Photo courtesy of Pexels, by cottonbro. “There’s nothing wrong with being a Conservative and coming up with a Conservative belief in foreign policy where we have a strong national defense, and we don’t go to war so carelessly.”
-Ron Paul
The United States has been in constant decline for decades. This is occurring because of free trade, mass migration, perpetual foreign wars and social liberalism. America has always lent a helping hand to other nations and populations during previous generations, but due to many of the aforementioned reasons, we need to solve the problems at home and put America first.
The title of the article is important in this day and age because “America First” has become a big phenomenon in American politics. This movement will soon lead the conservative movement and possibly help reform the GOP. The “America First” movement is unorthodox among mainstream conservatives because it supports “non-interventionism, economic protectionism, American nationalism, traditionalism and restricted immigration.”
Due to the rise of the “America First” movement in 2016 to 2017, many conservatives like me are very upset with the GOP establishment. We are upset that the GOP has insisted that we vote for them every election, but they never do anything for the American people when they are elected. The approach the GOP has taken is going to lead to many problems down the road, and it will affect Americans greatly.
Many GOP senators, representatives, and officials have become convinced that perpetual war is good for the country, free trade and mass migration are good for the economy, and social liberalism is good for society. There is nothing about any of these topics that are remotely beneficial to America.
Sun Tzu once said, “There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.” It seems, however, that many Republican and Democratic officials do not understand the message of that quote. Since 2001, 2.7 million service members have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan and even after the death of Bin Laden, we are still occupying these countries. Since the presidency of George H. W. Bush, the GOP have adopted this viewpoint that every country in the world that is not “free” needs to go through a regime change. The U.S sends our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunts, and uncles to go into foreign nations and try to force change onto the region and get killed along the way, all while our politicians preach “democracy” and get rich.
Free trade and mass immigration have dramatically affected America in significant ways. Due to the GOP’s abandonment of protectionism and tariffs, free trade has become paramount to the Republican ideology. Free trade has caused nothing but harm and betrayal to the U.S economy; NATFA and the EU threaten the sovereignty and national identity of the U.S and other European nations. Many jobs have been outsourced and shipped overseas to places that put our workers in poor conditions and work for a few dollars an hour for cheap goods that will be sold at prices higher than what the labor is worth. Mass immigration has also affected the country, both culturally and economically. Anyone can understand that as the supply of workers in a particular area increases, the wages of native-born workers decrease. Another thing to note is that, according to George Borjas, the presence of all immigrants (legal and illegal) in the labor market makes the U.S economy an estimated $1.6 trillion each year; however, 97.8 percent of that $1.6 trillion goes to the immigrants themselves in the form of wages and benefits, while native-born workers are given practically nothing. Culturally speaking, most immigrants stay in little enclaves; the Founding Fathers believed that for people to properly assimilate, they should be spread throughout the nation and should be absorbed into American life. Due to many immigrants being in their own zones, they choose not to assimilate into American society. Also, it is worth noting that, according to PewResearch, most immigrants tend to vote Democrat over Republican, despite that foreign-born people are more socially conservative.
Finally, it is a common trend that each generation, from Silent to Generation Z, has become more liberal, socially and economically. Much of the younger generation, like Millennials and Gen-Zs, support many ideals that would be considered evil such as abortion, prostitution, promiscuity, drug/alcohol use, and euthanasia, while many of the older generation people and traditionalists would be against them and consider these issues inhumane and degenerate. Many younger people, according to Gallup, also support ideologies that many Western nations would consider “dangerous,” such as socialism and communism. However, every generation from the Silent Generation to Generation Z all hold the same opinion about big business, with more support going for free enterprise than big business.
As the title suggests, “America First” is inevitable because every single issue (immigration, free trade, social liberalism) have been taken notice by many people on the conservative side and American nationalists who believe that their country’s history and culture are under siege by globalists, big business moguls, liberals and far-left activists who mean to destroy our country and everything that many Americans have fought, bled, and died for. “America First”S hopes to preserve American culture and tradition, as well as protecting our economy and industries from foreign competitors. It is time that the American people stand up for their culture, heritage, traditions, and history and protect them from people who hate America.
Gandhi once said that “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” Preserving the nation should be our top priority; those who want to destroy it or even hurt anyone that will defend our nation should be disgraced, disregarded, and dealt with ostracism and rejection. It is the job of the American people to protect our history, heritage, traditions and culture. We need to unite as Americans to support our country and help rebuild and protect it from those who hate it and want to desecrate it.
Sam Rix is a second-year Political Science major, UM Swimmer and paleoconservative commentator. His hobbies include reading, writing and exploring the political landscape.
