It is no secret that the GOP has long been divided into several camps, with various economic, religious, and patriotic (or America First) wings. Unfortunately, many Republican leaders have long embraced a universalist agenda that alienates many rank and file GOP voters, who feel economically threatened by globalization, and alarmed by mass Third-World immigration and the resulting erosion of our national culture. The historic rise of Donald Trump in 2016 attempted to address these concerns about cultural identity, economic autonomy, and national sovereignty that have long been ignored by the Republican party.
While economic conservatives want smaller government and greater economic freedom, core conservative beliefs, they believe that prosperity by itself will cure all that ails us. The Lawrence Kudrow ideal is a democratic-capitalist world order in which distinct nations will disappear as a result of economic and demographic integration, with abstract notions of “economic interests” and “human rights” holding us together. In their support for mass immigration and economic globalism, and in their contemptuous dismissal of people who oppose these policies, economic conservatives demonstrate a remarkable lack of concern about the looming loss of national and civilizational identity.
On the other hand, those on the Religious Right uphold the historic spiritual core of Western civilization – Christianity, with its moral order based on marriage, family, and high moral standards. But as with the economic conservatives, religious conservatives view America more as a religious mission than as a historical nation and people. In defining American civilization solely in terms of religious absolutes, they are woefully ill-equipped to battle the forces of multiculturalism and globalism, because, for all their religious fervor, there is no room at the inn for a balanced and sustainable cultural vision.
These two strands of conservatisms have failed to address – indeed they are exacerbating – the real anxieties of ordinary Americans who fear they are losing control over their country tothe transnational forces of globalism and mass immigration. Conservatives who dismiss the legitimate concerns of these Americans as “nativist” reveal themselves as smug and smarmy elites who seemingly go out of their way to alienate themselves from the working and middle classes. They see the rise of Trump as the cause behind the current disarray on the right. They are wrong. Trumpism is a response to it, and an historic wake-up call to a conservatism that has lost its way amid economic and religious abstractions.
America Firsters of all political stripes want to restore federal government’s role in preserving the nation’s political and social stability, chiefly via selective tariffs and border and immigration control. And while many of them share the commitment of the religious conservatives to the traditional family, America Firsters do not reduce the meaning of our culture to religiously abstract platitudes. They value the uniqueness of historic cultures, and believe that nations have a greater responsibility to their own citizens than to everyone else in the world. By fusing the core beliefs of mainstream conservatism with concrete, popular interests that the mainstream conservatives have foolishly rejected, such as REAL border control and tighter welfare restrictions for immigrants, America Firsters can create perhaps for the first time in American history, a conservatism that can hold back the multiculturalists on the Left and sustain America through the coming age of national and global disorder.
35 comments
Wonderful article! I agree so much. Yep, I’m an American Firster too. Otherwise known as Trumplican and Deplorable. I don’t even consider myself a conservative anymore because that word has lost its meaning by being stretched to cover so many things.
Is that how you live your life, you first? Above and beyond your friends and family, it’s you first?
I doubt it, or if so you are missing out. It is not a wise course, putting one’s self above and beyond friends and family. Neither is it a wise course for our country, putting itself above and beyond its allies.
Standing together makes more sense, brings more strength, deepens alliances.
There are allies and then there are mooches. The only reliable ally
we’ve had for a long time now has been the Brits. Most of the rest are
fair weather Peace Corps pals parading around with Cosmoline packed
weapons.
OK, let’s go with that: I suspect you’d agree we own our strongest allegiance to the Five Eyes (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand). We turned our back on the other four Five Eyes. Bad idea.
Miles – the moochers are the Germans, the Italians, the Belgians, et al who contribute a very small portion of their GNP to the common defense. Somehow, Germany has enough Geld to accommodate several million welfare-mongering third world “immigrants,” but it cannot modernize its army’s communications system with 21st century equipment.
Mark: When we attack with our military, we typically resettle the spoils of war. When we were a nation taking issue with Russia’s communism, we welcomed Russian immigrants, much as the Germans accept the spoils of their wars.
It’s only fair. When others here our cry and follow, we integrate them into the battle, giving their people a place to live in exile.
Or, we once did that. Now, not so much. Why? Apparently, it’s because there are so very many selfish among us. Sad commentary on the new America.
Spoils of war? There are no spoils in our wars. We go there, play diplomat with the locals, and then leave the night to the enemy. The German peace corps builds schools by day, the Taliban blows them up along with the students by night. Get real! We don’t fight wars, we ‘manage’ them. WE DON’T WIN!!!
I observed that there are real people displaced, liberated, persuaded to leave, whatever. They need a place to go. For example, when you properly attack communism, people leave communist regimes and they need a new home. Same with the Germans and others fighting the good fight:
Those people aren’t displaced. They aren’t liberated, persuaded to leave or even, whatever. They are victims of the Taliban AND our POS global policy. If you are going to have a war, then GET TO IT! Otherwise 30 years from now, we will be the Taliban’s best friend and a whole bunch of people who didn’t count will be dead.
I said don’t turn this into another Vietnam way back in 2001 when we decided to deploy. Well now it’s 2017 and here we are, still pissing around. Not one more American should be killed by these people. If the EU want’s to kill their citizens, that’s their decision. But soon if this Qatar thing gets crazy, we aren’t going to have any choices left. The alliances coming together now will ensure our blind, deaf, and dumb allies will be the first to a grave.
Why no answer from Connie S? Are you as selfish in your personal life as you claim our country should be within her family of allies?
Don’t be a troll. There is no need to goad people with personal insults. If you can’t make an argument that is interesting enough to elicit a response, then let it go.
Neither a troll nor personally insulting. It is an apt comparison between how we manage our alliances. If anyone trolls here it is you, “Frank Underwood, Sr.”
What I find insulting is someone who can actually assert selfishness as a path for either our country or themselves. The idea that any one of us is better or more worthy than any of the rest of us is terrible, worse still applying that selfishness to international affairs, the end result of which is a path to war and totalitarianism.
These expressions wouldn’t pass muster in grade school and they have no place here.
I don’t think Connie is one of the ones trying to secede from the United States. And you better start sitting tall on your high horse because rest assured war IS coming.
You should be able to see the dust rising on the horizon from way up there. If you bothered to look that is. The path to conflict will either start locally from your brass knuckled brigade, or from a blind globalist stooge putting Americans in a place they shouldn’t have been in the first place.
Better take care of your horse because your fellow traveler foot soldiers may be the first to shoot it in the fight against selfishness.
Fellow traveler? High horse? War is coming? Blind globalist stooges?
My, my. Quite the vision you have. Count me out. I’ll be on the side of our allies (bare minimum the other four Five Eyes), our great nation’s chief law enforcement officer (James Comey), secretary of defense (James Mattis), secretary of commerce (Rex Tillerson) and the majority of my fellow Americans.
Have fun with the orange guy. I’ll be with the real conservatives, who are busy trying to restore the alliances trampled upon in the race to selfishly declare “Us First.”
Haven’t you heard? The Cold War is over. The Peace Dividend has been spent. It’s a global economy where China builds our weapons better than we do. In fact, we would H1B Russian computer programmers, but we can’t afford them. We live on a credit card economy these days. World class fishing in Alice Springs is now just a dry hole. If it weren’t for the orange guy, Mattis and Tillerson would be just two more corporatists wearing a golden parachute. And I really hate to say that about Mattis, but the uniform is on the hanger. Then most of all Comey is the FORMER chief law enforcement officer because he was great at stirring up crap, but really lousy at cleaning it up. A long recognized trait that politicians value in bureaucrats.
Good luck with that! America adores Comey, and with good reason. Same with Mad Dog and Rex. I’m sticking with the good guys — the conservatives Connie places herself above — and our allies (the people we brought to the dance).
Selfish narcissists should be left to fight for themselves, which is where they belong. Like I said, good luck with that.
America’s power and glory derives in large part from her alliances, alliances that cannot be maintained if America puts herself over and above her allies. Given a choice between powerful weapons on the one hand and close allies on the other, choose the allies every time if you want the strength and power needed to vanquish enemies.
There is a huge difference, Miles, in being an ally and being a dupe. For far too long, we have been dupes, bearing a disproportionate burden of “defending” our partners. We have also allowed “our good neighbor” Mexico, which itself practices perhaps the most xenophobic immigration policy in the hemisphere, to intrude in our domestic discussions and debates on immigration control.
On a one by one basis, sometimes imbalances evolve, but when *all* of your allies are on one side of the room and the other side of the room has just Nicaragua and Syria, it’s not a tough decision. Sorry, I see your point, but it does not apply to this particular example (which also carries no enforcement nor penalties).
Which particular example are you talking about? The Paris Accords, which Obama signed independently of Congress and now supposedly we cant leave for many years? So what if we do leave if the accord carries no enforcement nor penalties?
There are allies and then there are mooches. The only reliable ally we’ve had for a long time now has been the Brits. Most of the rest are fair weather Peace Corps pals parading around with Cosmoline packed weapons.
Don’t kid yourself. These days American power and glory in large part is based on our ability to print money at will. We use that money to purchase alliances. Without the cash where would those alliances go?
Your point only proves mine: The alliances we purchase are better values than the armaments we might need to buy to replace them.
Yes, but with over $320 BILLION in interest payments annually, even at a very low interest rate, where does it end? Republicans are playing a lie and con job on the American people right now by trying to convince them that SS and Medicare are in trouble. Neither is in any trouble what-so-ever. Republicans simply want to “fix” both SS and Medicare so that the 3 controlling trusts will again build up cash, which they take out and use for wars and buying vote projects. And they will will leave an IOU, such as the $2.9 TRILLION IOU IN THE SS TRUST RIGHT NOW.
That $320 BILLION annual interest payout on the debt would buy one hell of a lot of infrastructure or healthcare. In fact, with competition in the healthcare industry, it would probably finance single payer.
And that is a very great danger. Rome undermined its money and eventually collapsed with financial issues being part of the problem. Devaluing your currency eventually leads to inflation and hyper inflation. China or India would be more than happy to take over the currency world.
Trump is all about Trump first, not America First. Look at his tweets from yesterday where he gloated that he is not under investigation regarding Russian interference in the election (never the point) but he ignores the big issue for the country – that Russia does interfere. Everything the guy says and does is to benefit himself.
So after months of fake news and invective against him he is supposed to just sit quietly and say nothing. Sounds like you want The Bush presidents. I favor a Russian investigation of the election as long as includes both the Hillary and trump campaigns. None of this selective investigation and prosecution.
only fake news about russia came from Trump – everything you heard negative was from him
What? You mean Trump hacked the Podesta emails? Or the DNC? Or put Hillary’s emails on the Weiner’s box? I think we need an investigation of the whole governmental process, from president to city council.
I find the debate about America First to be ridiculous. We live in the USA not Bangladesh – at least I think so. For many years, and even today in some places, we have a Buy America policy.
It is sad that an American has to defend against abuse in this country because he says “I am an American”. This shows just how effective Obama and the radical left have been over the past few years.
Havng 3-4 government investigations into Trump and the Russians at the same time is utter non-sense. All at taxpayer expense, by a country that is $20 Trillion in debt. The Republicans do not want to pay back the $2.9 TRILLION owed to the SS Trust. They say Medicare is in trouble. Yet, we can afford to have the House and Senate focused on Trump and the Russians rather than healthcare, tariffs, and kicking out the illegals.
First, lets get the facts straight. We screwed with the Putin election long before they screwed with the Hillary/Trump election. Anybody with money can legally influence our elections via campaign and PAC contributions. Pedesto had a first grader computer password at best. This whole investigation is a crock of shit. Why should I care if the media lies about Trump when he lied to get elected? Well, I don’t.
Comey sang cum ba ya today. This country is in trouble. The government is disfunctional unless somebody writes the right members of congress a big check.
Want to talk about something? Talk about what could be accomplished with the over $320 BILLION dollars in interest this country pays out annually. Those who own the media benefit from the debt, and refuse to let the media bring attention to the amount of interest paid out annually.
We’re screwed. The people have become to evil and stupid to take care of themselves.
So who is going to come along and co-opt the America Firsters like they did the Tea Party?
Try a politician. He or she has to find a group to co-opt to get elected.
The GOP co-opted the tea party. They turned the hand written Keep Government Out of My Medicare signs into flashy printed ones. The got a majority. Today they would proudly defecate on those signs. Which is why Trump got elected and everyone is in a pissy fit.