Fighting Globalism With Secession: Why Nationalism is Preferable to Globalism

For the past year and a half or so, the world has witnessed political shock after shock, as voters have soundly rejected globalist policies and leaders in favor of national sovereignty. From Brexit to what will undoubtedly be looked at as one of the greatest political upsets in history with the election of Trump, it is clear that something is happening.

While the majority of these voters certainly were not principled libertarians or even well-versed in libertarian philosophy, it is safe to conclude that they are at the very least skeptical of ceding more power to supranational entities such as the European Union. This surge of skepticism and disdain for the ruling elites should be music to the ears of anyone trying to limit the powers of the state. Let us take proper advantage of it.




The goal of everyone within the liberty movement is to limit the powers of government even if there are disagreements as to the extent of that limitation.  For the past several decades, the world has been on a steady path towards globalism. I am not referring to globalism in the sense of peaceful free trade between market actors (as it is often disingenuously portrayed by the Libertarian Party), but rather the movement away from national sovereignty and towards global governance.  As more and more so-called “free trade” deals are negotiated in secret and global political unions are formed, the power of the nation-state is slipping away.  This should be vehemently opposed by all who care for freedom.

The reason libertarians should support the current trend of nationalism is simple: It is a better alternative to globalism. Libertarians favor localizing control all the way down to the individual when possible.  This leads us to favor states’ rights over that of the federal government, and it leads us to embrace policies such as abolishing the Department of Education in favor of local school control.  If the idea that the federal government running the lives of three hundred million people is a terrible one, the idea of a global government running the lives of the entire world is even worse. Since a national government is closer to the individual than a global one ever would be, we should necessarily support national control over global.  I am unashamed to support nationalism over globalism, and I encourage anyone who cares about freedom to do the same.