The election of Javier Milei in Argentina promises to deliver shock therapy to the Argentine economy. Once among the wealthiest nations in the world, Argentina is now an economic failure after succumbing to Peronist policies over the second half of the 20^th century. It is due for defibrillation. Its ailment, Peronism, bears a striking resemblance to the contemporary difficulties of western nations. The way Juan Peron described his philosophy will induce a case of déjà vu as according to Peron; “the two arms of Peronism are social justice and social help,” “any political elite is anti-people and thus, not Peronist,” “Justicialism proposes a social market putting capital to the service of the well-being of the people.” These philosophies should sound familiar to anyone who has heard the terms “social justice,” “the elites,” and “ESG investing.” Peronism was a one-party fusion of state, corporate, and government power to reach desired social goals with the end result of impoverishing one of the most wealthy and beautiful nations on earth. Described as simultaneously corporatist, socialist, and fascist, Peronism was a middle-class movement (moyenne, haute, grande bourgeois) intent on consolidating power from the petit bourgeois and ancienne bourgeois. This fight is echoed in the United States as the fight of the technocratic professional class against the Make America Great Again movement headed by ancienne bourgeois Donald Trump.

Milei’s election, then, provides us with a unique twist in our story. We have an opportunity for western societies to reverse their declining influence and show that we can effectively demonstrate that we can simultaneously manage our problems and support a society in pursuit of freedom and beauty with favorable investment terms and military pacts. Hence, Milei's Argentina serves as a microcosmic proving ground for the western nations to demonstrate their effectiveness. The upside is an opportunity to offset near-peer adversary influence and demonstrate that we can structure intersocietal and strategic relationships to serve as the foundation of lasting prosperity.

In the background, we face an increasingly difficult fight to defend the vitality of the West against a varied enemy.  Our adversary is proto-socialism and proto-fascism with two distinct prongs. The first is a creeping and denigrated form of capitalism departed from the traditional ideas of rational allocation of resources and strayed into sensuality. Through misleading, neuroscientifically sensitive marketing materials, certain enterprises intent on circumventing rational decision-making have made inroads into our economies. The era was initiated by series of Nobel Prize-winning academics Richard Thaler, Daniel Kahneman, and Robert Shiller who correctly identified the “bounded rationality” of most people. These findings were subsequently recreated on a mass scale by teams of “data scientists” inside enterprises intent on sensualizing and subverting rational decision-making processes. The irony is that the entire history of rationality is predicated on the well-recognized fact that most humans are not rational and clear decision-making needs to be developed as a skill. Hence, the work of these men is largely a repurposing of folk knowledge. Its reflection in society is an increasingly sophistication of distorted design styles in architecture and sensualized influencers which, in combination with a moralizing societal pressure, is designed to overwhelm the senses. Fundamentally, it serves to weaken the population and move money into the pockets of those employing the tactics. This denigrated form of capitalism makes us vulnerable to internal conflict which, subsequently, compromises our ability operate against global adversaries.

Javier Milei himself is a unique asset who articulates the theoretical principles of the conflict in a way superior to any other western leader. His speeches are marked by references to the grand theoreticians of capitalist and anti-capitalist policies. For example, he references Hayek’s “Fatal Conceit,” Jeremy Bentham, and Antonio Gramsci within five minutes of each other in an interview with Tucker Carlson. His understanding of the interplay of ideas is not present in any other conservative politician. And no American politician on either side has his depth of understanding. His ability to articulate ideas is extremely valuable because our societies are predicated on a balanced debate regarding rational policymaking. As the conservatives have left the academy, their ability to construct arguments on this level has receded and the decisions made within our institutions have become increasingly corrupt.

A Milei government, then, is a strategic proving ground to demonstrate that we can offer an effective counter to these influences. Dollarizing the Argentine economy and creating favorable foreign investment and military terms will undercut Argentine Peronists and yield tactical advantages that will be applicable in the years ahead. A demonstration of our ability to ally with friendly governments and help them prosper will engage Argentine human and material resources with the following aims:

1. Securing a prosperous development pathway that does justice to the potential of the Argentine homeland.
2. Securing a military pact with the Argentines that puts them in a leadership position in South America to offset peer-adversary influence in the region and in spreading shared ideas of freedom, democracy, and beauty.
3. Understand how to deal with the lingering effects of entrenched ideologies when they are out of government.

In conclusion, supporting Milei's regime in Argentina is not merely an economic investment; it is a strategic imperative for the western states. By providing favorable investment terms, western nations can encourage a prosperous development trajectory for Argentina, aligning the nation more closely with western values. This alignment, coupled with Milei's intellectual prowess and eloquence, serves as a potent tool in countering the influence of near-peer adversaries in South America. Moreover, fostering a defense pact with Argentina adds a layer of regional stability and positions the western world as a united front against external threats. In a world where the balance of power is constantly shifting, investing in Milei's regime emerges as a proactive measure to safeguard western interests and uphold the values that have historically brought prosperity to the world.

Nathan Klarer is an international businessman with a decade of experience in U.S.-Latin American trade. The total efforts conducted in Latin America comprise millions of dollars in investment and span several countries in North and South America. As a political conservative, he emphasizes the power of beauty and rationality in decisions and protecting the cherished order of our civilization for future generations.

Image: Vox España