Opinion piece penned by Case Dixon and published by 1819 News
“America First.” Every politician and candidate says it. But few actually mean it. Too many are quick to carve out exceptions – this ally, that conflict, one more special case.
That’s not America First. That’s politics as usual.
George Washington saw this problem more than 200 years ago, warning in his “Farewell Address” about the dangers of getting too attached to other nations. “[A] passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils … betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification,” Washington wrote.
In plain English, when America picks favorites, we get dragged into other countries’ conflicts. And those fights rarely serve our own interests.
Just look at the last few decades. We spent 20 years in the Middle East. And what did we get? Trillions of dollars wasted. The region is still a mess and America is weaker for it. The cost isn’t just money either. It was paid in the lives of American sons and daughters who should never have been sent into those wars in the first place.
That’s the danger of foreign aid. It’s not just the billions borrowed and spent. It’s that sending aid is the first step toward entanglement. When we fund another nation’s battle, sooner or later the call comes to send American troops to finish the fight. That’s how America keeps getting dragged into wars that have nothing to do with defending our homeland.
And here we are again. Tens of billions sent overseas annually, more weapons shipped out, more talk of foreign conflicts while our own nation drowns in debt. Congress acts like America’s job is to bankroll the whole world. Meanwhile, our national debt has blown past $37 trillion, families can’t keep up with the cost of living, and young couples wonder if they can even afford to start families. That’s not national security. That’s national suicide.
Here’s the truth nobody in D.C. wants to admit: every time we ship weapons abroad, we take on the responsibility for how they’re used. If they end up in the wrong hands, or turned on civilians, America bears that stain. Every time we fund one side of a conflict, we inherit that nation’s enemies as our own. We don’t just spend money, we buy into fights that were never ours.
And let’s not forget: we still have many troops deployed abroad right now long after various wars were supposedly over. Every one of them is an American life at risk – not for defending our homeland, but for propping up a foreign nation.
Real national security isn’t found in sand dunes halfway across the world. It’s found in rebuilding our economy. In restoring our military readiness here at home. In making sure that when – and only when – America truly needs to defend itself, we are strong and united enough to do it. A nation that tries to fight for everyone else cannot stand ready to defend itself.
That’s why “America First” must finally mean what it says. No exceptions. Every nation is responsible for its own defense, just as we are for ours. The minute Congress starts making carve-outs, the principle is dead. Because once D.C. makes an exception for one nation, it will make an exception for another, and before long we’re right back to blank checks and foreign entanglements.
True allies respect strength. They don’t depend on us to foot their bills forever. And the longer America plays global policeman, the weaker we get here at home. Every dollar we don’t spend on a foreign war is a dollar we don’t have to borrow. Every soldier we don’t send into another nation’s conflict is a son or daughter who comes home alive. That’s not weakness. That’s real strength. That’s real security.
It’s time to bring our troops home. It’s time to stop writing blank checks to foreign governments. It’s time to start putting American families, American workers, and American soldiers first. That’s not “isolationism.” That’s common sense. And it’s the only way America survives in the long run.
Washington’s words ring louder today than ever before. He knew that foreign attachments would corrupt our politics and weaken our country. Two centuries later, his warning has come true. The question is whether we’ll finally listen.
America stands at a crossroads. One path is the same path we’ve been on: endless wars, endless debt, endless exceptions. The other path is the one our founders laid out: independence, strength and loyalty to our own people above all others.
The choice should be clear. For our security, our prosperity, and our children’s future, “America First” must finally mean just that.
Case Dixon is a Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant and Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in Alabama’s 6th District.
