Final Word from Monday, May 2, 2016
Constitutions generally require citizens and politicians to adhere to national interests, and serious violations can result in the death penalty in some countries. When Donald Trump proclaimed "America First" last week, he was immediately pilloried at home and abroad. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier joined the Trump-bashing, saying that the world's security architecture can't be conducted unilaterally. Miloš Zeman's "submissiveness" comment a month ago was a crude form of "Czechs First" and met with a similar backlash. For one of the few times in the history of humanity, promoting national interests first and common alliance interests second, as a compromise, is considered by the ruling elite to be barbarous. Most voters, though, still don't agree. If Zeman's migration policy is tremendously popular and Bohuslav Sobotka isn't, it's because voters fear that in the end, Sobotka will put Germany's interests before their own. [Czech Republic United States Republican Party president refugee crisis]
Glossary of difficult words
to adhere to - to believe in and follow the practices of;
to pillory - to attack or ridicule publicly;
bashing - severe criticism;
crude - showing little finesse or subtlety;
backlash - a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, esp. to a social or political development;
barbarous - primitive; uncivilized.