We all know that liberals claim to be internationalist. Most of us know that this supposed internationalism is confined to clothes borrowing. But how would you feel if you learned that your own kind was the clothes borrowee?

The way I was raised encourages me to look at my own behavior, and ask myself how I made myself vulnerable to this. The answer is, of course, obvious: I’m a born and raised Canadian commenting on American politics.

Since I’m not a voting United States citizen, I obviously had bounds which I had to observe. These were the ones I used:

1. Since Canada is a member of NATO, being pro- NATO is okay, even if it’s entangling at times.
2. As far as political commentary is concerned: stick, as much as possible, to universals, and leave the politicking to those born and raised in the United States.

Explainable by self-interest the above may be, but I saw it in terms of honor, actually. Why would a foreigner meddle in the politics of another country unless there’s something wrong with their head?

The answer to this is also obvious. More than a few foreigners see the welcome mat still evident at Ellis Island and begin dabbling in United States politics because they might be considering a move to America. Good-hearted this policy is, but it sometimes leads to an abuse of the welcome mat where a foreigner leads native citizens on about his “essential Americanness” (or some such) while secretly deciding never to emigrate there. Such a person uses Americans in order to get their jollies at the local bar.

The combination of the pervasiveness of the Internet and a rise in the isolationist spirit in the American Right really suggests that more than a few foreigners are having a good time playing activist in the States.

To be honest, I’d rather not be counted among them, even if I’ll wind up missing this place.

There’s a more serious analog to the above which you should know about. A lot of liberals use the above internationalism to ask residents of foreign countries how America ticks. It’s obvious that a foreigner would be ignorant of the bulk of United States customs, of course, but an outsider’s view does give you a certain kind of knowledge that a resident would have a hard time picking up - such as what moniker contains a disguised insult.

When you see that supposed internationalists are in it simply for the cultivation of a “genius” image through dependency on foreign sources, you really stop and consider what the response should be. Would a good conservative retaliate in kind or decide that playing that game is beneath them?

Randians will of course laugh at this, but the proper way to decide this is by checking the opinions of those whom you respect in the movement. Not being a liberal, I cannot dismiss the isolationist spirit as “simplistic right wing Know Nothingism” or some other. I have to take such issues seriously.

Given the rise of American annoyance at non- resident interference in politics, and given that such hostility has substance behind it, the only sensible course of action on my part would be to hide the lawnmower, and let the grass grow on its own a little.

What got me into the internationalist racket in the first place was a certain contradiction in left-wing propaganda. The old Left insists that there’s a world-wide bourgeois conspiracy which keeps the proles underfoot: since conservatism is usually associated with “bourgeois,” that implies we’re the ones floating around on top. But modern left-wing propaganda describes the Right as isolationist at heart – nationalistic and even ‘fascistic’.

The latter implies that the Right has a bunker mentality and that they’re scared of the world. How could a global ruling class have that attitude? People on the top are confident in venturing throughout the world because they can land on an uppity foreigner in a way that’ll stick; they don’t acquire the kind of fear consistent with the Left’s use of the term ‘fascism’.

Obviously, this effective contradiction implies that the score needed to be evened in some way. This is one of the reasons I got into this field in the first place.

If there’s any advice I’d offer to my fellow non-Americans, it’s this: if you’re in the field of conservative commentary for a country which you’re not a resident of, you’re just a salesman of those writings, and that can never change. Just stick with it, and remember that the competitive disadvantage implied by being a foreigner can never be erased unless you - seriously - plan to emigrate to the United States. You just have to roll with this.

As far as my own path is concerned, I’m very much sticking with the standard how-to-succeed plan: don’t leave one jobbo unless you have another to go to. This is the new one for me - for now. Undoubtedly there will be another soon, as a mere blog is really for part-timers and time-markers.

Thanks so much for reading these. Had the times been less tumultuous, I would have been both less exciting and more durable – the kind of clinch hitter that ends up winning the day.

You’ll find more than a few of them by going here.