EPILOGUE: THE REPUBLIC OF THE GERMANS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY-SECOND CENTURY

German citizenship now here in the 2020s reflects said empathy-with the other,  now a Nation no longer based on genetics, but rather is legalistic, as in:  “… children born to foreign parents (get) automatic German citizenship if one parent has been a legal resident of the Federal Republic for at least eight years and the child affirms German citizenship in some way before the age of twenty-three.”  It is about a mutual loyalty with the people living within the Nation of Germany, and has nothing to do with racial and ethnic identity.  It is closer to what the US used to have, as being born within the US was all it took to become an American. 

Yet, not is all settled.   A rising Nationalism is spreading across the Spaceship Earth.  “Reacting to the increased mobility of labor and capital, this new nationalism trades in a common currency of antielitism, antipluralism, and xenophobia. Typically claiming to speak for the so-called real, authentic people, it has made significant inroads into the political landscapes of France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, and, most recently, the United States, where it has deeply divided Americans and polarized political discourse (Smith 2020, p. 464).”   Yes, it has so divided Americans.  It seems “we-the-people” has turned into “us-the-people” vs “them.”

Smith (2020) points to the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has roots in the old National Socialist Party.  And, while Smith does not mention it, the MAGA Party (as a subset of the Republican Party) in the US often expresses similar views.  In 2017, the AfD managed to get enough votes so it is now represented in the German Parliament.  In 2016, and again in 2024, MAGA in the US also garnered enough votes to have several elected members in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US, as well as electing a US President all in on MAGA.   Yet, in many ways the rise of the AfD in Germany is less dangerous than the rise of the MAGA in the US, as Germans have deep experience with what happens when one goes too far with Authoritarian Nationalism.   Because of the 1933—1945 history of said party, the AfD is greatly resisted in Germany: The question is whether the part of MAGA with similar frames used by the AfD will eventually be resisted in the US.

Smith (2020, p. 473) concludes with: “… whether nationalism becomes, once again, the defining characteristic of the age, and not just one of many responses to politics, is a question that Germans will ultimately have to answer for themselves. But if our understanding of the past has any answers to give, it will contextualize the nation within a history that is far greater than its nationalism, and suggest that historical nationalism, especially in its modern, radical form, cannot make nations. On the contrary, it demeans, divides, and ultimately destroys them.”  Yes, it does. 

As DIT clarifies, a viable, vibrant Nation needs diversity and must be defined by an empathy-with the other going in every direction. It is about searching for common ground among all people withing the boundaries of said Nation. It is about finding the shared other-interest among all the people, as in “we-the-people” to include everyone.  DIT makes it clear what a true Nation is all about, with empathy playing a key role in defining it.