Putting America First Means Recognizing Enemies Foreign and Domestic
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” Oath of Office for Members of Congress
America First spokesman, Charles Lindbergh, with Nazis in Germany.
I believe in a principle-based understanding of placing America first. It is not dissimilar to the way parents should view their family. The family is the priority. Their care. Their protection. Providing for them. Loving them. Identifying sicknesses which threaten their lives internally. But caring for a nation, like a family, means recognizing threats not only domestic, but foreign. It means recognizing promises made to friends abroad. It means honoring responsibilities as a leader in the community and the world. No nation or family can survive without the bandwidth to do both.
This is not an easy task. Our nation has been inconsistent and not always acted with wisdom and discretion. But we have been at our best when we honor the moral high ground in international conflict and show strength to merciless tyrants who would threaten the peace of the world.
I reject the “America First” of the 1939 Isolationists who gave aide and comfort to Adolf Hitler in their attempts to protect America from entering a world war. These “patriots” actually became mouthpieces for the Third Reich in America sewing seeds of contempt for our allies. They repeated outrageous German propaganda in the hopes of dissuading Americans from sending aid to our allies under assault. They refused to take a moral stand against aggressor nations. As early as 1940 they declared England to be the inevitable loser of the war. They insisting she could never win no matter how much American aid she would receive. They used fear to convince millions of Americans that the USA only had the ability to focus on problems at home, and should not devote energy to threats from abroad.
In the end, their America First position actually led to American involvement in the very war they hoped to prevent. They showed weakness to tyrants and complacency to friends under siege. In their effort to put America First, they developed a spirit of contempt and selfishness which put America last.
History does not treat them well.
On the other hand, we remember with deep gratitude those who saw the coming storm, recognized the threat which German terror and imperialism posed to the world, and took action. The cost of their victory was significant, but the price of defeat would have been more so.
Today we are witness to the birth of a new axis of evil. It is an emerging alliance of terror embodied by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China which must be recognized for its threat to American peace and global stability. This axis is unified by four commitments which parallel the Axis powers of 1939-1945: Commitment to terrorism and atrocities against civilians; imperial visions of empire building; disregard of territorial integrity of sovereign nations; and hatred for the West.
The great axis builder is Vladimir Putin. He not only brings these enemies of the West together, but he leads the way. Under his leadership Russia has become the first superpower to model at scale criminal invasions and warcrimes not seen since 1939-1945. While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine may be the most consequential and barbaric example in modern history, it is not Putin’s first.
Once again we see the rise of an America First contingent which echoes line for line the defeated, false arguments and attitudes of their counterparts of the pre-WWII era. We see the rise of American First leaders supporting aggressors states like Russia, Iran and their agents, while excoriating nations defending themselves against terrorism and invasion. We see Russian disinformation, propaganda and historical revisionism presented as fact by the Tucker Carlson’s of this time. We hear critiques mocking and dehumanizing Ukraine in its valiant defense of its homeland. We are told to disregard an ocean of witnesses documenting the crimes of these aggressors because “everyone is lying,” except the America First pundits and Moscow’s media outlets.
No matter how well intentioned, this political movement was wrong in the years leading to Pearl Harbor, and their philosophical children are wrong today.
To put America first requires that our leaders keep their oath to defend our country against enemies, both foreign and domestic.
There is no argument that America has its own sizable internal problems. Certainly, our legacy of international diplomacy and war is checkered with mistakes and missteps. But neither of these facts is an excuse for embracing a form of moral equivalency and historical amnesia during the defining geo-strategic crisis of our lifetime. A world which treats terror against civilians as the new normal, and in which superpowers disregard the territorial integrity of sovereign nations is not safe for America.
Nations like parents fail. Sometimes miserably. But we must not fail now. Unless the Soviet-revival imperialism of Putin and the axis of terror is challenged, it will not be their last. Failure to do so will result in a legacy of war, international instability, and domestic conflict which our children will inherit.
Let’s learn from the America First movement of WWII, by not repeating their errors. That means having the courage to rise above political infighting and partisan factionalism, by speaking with clarity about the gathering storm.
The answer is to follow Washington's appeal and rally:
“If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The results are in the hands of God.”
DW Phillips is a filmmaker, author and constitutional attorney specializing in religious liberty and Christian legal theory including Just War and Common Law. He is the producer/director of Ukraine Story Anthology.
