Tomorrow is Deepavali. However Nov 6 will also mark the date of one of most consequential elections in history – the USA 2018 midterm polls, which is being viewed as a referendum on Donald Trump’s right-wing politics.
Will nationalism continue trending worldwide? The answer comes when Americans – the world superpower citizens – cast their vote.
BELOW: Pollster forecast of American senate 2018 race results
Trump voicing the will of the American people
So what is the threshold for Trump to claim victory for his brand of nationalism?
(1) He wins if Republicans can successfully maintain control of the senate
The American senate has 100 seats, two each for the union’s 50 states.
At present, the Republican party has 51 senate seats and the Democratic party has 49 (inclusive of two Independents who caucus with the party). Polls have predicted that Republicans will be able to retain the senate, possibly at 52-48.
Under the American two-party system check and balance, midterm elections are historically in favour of the party that is out of power, meaning: If it’s a Republican president sitting in the White House, then Congress will, by tradition, sway the opposite direction (favouring Democrats), and vice versa.
e.g. Barack Obama became president in 2008 and was reelected in 2012; midterm elections took place in 2010 and 2014; over the course of Obama’s two-term presidency, his party lost 13 senate and 69 House of Representatives seats to the Republicans.
On Tuesday Nov 6, Trump can benchmark his party’s electoral performance to the Democrats’ under Obama.
BELOW: Pollster forecast of American House of Representatives 2018 race results
Can Trump claim his presidency is a success at this stage?
(2) Yes, he wins if the anticipated blue wave fails to materialize
There are 435 seats in the House of Representatives (the lower house of Congress). The magic number is 218 to obtain a majority.
Presently the Democrats have 193 congressmen. They need to flip at least a further 25 Republican seats in order for the House to change hands.
Mainstream American media – most of them liberal to an extraordinary extent – are, needless to say, bullish on the Dems regaining the House. But then again, the legacy media are known to be virulently anti Trump, and notoriously biased.
If the Democrats are unable to bump their House tally with a net pickup of 25 congressional districts and thus hitting 218 overall, then they would have failed to retake the lower chamber.
Trump will still be able to celebrate a figurative ‘win’ as long as the Republicans do not lose enough seats to flip the House.
The pundits at Real Clear Polls estimate 36 House seats to be “toss ups”, i.e. competitive and in play.
BELOW: Former White House advisor Steve Bannon milestoned Trump’s hugging of the nationalist label as “a seminal moment in American politics”
‘Nationalism’ is not a dirty word word, except to liberals
‘Trump, self-described “nationalist,” turns midterms into a forum on American identity’, ran the Washington Post headline last week.
Trump is right about the need for a forum on his country’s national identity. Israel, as one example, adopts a Jewish identity and Hebrew as its common language. What is the American identity? Or the Malaysian?
‘Fake news’ media like WaPo, CNN and New York Times are cheerleading for Congress to switch from Republican control to Democrat. But don’t forget, the pollsters and partisan media were proven woefully wrong in their November 2016 presidential election predictions.
President Trump has now declared himself to be a nationalist and proud of it. He urged his supporters to embrace the label, telling them, “Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word”.
Pigeonholing the president’s rhetoric on immigration as “hardline”, the ‘newspaper of record’ WaPo reported on Oct 30 that “Trump is now taking steps seemingly designed to mobilize his heavily white base”.
For the leftist press, it’s racist and a cardinal sin when Trump mobilizes white voters but not when Obama mobilizes 95 percent of the black voters to vote Democrat.
ABOVE: Anti-nationalist Merkel makes a disgusted face as she throws away her country’s flag
On his part, Trump is portraying globalist powers as the enemy of national sovereignty.
The poster girl of globalism is German chancellor Angela Merkel. Madame Merkel is on her way out after Germany’s ruling party CDU, its sister party CSU and their coalition partner SPD all three tanked in recent state elections.
October elections in Hesse and Bavaria saw far right nationalist party AfD grabbing a huge chunk of votes for its spectacular debut in both state assemblies. AfD’s gains were in inverse correlation to CDU/CSU’s heavy losses.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who heads a minority government, is similarly heading for the exit after failing to deliver the UK a strategic exit from globalist EU. Brexit is synonymous with Britain’s expression of nationalism.
Today, the nationalists are holding or sharing power in Austria, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Denmark and most recently Italy.
Europe’s nationalist parties are anti immigration. They’ve put up a strong showing in their respective country elections in the last couple of years. Political observers have called this phenomenon the right-wing surge.
Nationalism is truly sweeping the globe … and reaching our shores.
PAS is already on the right track. The 1946 protest against Malayan Union was Tanah Melayu’s biggest show of nationalistic spirit. PAS believes that ICERD can be likened to Malayan Union 2.0. Therefore demonstrating against ICERD is an act of neo-nationalism.
The USA election tomorrow is a bellwether for the world. If the election results are a Trump tidal flow, then they confirm it that the nationalistic path is one along which the majority of the world is correctly treading.
Nationalism is the future; the nation state returns.
Helen Ang 
Republicans will win as Americans are becoming more conservative and nationalistic. Trump claims to be a proud American nationalist. And I am proud to claim that I am a Malay nationalist who will fight to upkeep the 3 Rs: Race, Religion, Royalty. I am a Malay Muslim first and Malaysian second and really really proud of it! New Malaysia as claimed by Pakatan Hantu? Only in their retarded minds because without the consent of the majority Malays being the major race in this land, it can go no where! It will die as Kutty dies!
u wan a malay muslim first, u can join our malay muslim first ppbm muhyiddin, if u prefer royalty, we have pkr anwar, if u purely wan muslim first, we have amanah, even chinese first oso no problem since we got dap. n indian first of course can look forward waytha, ph ada macam macam package, apa u mahu ph bagi.
umno is just a corrupted party, pas is a so called religion party that supports a corrupted party. nothing to do with 3r. u cant see the diff?
Keep on harping the lies hoping that someone will believe in them. It won’t last. Everything will terminate with the demise of the oldest p.m. in history.
To Helen, you are one strong gritty lady. Keep it up.
Why are you so proud of being a Malay Muslim when you had absolutely no say in the matter?
Let her be proud of her own race. Why is it a bother to anyone? Simply coz some ppl hv abandoned or being abandoned by their own race, that does not give them the right to prevent others from choosing his or her preference especially about her race.
ICERD is Malayan Union 2.0? Have Umno / Pas and their protesters read the fine prints of ICERD and the proposed version that will be ratified by Msian government? See the points below:-
1) Affirmative action to enhance the well being of a racial group is not racial discrimination within ICERD (Read Art 1(4) of ICERD). This would mean Article 153 of our Federal Constitution remains valid.
2) Minister has clarified that ICERD will be ratified subject to reservations suitable for the multi racial context of Malaysia.
re: PAS believes that ICERD can be likened to Malayan Union 2.0.
Helen, why over state and glorify the protest? Firstly, the recent protest in KL organised by Umno + Pas had gathered only 2k – 3k attendees, which is hardly representative of the Malay community at large. Please wait until they can gather the attendees the size of Shah Alam stadium before praising them.
Malayan Union 1946 caused the Malays to unite and formed Umno. Can the Malays unite today considering the fragmented membership shared between Umno, Pas, PKR, Bersatu, Amanah etc?
Pas? Pas = Parti Angkat Sedekah.
cant even pay the salaries of state employees and minta sedekah from federal government. tak malu ke?
Parotting the slanders spread by a particular clan it has become too cliche’, predictable and disgusting not to mentoon the insult to the mind. Keep the crap to your own clan. Nobody is buying it here.
Pas is truly a party with a strong base support. It constitues part of the perpaduan ummah and bumiputera. To redicule this party is an insult to the intelligence. Sedekah is what the ph did to charm the rakyat to donate for dono what cause which was supported by fools.