Ukraine and America First

The original America First movement started in September 1940, a year after the Nazis and the Soviets invaded Poland, thereby starting World War II. America Firsters were a mixture of genuine isolationists and genuine Nazi sympathizers. The notion of “America First” was discredited for decades after. An odor emitted from it.

Flash forward 50 years. Patrick J. Buchanan revived the slogan “America First” for his runs for president. In 2016, Donald Trump embraced the slogan, and the concept. The Right at large followed suit. In 2021, alumni of the Trump administration started a group called the “America First Policy Institute.”

After Trump’s victory in 2016, Buchanan said to the journalist Tim Alberta, “The ideas made it, but I didn’t.” In other words, Buchanan himself was not elected president. But his ideas were, in a sense.

Today, America First is not merely a movement. It is virtually the entire Republican Party (plus the Heritage Foundation, the Claremont Institute, the bulk of the Republican media, etc.). The likes of Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney are on the way out. The likes of J.D. Vance, Mike Lee, and Josh Hawley are the GOP today. And, of course, Speaker Mike Johnson is too.

Johnson and other Republicans are blocking aid to Ukraine. “Take care of America’s needs first,” says Johnson. But consider: The deterrence of aggression is, in fact, an American need. The checking of an expansionist, anti-American dictator is an American need. The overall security of the West is an American need.

And so on.

Every nation has problems — domestic problems. Life is full of problems. But every nation also has a foreign policy. The fact of domestic problems does not mean the cancellation of foreign policy. If it did, no nation would ever have a foreign policy. The world keeps at you, whether you have domestic problems or not.

We in America have had depressions, including the Great Depression. We have had all kinds of domestic strife. But, as a mature nation, and a world leader, we have also had a foreign policy.

Frankly, I prefer Republicans who are outright anti-Ukraine to Republicans who don the fig leaf of illegal immigration or some other issue. I prefer the tweeters who tell me “F*** the Ukrainians” to Republicans who talk the America First language. (Some people do both, to be sure.)

For two years, we have heard excuses: “We can’t help the Ukrainians because our border is insecure.” “We can’t help the Ukrainians because Taiwan is more important.” “We can’t help the Ukrainians because we have a budget deficit.”

You may want to ask these guys: “What if our border were completely secure, and there were zero illegal immigration? What if there were no threat to Taiwan whatsoever? What if we had a budget surplus? Would you favor helping the Ukrainians then?”

Accept no fig leaves. Beware excuses. If the America Firsters want to throw the Ukrainians to the wolves, they will — with dire consequences to the broader world, including our country.