You First, America.
We’ve all been there.
Sitting in that uncomfortable leather airplane seat, metal buckle strapped around our waist, trying to remember if we did actually need something out of that bag stored overhead, all while listening to some bossy flight attendant named Carol on the speaker going through the list of dos and dont’s in case of an emergency.
They tell adults to put their oxygen masks on first if there’s a drop in cabin pressure. This is because if you — the capable adult — don’t put your mask on first, you’ll pass out along with everyone else and will be of absolutely no help to anyone.
Okay, Carol — now do America.
People say the words “America First” with disgust. Their noses wrinkle, mouths turn down, eyes narrow, “America First?! How selfish! What about the rest of the world!? There are children starving in Africa and people in third-world countries who need our help!”
My response: “What about the Americans — including children — hungry and living as if they are in a third-world country, despite the fact they live here, in the United States?”
The reply is usually some utterance of, “It’s not the same thing!”
Well, I’m here to tell you that it is, in fact, the same thing.
Actually, it’s worse.
We are Americans living in America and, if we can’t take care of our own, we have no business taking care of the world.
I’m no isolationist.
I know enough history to say that mindset has caused more harm than good, including the events that led to WWII. I think it is vital to engage on a global scale.
But I’m no globalist, either.
I was pro-Brexit, can’t stand the U.N., and think the EU is obliterating Europe out of existence with its unchecked mass immigration stance, for starters.
What I am is tired.
Tired of America spending hardworking taxpayer dollars on people who are not citizens, while Americans go unfed, unsheltered, unclothed, uneducated, and uncared for.
“America First” has become a buzzy catchphrase with negative connotations — the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has been the target of media blitzes since before Trump’s transition even began. Despite the boogeyman characterization, their mission doesn’t sound all that crazy. It states that it “exists to advance policies that put the American people first. Our guiding principles are liberty, free enterprise, national greatness, American military superiority, foreign-policy engagement in the American interest, and the primacy of American workers, families, and communities in all we do.”
Why would any American not want that?
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal immigrants cost our country more than $150 billion per year, with the majority going to “educate children who are here illegally themselves or whose parents are here without authorization.”
What about American children?
The National Illiteracy Institute reported that, as of 2022, 130 million adults were unable to read a children’s book and 21 percent of adults in the U.S. are completely illiterate. The literacy of American citizens has a direct impact on things like the nation’s economy and crime —75 percent of American welfare recipients and 60 percent of American prisoners can’t read. Some states base their projection of how many future prison inmates they will have on elementary students’ reading test performances. Illiteracy costs American taxpayers “an estimated $20 billion each year. School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues.”
Imagine if we instead invested in educating American children over illegal immigrants. Our economy would naturally improve and our crime rates would decrease. We’d be wealthier and smarter.
In April, President Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package to help various countries, and just recently pledged another $1 billion in “humanitarian support to Africans.” Biden said that the U.S. is, and will continue to be, the “world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid and development assistance. That’s going to increase … that’s the right thing for the wealthiest nation in the world to do.”
I beg to differ.
Americans have been left completely homeless due to Hurricane Helene and are living out of tents and cars as freezing winter weather sets in. It has been fellow Americans — not the U.S. Government — who are helping the victims out of their own pockets while Biden gives billions of dollars to noncitizens.
This is about priorities or lack thereof.
America and her people are not a bottomless bank account. Nor are we some mythical land of milk and honey where food, water, and shelter are in endless supply.
We earn what we take. We work for what we have. And we work harder than anyone else on the planet.
American greatness is no accident. It has been earned.
Other countries often have the ability to make a difference in their homeland, help their people, change their governments or ways of life — they choose not to. Why would they when America is always there to step in and clean up their mess? Why fix a problem when Americans can write you a cheque for it instead?
Under “America-last” policies, the rest of the world became a reckless, spoiled teenager and we, the parents, fixed everything for them with a wave of our credit card, instead of discipline, and realized the consequences.
You want to save the world and help those in need?
Wonderful, but you’re going to have to be the adult on this plane and put America’s oxygen mask on first.
If we don’t prioritize our own citizens, laws, and economic policies before the well-being of others, there won’t be Americans left to help anyone else at all.
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