What is ‘America First’: People or profits?
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Editor’s note: This op-ed is partially adapted from Rachel Campos-Duffy’s monologue on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on December 30, 2024.
In the wake of President-elect Trump’s victory, the MAGA movement has been struggling with this question: What is ‘America First’? Is it people or profits? Many insist America is defined by its economic and military might. However, America is more than GDP growth, the stock market or even the “idea” of self-government. It’s a physical place, with people who share common history, traditions, and culture.
Central to the “America First” question is the online debate raging over the expansion of the H–1B visa program, which allows American employers to hire foreign workers, and is vehemently defended by tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy and Musk are competitive men, and their desire for America to win in the global game against our adversaries appears sincere. But the question is, what is your definition of winning? And at whose expense should the game be played?
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The H-1B policy was created to bring the “best and brightest” to America and address labor shortages in specialized fields. On paper, it sounds noble. In practice, however, it has been wildly abused and undercuts American workers in tech jobs no one can credibly argue Americans don’t want to do.
A 2021 U.S. Census Bureau study found that as many as 72% of STEM graduates in America aren’t even working in STEM-related fields. So, is this really about labor shortages or is it about corporate profits at the expense of citizens who can’t compete with cheap foreign labor?
Who can forget what happened at Disney in 2014 when IT workers were laid off and forced to retrain their foreign-born replacements if they wanted to receive their severance check? Americans aren’t opposed to bringing in more geniuses like Musk. But let’s not pretend Disney’s foreign replacements were all budding Einsteins. These workers come on restrictive terms, are paid less, work longer hours, and are unable to leave their jobs without risking deportation. They also come with the hope of becoming citizens and bringing their families over through chain migration. It’s a rigged game, designed to create cheap labor and make it impossible for American citizens to compete.
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Ramaswamy argues that the problem isn’t mass immigration, but American culture itself. We need these foreign workers, he says, because our culture has “venerated mediocrity” for decades. We celebrate the prom queen over the math champ. The jock over the valedictorian.
It’s a convenient theory, but one that misses the mark entirely.
American culture isn’t the issue; it’s the destruction of it that’s at the core of the problem. American culture gave the world electricity, airplanes, cars, Elvis, the internet, Rocky Balboa, and “Star Wars.” What we’re witnessing now isn’t the failure of American culture but the deliberate erosion of it — a demoralization campaign fueled by decades of mass immigration and an education system poisoned by cultural Marxism — a foreign and utterly un-American ideology.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are competitive men, and their desire for America to win in the global game against our adversaries appears sincere. But the question is, what is your definition of winning? And at whose expense should the game be played? (Getty Images)
Dissing prom queens and promoting “America Last” visa policies won’t restore our greatness. It’s a distraction from the real issue: the dismantling of our national identity, the takeover of our schools by communist activists, and the devaluation of American labor.
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The Constitution tells us that the paramount duty of our government is to “promote the general welfare” and “secure the blessings of liberty” for the American people. There was a time when America lived up to that promise. During his travels through America in the early 19th century, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville observed that America is great because America is good.
Sadly, we’re replacing goodness with Godlessness. Some of MAGA’s newest members are Silicon Valley atheists who envision a cold tech and corporate future for us—one that fails to appreciate the humanity and vulnerability of our own citizens.
Secularism, transhumanism, and AI will never satisfy the soul. America needs God, family, love and a return to real, not virtual, relationships. And that includes the relationship between citizens and their government — a government that genuinely cares and prioritizes them.
The answer to our woes isn’t importing millions of people from around the world. The answer is rediscovering who we are. Ben Franklin, the Wright brothers, Sunday church, family dinners, rodeos, skyscrapers, rock and roll, Friday night lights, and homecoming queens. The answer is fixing what’s been deliberately broken in our culture and institutions.
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America is not a sports team and winning in the stock market is not the definition of success for America. “America First” is not a slogan; it is a guiding principle.
MAGA is about honoring our history and Christian values. It’s about prioritizing our people, our families, and our American way of life.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is host of “Bongino Report Early Edition with Evita.”
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