"America First"

When someone uses a word or phrase that has had popular currency previously, it might be hoped that he/she at least is aware of the baggage that accompanies the word or phrase. After George W. Bush used the word “crusade,” referring to our nation’s confrontation with Islam, somebody must have whispered in his ear that the use of that word was filled with terrible historic implications—so he quit employing it in his public speeches. Intellectually challenged as he might have been, George Bush was a whole lot wiser than President Trump.

One would hope President Trump knows enough about history, or has listened to an aide who does, that he might quit using “America First” as a description of our nation’s place on the world stage. But then perhaps he doesn’t care, believes he is smarter about everything than any of his aides or anyone else, or means exactly what that phrase has implied in the nation’s history.

At one level there may not be much dangerous historic rubble accompanying the phrase, and it may only be the kind of affirmation uttered by any national patriot: “I love my homeland more than I love any other nation.” Or it may be like high school athletes who after a victory point their index fingers in the air and shout, “we’re number one.” But when historic uses have loaded it with other more sinister implications, the term now redefined should be used with great care.

Young Germans in the 1930s singing “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt,” were not just echoing patriotic niceties. “America First” sounds much like the sounds emanating from Nazi-dominated Bavarian beer halls. The concern is not that America has become a fascist state but rather that political language, when misused, can turn healthy patriotism into toxic nationalism.

So look at the way that designation was employed just two generations ago. At the end of the 1930s it was a favorite expression of the families who owned Sears-Roebuck and the Chicago Tribune, and who were counted among the prominent anti-Semites of the day. These individuals and their companies were among the funders of the notorious Jew-hating “America First Committee.”

Henry Ford, another member of the committee and a noted anti-Semite, had been removed from the U.S. Olympic Committee for his notoriously racist comments, as was its chairman, Avery Brundage, who had prevented two Jewish runners, who were members of the American track team, from competing in the finals of the 4x100 relay race being held in Berlin in1936.

In September 1941 at a political rally, Charles Lindbergh, another noted anti-Semite said, “The British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in their war. The greatest danger Jews pose to the U.S. lies is their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government."

The speech was clearly anti-Semitic. Dorothy Thompson, a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, reporting from Europe, wrote, “I am absolutely certain that Lindbergh is pro-Nazi. I am certain that he foresees a new party along Nazi lines.” Those sentiments were echoed widely in the press.

The anti-Semitic label attached to the “America First Committee,” caused its demise when the United States entered World War II. Since then few political figures, until now, have been reckless enough to use the phrase. Let’s hope Trump gives up employing it as a device to rally his already racist-leaning following. But then, among the Charlottesville mob chanting, “The Jews will never replace us,” there must have been some good people, at least the President thought so.