In what has been a breakthrough year for patriotic forces all over the world, the last weeks have been disappointing. But patriots should take heart. Ultimately, both politicians and lobbyists value power and access above any ideological end. And 2016 has shown that National Conservatism has a real constituency, whereas the so-called “center-right” no longer does. Once patriotic forces reach a certain point of popularity, the center-right will fall in line.

Among the disappointments: in the U.S, Donald Trump is disturbing his most ardent supporters by nominating a series of conventional corporate Republicans to his Cabinet—notably the despicable cheap labor profiteer Andy Puzder as Secretary of Labor. [Andy Puzder is even worse than you thought, by Hunter Wallace, Occidental Dissent, December 8, 2016]

In Austria, the December 4 redo of the presidential election led to the defeat of a nationalist and the victory of an extreme Leftist candidate who believes anyone who loves his own country is sh*t. [‘Whoever loves Austria is sh*t – Austria’s new president hates his own country, by Raheem Kassam, Breitbart, May 23, 2016]

In France, Marine Le Pen of the National Front has a good chance of making it into the runoff election in next year’s elections. But she is currently trailing the center-right party in the polls.

These developments have led VDARE.com’s John Derbyshire to suggest there is a “nationalist ceiling” beyond which Main Stream Media repression and the Left’s control of the commanding heights of the culture can effectively block patriotic forces.

But Austria provides evidence that this may not be the case. The Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer was the candidate of the entire Austrian right in the runoff election, having already knocked out the center-right party. [In tense Austria runoff, two conflicting “Trump effects” are in play, by Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science Monitor, December 1, 2016]

The extremely tight result in the first round of the election followed by the still-close Leftist victory in the second round shows that the Freedom Party didn’t fail because of an inability to attract center-right voters.

Some voters apparently thought the Freedom Party was trying to “game” the system after already losing. What’s more, the election focused less on immigration and more on Austria’s place within the European Union, which is still relatively popular in the country. [Reaching Out and Holding Ground, by Pawel Marczewski, The Nation, December 12, 2016] And as  The Nation’s Marczewski [Email him] makes clear, many voters, especially those in the big cities, were worried about the ability of the “far right” to represent the country abroad.

In fact, the best days for the Freedom Party are likely still before it. The presidential position is prestigious, being the ceremonial head of the state for the country, but it has relatively little power.

However, when it comes to real power and actual policies, the Freedom Party is well positioned and is likely to do well in upcoming legislative elections, due by September 2018. These could see the FP become the largest party in the legislature and its leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, become the next Chancellor [Freedom Party’s Hofer Defeated by Greens’ Van der Bellen In Austria’s Presidential Election, by “Tyler Durden", Zero Hedge, December 4, 2016]

Elsewhere in Europe, there are also signs for optimism. Geert Wilders (right) was just convicted of “incitement” for making a common-sense statement about wanting fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. This is a chilling reminder about how there is no free world, and Europe is essentially under enemy occupation. But the conviction seems not to be slowing the momentum of Wilders and his Freedom Party: “Far-right party still leading in Dutch polls, despite leader’s criminal guilt” snarls the Leftist Guardian in a hit piece after the trial [by Emma Graham-Harrison, December 10, 2016]. AFP reports Dutch populist leader Wilders rises in polls after conviction.  Yahoo.com, December 11, 2016:

The party of populist anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders has risen strongly in the polls since the lawmaker was tried and convicted of discrimination, according to a survey published Sunday.

If legislative elections due next March were held this week, Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) would pick up 36 out of 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, making it the biggest single political group, it found.

Before the trial began on October 31, the PVV was credited with 27 seats.

During the trial, but before his conviction on Friday, its estimated share rose to 34 seats. It currently has 12 lawmakers.

Of course, even if the Freedom Party becomes the largest grouping in the Netherland’s parliament, that may not be enough to form a government: Mark Rutte’s liberal “People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy” would presumably form a coalition with other parties with practically identical policies [Wilders’ Negativity an Opportunity for Optimist Rutte, by Nick Ottens, Atlantic Sentinel, December 12, 2016].

But in the long term, even this might be good for Wilders. As the entire political apparatus is slowly defined by opposition to and support for Wilders, it strengthens his case that the entire system is rigged.

Even in France, where the situation is slightly different, immigration patriots should not despair. Indeed, some would even make the case the Republicans’ Francois Fillon (right) is more traditionally “right-wing” than Marine Le Pen, who has moved to “moderate” the National Front’s image even to the point of expelling her father from the party he founded. Le Pen’s move in a social democratic direction means the election is likely to be a fight, not over immigration, but over whether the European right should try to combat the welfare state or preserve it for citizens.

In America, similar patterns have emerged. #NeverTrump largely failed to build up any real constituency except among the wage slaves of Conservatism Inc. Efforts to banish Trump from the GOP early in the primary season failed. Indeed, Trump’s most formidable opponent, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, largely drifted behind Trump in the early weeks of the campaign and later even attacked him from the right on immigration. And though Cruz initially refused to endorse Trump at the Republican Convention, he later bent the knee and campaigned for the man who repeated a National Enquirer story about Cruz’s Cuban father being seen with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. Cruz is even now taking the lead in introducing Trumpian legislation, such as term limits [Ted Cruz announces Trump-inspired amendment to the Constitution, by Carlos Garcia, The Blaze, December 9, 2016].

The dynamic we are seeing: once a nationalist movement develops to a certain point, it can dominate the politics of an entire country—even when the entire System is rigged against it. Center-right movements have to co-opt it in order to survive. If they oppose it, they risk being lumped in with the Left and losing their entire constituency.

Even in a multiparty system, the existential importance of the immigration issue is defining the difference between Right and Left and is forcing a binary choice between the two camps. This can only work to the advantage of nationalists.

So this is no time to despair. Though Open Borders subversion and sabotage are real concerns, especially when it comes to some of Trump’s Cabinet appointments, nationalism remains the driving force behind the Right not just in America, but globally.

People generally are as “right wing” as it is socially permissible to be. And the Trump’s victory proves that the Cultural Marxist Left no longer has the ability to suppress speech that it once did.

The Trump Wrecking Ball has busted open not just the “blue wall,” but the walls surrounding the immigration debate. Patriots around the globe are taking the offensive.

And there is no going back.