and homogenized (though fragmented) culture of continuousnconsumption, distraction, entertainment, self-indulgence, surrendernof social responsibilities to mass organizations, andnthe erosion of the concrete social identities and intermediaryninstitutions that restrain the centralized manipulative power ofnboth political and corporate structures.nBy far the most strategically important effort of an emergingnMiddle-American counterelite would be a long countermarchnthrough the institutions of the dominant culture—universities,nthink tanks and foundations, schools, the arts, journalism,norganized religion, the professions, labor organizations, and corporations—notnonly to assert the legitimacy of Middle-Americanncultural and ethnic identity, norms, and institutions butnalso to define American society in terms of them. Instead of annethic of acquisitive individualism, immediate and perpetual gratification,ndistraction, and dispersion, the new nationalism shouldnassert an ethic of solidarity and sacrifice able to discipline andndirect national energy and reinforce national, social, and ethnicnbonds of identity. The pseudo-nationalist ethic of thenold nationalism that served only as a mask for the pursuit of specialninterests will be replaced by the social ethic of an authenticnnationalism that can summon and harness the genius of a peoplencertain of its identity and its destiny. The myth of the managerialnregime that America is merely a philosophical propositionnabout the equality of all mankind (and therefore includesnall mankind) must be replaced by a new myth of the nation asna historically and culturally unique order that commands loyalty,nsolidarity, and discipline and excludes those who do notnor cannot assimilate to its norms and interests. This is the realnmeaning of “America First”: America must be first notnonly among other nations but first also among the other (individualnor class or sectional) interests of its people. Unless anMiddle-American nationalism (or any other sociopolitical movement)ncan achieve such cultural hegemony through the formulationnof an accepted public myth, its political power andneconomic resources will remain dependent on the cultural powernof its adversaries and eventually will succumb to their ma­n”When the New Republic became the f i rstnmainstream national magazine with annopenly gay top editor,” writes Stuart Elliottnin the March 26 New York Times, “it wasnsomething of a publishing milestone.”nWhen Andrew Sullivan, a 28-year-old Brit,nbecame editor last October, some observersnsjjeculated that advertising sales for the magazinenwould drop, but this has not been thencase because Mr. Sullivan is, according tonMr. Elliott, “a phenomenon in magazinenpublishing known as ‘the hot editor.'”nOn the same day that the New YorknTimes story appeared, the Chicago Tribunendevoted the lead story of its “Tempo” sec-n22/CHRONICLESnLIBERAL ARTSnUNSPONTANEOUS COMBUSTIONntion to Andrew Sullivan and his sexual preference.nThe Tribune praised him for tak-n^ ing on “such hot topics as race, sex, and sexuality,”nsaying his homosexuality “has madenhim especially sensitive to the predicamentnof blacks and women.”nHomosexuality does indeed seem to benone of Mr. Sullivan’s “hot” interests. Hisnlead editorial for the March 30 issue of thenNew Republic chastised America for ignoringn”the other minority” that PatnBuchanan “assails”—the gay community.nMr. Sullivan also had the lead essay in thenMarch 22 New York Times Book Review.nHe reviewed the. latest biography of Aus­nnnnipulation as it takes its cues on goals and tactics from its opponents.nIf a new Middle-American nationalism is in some respectsna synthesis and a transcendence of the conventional poles ofnright and left, it is also in another sense a resolution of the polarnconflict between the classical republicanism and the nationalismnaround which so much of American political historynhas swung. Like the nationalist tradition, it concerns itselfnwith the pragmatic defense of national interests in foreign affairs,nmilitary security, and political economy, but unlike thenold nationalism it perceives a national interest beyond this pragmaticndimension in the preservation of the distinctive culturalnand ethnic foundations of nationality, recognizing that pragmatic,nmaterial, and economic considerations may and shouldndefer to the more central norms without which pragmatism isnmerely a meaningless process. The affirmation of nationalnand cultural identity as the core of the new nationalist ethic acquiresnspecial importance at a time when massive immigration,na totalitarian and antiwhite multiculturalist fanaticism, concertedneconomic warfare by foreign competitors, and the forces of antinationalnpolitical globalism combine to jeopardize the culturalnidentity, demographic existence, economic autonomy, andnnational independence and sovereignty of the American nation.nLike the republican tradition, the new nationalism is essentiallynpopulist in tactics, locating the cultural and moral core of contemporarynAmerican society in a stratum that is the main victimnof the regime that now prevails in the United States. Likenrepublicanism also, it is less interested in the abstract pursuitnof luxury and empire than in the defense of the characteristicnnorms and identity of the people it defines and represents, andnlike republicanism it calls that people to a duty higher than merenaccumulation and aggrandizement, to a destiny of knowing whonthey are, where they came from, and what they can be. If theynremain able to answer that call, they and their posterity may yetnachieve both a virtue and a power that neither old republicansnnor old nationalists were ever able to create. <5>ntralian novelist Patrick White, explainingnhow it was White’s 50-year “homosexualnmarriage” to a Greek soldier that “anchoredn[his] emotional and artistic life until hendied.”nThe New York Times reported that Mr.nSullivan was to receive on April 6 an awardnfor outstanding magazine editing fromnthe Gay and Lesbian Alliance AgainstnDefamation at the organization’s third annualnmedia awards ceremony. It was notnstated how many previous editors of thenNew Republic had won awards for “outstandingnmagazine editing” after only fivenmonths on the job.n