President Trump has kept the promise that he will travel to foreign countries less often than previous presidents. This is not surprising. During his campaign and his time in office, he has said things such as, “I’m not representing the globe, I’m representing your country,” and “I’ve got no time to travel — America needs my attention now.” Trump has called his strategy to help Americans “America First.” His strategy is illogical, detrimental and paranoid in its core because it does not answer a major question — what does it mean to be an American?
We normally do not try to think too hard about this question. The administration has tried to define what an American is not: the press, liberals, foreigners and even “Hamilton” cast members, to just name a few. This logic of naming what an American is and isn’t works in language theory but not when it comes to politics.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines an American as “an indigenous inhabitant of (any part of) the Americas; an American Indian” and “a native or citizen of the United States.” If it is not clear, both of these definitions have major problems. First of all, the first definition only applies to native-born Americans such as Native Americans. Secondly, both definitions exclude foreigners or immigrants. These definitions might work for Trump’s administration, but they do not accurately define America in 2017.
When an American goes abroad, is he or she still an American? What about people with dual citizenship? What about immigrants or foreigners that have American constitutional rights but are by no means citizens? What about the majority of “Americans” who immigrated from other countries over the last 300 years?
I believe that America First is an attempt to exclude instead of include. America First attempts to preach a paranoid world view. It implies that there are Americans and “un-Americans” that do not share the majority’s view. It implies that we should only care about the former. It creates an “ideal” American through a long list of qualifications and disqualifications. But what are these ideal Americans?
As I said above, the administration’s “ideal” American is a native resident of America that blindly believes in so-called “American ideals” such as the American dream. But what about those that question or disagree with the government’s message or want to see a change from the past?
America First is an economic nightmare. If all economic growth needs to come from within the 50 states, what happens to all those business interests in foreign countries, such as hideous golden hotels? Our economy is directly tied to other economies. This can be seen by reading the “made in” tag on any of your possessions.
In 2016, the United States imported $2.7 trillion in goods and services. If America First was to be implemented, we would become in theory self-sufficient.
America First, at its core, is a philosophy of economic isolationism. Economic isolationism can’t work in the modern world because of how linked the American economy is to the rest of the world.
Trumpian economic exceptionalism is similar to an old economic theory, Import Substitution Industrialization. ISI is a trade and economic policy which imposes tariffs on foreign imports and protects local industries. A country such as the United States does not have all of the resources it needs to be able to manufacture goods. By imposing high tariffs on foreign goods, it limits outside competition and increases the prices of products inside the country. It also causes the government to spend a lot of money protecting domestic manufacturers. This can be best seen through government aid given in the form of tax breaks to Carrier and Ford after Trump “negotiated” with them to keep jobs in America.
The creation of the big and scary “other” that is out to get you has for centuries scared people into believing in ideas such as America First. People need to look past these propaganda tricks and realize that there is no “other” and that human beings can’t be categorized by arbitrary concepts such as “American” or “Un-American.” We need to put the world first, not a nation or an ideal.
The more you think about it, the less “American” we become. We can’t isolate ourselves from the world no matter how scary it looks. I do believe we should help other countries — not to spread our ideals or for business interests, but out of compassion. In our interconnected world, there is no place for isolationism and fear.
If anything, “America First” will put the very country it wants to help in very last place.
