the centrist Democrats 66. The new government is called Balkenende II.

This government used its time well, embarking on a program of further economic reform and liberalisation, emphasising responsibility of citizens and their self-organisation. This vision is true to the old time Christian Democracy.

The government slaughtered some of the holy cows of Dutch PC on law and order and immigration. Notably with the harsh and legalistic Rita Verdonk on Immigration and Integration. The message abroad was clear. Immigration fell sharply. The Netherlands lost its image of hospitality in the minds of Thirdwolders looking for a nice warm national body to leech and live off.

Then a few months ago the government fell as a result of an inept action by Minister Verdonk and her political "sister" Lousewies van der Laan of coalition partner D66. This was over the Dutch citizensship of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali Religion Basher. There will be elections in autumn.

The coalition timed their fall poorly. There had been a downturn in the business cycle and unemployment was rising in the beginning of the government. The Balkenende coalition implemented unpopular measures, cutting welfare and government subsidies and attempting to decrease bureaucrat meddling. The Christian Democrats were low in the polls, because people liked neither the "responsibility" message, nor the leadership of Balkenende, who is as inspiring, alive and sexy as a Swiss Cuckoo clock with a common cold.

As a result of the economic upturn since 2005 unemployment has fallen sharply. Due to the constant policies of deregulation and lower taxes since 1992 business is ruining unemployment and welfarism. Unemployment has fallen below 3.8 percent of the working population! Wages are rising.

Naturally the Balkenende coalition wants to take credit for the upswing and tell the voters that all their economic winnings will be squandered if they cash their conservative political chips and start playing Socialist roulette again.

Voters do credit Balkenende with their prosperity and the Christian Democrats are gaining in the polls. But will the Right be strong enough to form a stable coalition after the elections? And will it be a right-winged government or just a leftwing government in travesty?

It is unclear how the Liberal Conservatives (VVD) will fare in the autumn elections. In the confrontation between the popular Rita Verdonk and Mark Rutte the party membership elected boyish Rutte as its leader. Verdonk has the second position on the list. Both are lacking in political and intellectual gravitas. Verdonk is a voter magnet, but due to her defeat the Liberal Conservatives have lost much of their appeal. The Liberal Conservatives are in turmoil, there is a new party list with lots of new candidates. Some of them are antagonistic to each other and have publicly left the party list. One of them, mr. Doctors van Leeuwen, is a very notable former head of Dutch internal security. Another, van Schijndel, has been purged from the part. Van Schijndel is unhappy with the way the Liberal Conservatives are avoiding the mentioning of immigration and multiculturalism issues. Like 2002 the VVD is pretending there is nothing going on although public opinion is getting even more concerned with Islamisation. Support for article 1 of the Dutch constitution, against discrimination is one of the most important point of the 2006 party platform. In the municipal elections in March the VVD even proposed to close down bars and nightclubs that do not allow non-whites on their premises. The whole program of the VVD sees humans as homo economicus, without any other affiliation than his economic well-being.

Despite her disastrous showing in the March municipal elections, the black figurehead of the Amsterdam VVD, Laetitia Griffith has been promoted to a high position on the VVD-list. So VVD is still committed to a pro-multiculturalist platform that bears zero relation to reality.

Democrats66 (D66) can be ruled out as a junior coalition partner after their idiotic behaviour in the Hirsi Ali fracas. Perhaps the party will even disappear altogether.

The Christian Right

Further on the Right is a whole range of old and new Rightwing parties. There are the orthodox-protestant Christian Union and Calvinist State Party (SGP). These parties actually take Christianity seriously and can therefore be discounted as possible members of a “Right-wing” coalition, under current PC conditions.

Then there are a bunch of individuals with party lists that have sprung up in Fortuyn’s wake.

The New Right

The most serious of them are EénNL of Marco Pastors and Eerdmans, old friends of Pim Fortuyn and Wilders' Freedom Party, the party of the Liberal Conservative breakaway.

These parties want to limit immigration, lower taxes and slash regulation. They are critical of Islam and favor strong integrationist policies. They are against discrimination, although Wilders has recognized that the rising tide of non-whites in the major cities is an impossible situation for Dutch society.

Problematic with these parties is that they come in penny packets, have very little history, the leadership and cadre are all new, so there is no “esprit the corps”, so these parties may easily fall apart a few months after the elections. This makes scatters the rightwing vote and makes it less reliable in the long term.

A more reliable partner

Perhaps the most reliable rightwing ally is to be found in the leader of the Labour Party, Wouter Bos. Bos has recognised that the limit to what the white middle class is willing to endure as far as immigration and taxation is concerned has been reached. Consequently he quietly supports limit on immigration. Labour has been thoroughly cowed by their thrashing in the 2002 election. In the Labour cadre committed careerists outnumber committed ideologues. They are desperate that they may spend another 4 years in the opposition and are quiet happy to sell their soul to Satan in order to get back in business. As their party officially views the anti-immigrant Right as demonic they know who they are going to call to get a quote. Wouter Bos is hardly willing to participate in a Leftwing coalition if it would get a majority.

Concluding: the right-wingers who want to make a statement Wilders’ party is the one to support. Those who want to make a practical impact might do best to vote for the Christian Democrats. Whichever coalition is formed will likely carry on the Christian Democratic policy of slowed immigration and deregulation.

Battle for Dutch Right-wing leadership heats up

The elections in 2007 are getting nearer and battles lines are being drawn.

A few days ago Rita Verdonk of the Liberal-Conservative VVD made her candidacy public for the position of election leader for the 2007 elections (lijsttrekker). The election to become lijsttrekker of the VVD will be held on 31 May and the 40.000 members of the VVD will be able to vote.

The vote contest is between Rita Verdonk, Mark Rutte (English) and Jelleke Veenendaal. Only Verdonk and Mark Rutte are serious candidates. Mark Rutte is the secretary of Education. It is not a position that gives one a clear profile. Verdonk is the hardline minister of Immigration and Intergration. She is a law and order politician, the law is the compass to which she sets her course.

With regards to Immigration and Intergration she has not set her own course, but carries out laws that have been drafted and adopted by Labour politicians. The present immigration laws notably have been drafted (English, third paragraph) by Job Cohen, the present Labour Mayor of Amsterdam. The difference between the Labour politicians and Rita Verdonk is that the latter strictly and narrowly carries out the law, including deporting thousands of asylum seekers.

The clear course that she steers has given her a strong profile and great popularity among that segment of the Dutch population bothered by immigration. She is also very unpopular among people who live in areas not touched by immigration or people who like or benefit from a multicultural society and open borders.

Several of the bosses of the Liberal-Conservative party are coming out against her. She has obviously upset the applecart of the people in charge of the Liberal Conservatives. It seems that her candidacy was a surprise to the old guard of the VVD.

Mrs. Verdonk is trying to positioning herself as a politician "who makes good on her promises". This is clearly a attempt to harvest in the furrow ploughed and sown by Pim Fortuyn. Her promise is credible. It fits her profile. She added to want to "save the Netherlands" from a disastrous Leftist government. This is a fear on the right wing, after the desastrous Municipal elections of March the Seventh which seemed to flow as a red river rising over the low countries.

Mark Rutte responded sharply to the hidden but intended barb against his lack of spine and conviction:

It is insulting to the [VVD] members that have to make an informed choice. I am not going to start mudslinging, but it is nonsense and damaging for the VVD.

What else could he say?

Municipal Elections

Yesterday there were municipal election in The Netherlands. In stead of local issues governing the election results, there was a heavy influence of national politics. The impopularity of the so-called right-wing coalition caused both the Labour Party, the Greens and the Socialist Party to grow. The Christian Democrats and the Liberal Conservatives lost heavily. Labour had kept very quiet for four years. People must have elected them due to a desire for stability in the same way people voted Christian Democrats in 2002. The shift towards the left is also indicative of a move towards Secularism, away from the faith based Christian Democrats. This trend has been going on since the 1960s.

The Socialist Party have a strong profile and they go steadily from strength to strength. Their leadership is excellent and they have been taking special care to develop their voter base and networks in blue collar worker area's in the past 20 years. They are unequivocally Pro-Western culture, which is unique within the Left nationally. This makes them ideal allies of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but she has chosen for the Liberal-Conservative VVD, which is not a good match.

They are also popular amongst the cognoscenti and literati, the pundit caste, which improves their media exposure at no expense. They will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

The Greens performed less impressively due to weak leadership. They are environmental yuppies and push an impossible combination of favouring large scale immigration and environmentalism. They are so enamoured of these irreconcilable good intentions that they choose to remain oblivious of this fact. Their leader is a pretty lady. She is smart but she has neither strength nor insight.

The Christian Democrats see their voting base in the country side further eroding. The Netherlands is secularising and the trend bodes ill for them. The Left is gaining strength in the South and has already a strong presence in the North. Only the East is remaining strongly Christian politically.

The Liberal-Conservatives had a poor showing. The trend for them should be positive due to the continuing growing affluence of the Dutch mainstream. However lately they seem to be struggling and they suffer from increasing right-wing competition and weak leadership and cadre. I did not vote for them this time due to their Amsterdam proposal to close bars which discriminate. This is another ploy to increase State power.

Rotterdam. The city where Fortuyn made his devastating appearance in 2002. Marko Pastors, the party leader showed himself to be a very good administrator and politician and a right-winger. The man makes no mistakes but lacks the charisma of Pim Fortuyn. Good news overall I think. The Liveable Rotterdam party lost a little but remained a dominant party. They will leave the coalition and become an opposition party. This means that they will have time to re-establish the contact with the voter base and to strengthen party cadre, following the example of the Socialist Party 20 years ago.

Labour regained a bit of their strength in Rotterdam. This means the end of the present Rightwing coalition in that city.

In Amsterdam the Labour Party carried the whole city. All the Boroughs are Labour's. There will be a Left-Wing coalition instead of the present business friendly Labour-Liberal Conservative coalition. Job Cohen the Labour Mayor said in effect: "we have to be VERY carefull not to become arrogant and this victory is in fact too big".

These victories are indeed a curse for Labour. Labour does not believe in Socialism. They say they have an ideology but they are utterly empty. They want coalitions with Conservative Parties, so they can execute watered down Right-wing programs. They will tell their ideologically committed cadres that the coalition partners "made them do it". Now being forced into Left-wing coalitions they are going to have to agree on policies they do not believe in. It will be a joy to see them squirm in the next few years. And they tragically lack the law-and-order instinct that the electorate wants to see.

Brussels Journal gives the origin of the Leftist victories in the cities:
"According to the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies of the University of Amsterdam 80% of the non-indigenous electorate voted for Labour. This explains why cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Breda and Arnhem succumbed to the Left. 84% of the Turks voted for the PvdA; 81% of the Antillians/Surinamese did likewise. Of the Moroccans 78% voted Labour and 12% voted Green Left.

The center-right VVD, the party of famous Dutch policians such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Frits Bolkestein, received only 1% of the immigrant vote. The CDA got 3%, the SP 5% and Green Left 7%."

During the previous municipal elections the minorities did not show up for voting. Obviously they have corrected that. It gives new meaning to: "the government has elected a new people".

I think the municipal trend will also be the national trend in 2007. The present Right-wing coalition is doing great work both on slowing immigration and on Liberalising the economy. But large parts of the electorate outside the cities are not affected by the Multicultural society and want to hold on to a welfare society, which is impossible. On this the Right-wing message will be a very hard sell. But it has to be done, because it is the right thing to do. The secular Right wing lacks good cadres but has a message that goes with the Zeitgeist. The Christian Democrats have an excellent cadre, but its message is sadly unpopular these days. It will only get worse. The Right-wing is lacking in Reagan or Pim Fortuyn style Great Communicators. Maybe someone will come along.

Building, building, building local networks and cadres should be the motto for the Secular Right in the next few years. And harvest season will surely come.

Conservative Dutch group attacked by Antifa

Friday night a group of black clothed "Antifascist" thugs attacked 2 members of a Utrecht based Conservative group "Platform De Krijger". Two girls that were with them were pushed against the street and each Conservative man was beaten up by several men. The attackers were discribed as typical "squatters". People from the neighbourhood came to the aid of the men who were wounded after the attackers left. The police and an ambulance were called. One of the Conservatives had to be hospitalised. During the attack the squatters called Leftist slogans and one attacker was recognised as squatter "Dave". The Conservatives had received several threats and suspect that the attackers live in the squatter houses "ACU" and "Ubica" in Utrecht.

Kevin Heller, a spokesmen for the Animal Liberation Front and "Dave" are conducting a hate campaign against patriotic young activists such as the two victims. They have formed a unit of political thugs called the "Black Block" or the "Zwarte Blok". The members of this band of thugs are dressed in black and hide their faces with Balaclava's or Palestinian Covers.

A few days ago a 41 year old leftist activist Louis Sevekes from the radical "squatter" and Extreme Leftist Fringe was murdered in Nijmegen. It is unclear who is responsible for the murder. Witnesses agree on a man with a sports bag.

Political violence is the new rage in The Netherlands. This started with subsidised Leftist groups that targetted nationalist groups in the mid 1980s. In 1986 squatters set a hotel on fire in Kedichem where a Dutch Nationalist group CP'86 was having a meeting. The wife of the party leader had to jump from the second floor of the hotel and lost a leg. At the time the thugs (Antifa) were subsidised by the government and shielded from police action.