"America First" -- Jingoism In White America

"We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first."

– Donald Trump, Inaugural Address (2017)

“America First” is a phrase with a long American history. It refers to a foreign policy in the United States that generally emphasizes American nationalism, unilateralism, protectionism, and isolationism. America First has become the official foreign policy doctrine of the Trump Administration. Before we commit to this nationalistic principle, we must be aware of its true meaning.

The “America First” decree is an example of extreme chauvinism known as “Jingoism.” Colloquially, Jingoism is excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others – an exaggerated type of nationalism. The etymology of the phrase stems from the chorus of a song by G. H. MacDermott (singer) and G. W. Hunt (songwriter) commonly sung in British pubs and music halls around the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78).

“We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do
We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too”

The phrase "by Jingo" was a long-established minced oath used to avoid saying "by Jesus.” Jingoism is related to the fallacious argument of “flag waving” – a propaganda technique used to justify an action based on the undue connection to nationalism or patriotism or benefit for an idea, group or country.

And now, by Jingo, we Donald Trump, the infamous flag-waving president who is bringing all of that Make America Great Again revery back in style. What does it mean?

Professor Sarah Churchwell, professorial fellow in American literature and chair of public understanding of the humanities at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London says …

“We cannot understand the subtexts of our own slogans if we do not understand their contexts; we risk misreading our own moment if we don’t know the historical meanings of expressions we resuscitate, or perpetuate. We are all asking urgent questions about the present, but there are far more surprising answers than many think to be found in the past.

“The backstory of loaded phrases can help us understand how we found ourselves facing these problems today – and even, perhaps, how to stop them from detonating into violence once more.”

President Woodrow Wilson ran for re-election on an “America first” platform in 1916, for example, in that instance using the phrase to remind voters that his isolationist stance had kept U.S. troops out of the burgeoning conflict in Europe (never mind that he abandoned that position and sent them to fight in World War I during his second term).

For that matter, Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, and William McKinley all used the catchphrase at one time or another to promote isolationist and/or protectionist foreign policies. McKinley used an “America first” agenda as long ago as 1896. The phrase was even employed in debates over whether America should join the League of Nations in1920 following the Paris Peace Conference.

By 1920, “America first” had joined forces with another popular expression of the time, “100% American,” and both soon functioned as clear codes for nativism and white nationalism. When Mussolini took power in November 1922, the word “fascism” entered the American political conversation. People were trying to understand what this new thing “fascism” was. Around the same time, between 1915 and the mid 1920s, the Second Klan was on the rise.

Across the country, people explained the Klan, “America First” and fascism in terms of each other. If they were trying to explain what Mussolini was up to, they would say, “It's basically ‘America First,’ but in Italy.”

The Klan instantly declared “America First” one of its most prominent slogans. They would march with [it on] banners, they would carry it in parades, they ran advertisements saying they were the only “America First” society. They even claimed to hold the copyright. (That wasn’t true.)

In January 1922, the Klan staged a parade in Alexandria, Louisiana, bearing two flaming red crosses and banners with slogans including “America First”, “100% American” and “White Supremacy”. That summer the Klan took out an advertisement in a Texas newspaper: “The Ku Klux Klan is the one and only organization composed absolutely and exclusively of ONE HUNDRED PER CENT AMERICANS who place AMERICA FIRST.”

Then, in the autumn of 1940, a coalition of Americans against US entry into the second world war formed the America First Committee. Charles Lindbergh would become their spokesman.

Most in the AFC wanted to avoid seeing the U.S. drawn into the European war the way it had been dragged into World War I in 1917. But some of the group's leaders also saw efforts to involve the U.S. against Nazi Germany as a plot led by the British and by "the Jewish races.” “America first” was a phrase used by Lindbergh, who sympathized with the Nazis and whose rhetoric was characterized by anti-Semitism and offensive stereotypes, including assertions that Jews posed a threat to the U.S. because of their influence in motion pictures, radio, the press, and the government.

 What about now – America first? The Washington Post editorial board (2018) writes …

“This history makes it all the more difficult to understand why the president of a nation that long ago set itself against tyranny now praises and consorts with so many unsavory national leaders in Europe, Asia and the Middle East – some of them outright dictators, some imposing authoritarian schemes to the extent they can get away with it, some inflicting brutal repression on their enemies – and just about all of them profiting handsomely from their positions.”

It is obvious that the white nationalist Trump found his target audience when he revived the “America first” rhetoric. Its connection with isolationism, anti-Semitism, and the Ku Klux Klan are pertinent today.

Just remember …

In August 2017, seven months into Donald Trump’s presidency, a coalition of American fascists calling themselves Unite the Right staged a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. It came as a shock to many observers that the Klan and neo-Nazis could march in modern America, shouting: “Jews will not replace us.” It came as a greater shock that Trump refused to condemn them.

For someone who always reminds us what a great mind he has, Trump has not demonstrated any appreciation of history. He attempts to root himself in nostalgia for yesteryear – “Make America great again!” – but he is remarkably unconcerned with history. Considering his own racism and his support from white supremacists, Trump’s insensitivity is not surprising.

Who is actually “first” in the mind of Donald Trump? His nationalistic constituents? It is apparent that the majority of Americans do not support whatever foreign policy Trump believes in. Dr. Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History Emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb reports …

“In July 2018, when the Chicago Council on Global Affairs surveyed Americans about their reaction to Trump’s withdrawal from both the Iran deal and the Paris climate agreement, it found that 66 favored remaining within the Iran accord, while 68 percent favored remaining within the Paris accord.

“Most Americans also rejected Trump’s 2019 withdrawal of the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia. A survey that February by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs reported that 54 percent of Americans opposed withdrawal from this nuclear arms control treaty and only 41 percent favored it.

“The Chicago Council’s July 2018 survey found that 66 percent of Americans agreed that the United States should make decisions with its allies, even if it meant that the U.S. government would have to go along with a policy other than its own. Only 32 percent disagreed.

“Similarly, a March 2019 Pew Research poll found that 54 percent of American respondents wanted the U.S. government to take into account the interests of its allies, even if that meant compromising with them.

“A National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey of U.S. public opinion, conducted from April through November 2018, found that only 27 percent of respondents thought that the U.S. government spent “too little” on the military, while 66 percent thought that it spent either “too much” or “about the right amount.”

“By contrast, 77 percent said the government spent “too little” on education, 71 percent said it spent “too little” on assistance to the poor, and 70 percent said it spent “too little” on improving and protecting the nation’s health.

“In February 2019, shortly after Trump indicated he would seek another hefty spending increase in the U.S. military budget, bringing it to an unprecedented $750 billion, only 25 percent of American respondents to a Gallup poll stated that the U.S. government was spending too little on the military. Another 73 percent said that the government was spending too much on it or about the right amount.

“Unlike the president, who has boasted of U.S. weapons sales to other countries, particularly to Saudi Arabia, Americans are also rather uncomfortable about the U.S. role as the world’s pre-eminent arms dealer. In November 2018, 58 percent of Americans surveyed told YouGov that they wanted the U.S. government to curtail or halt its arms sales to the Saudi Arabian government, while only 13 percent wanted to maintain or increase such sales.

“Finally, an overwhelming majority of Americans continues to express its support for nuclear arms control and disarmament. In the aftermath of Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the INF treaty and announcement of plans to build new nuclear weapons, 87 percent of respondents to a February 2019 poll by Chicago Council said they wanted the United States and Russia to come to an agreement to limit nuclear arms.”

(Lawrence S. Wittner. “Most Americans Actually Reject Trump’s ‘America First’ Policy.” Institute for Policy Studies. April 25, 2019.)

It was never about America first. It was and is about “Trump first.” His policies take an independent rather than inclusive approach to the challenges facing the world. America’s friends all over the globe are choosing to dissociate themselves, believing their interests are better served without American strength. The rest of the world is quickly losing faith that the U.S. is a reliable partner.

Susan B. Glasser, founder of Politico Magazine and staff writer for The New Yorker reports ...

“As Trump’s dramatic moves have played out this spring and hardened into a Presidential narrative of American victimization at the hands of free-riding allies, senior government officials in London, Berlin, and other European capitals, and in Washington, have told me they now worry that Trump may be a greater immediate threat to the alliance than even authoritarian great-power rivals, such as Russia and China. Equally striking is the extent to which America’s long-term allies have no real strategy for coping with the challenges posed by such an American President.”

“America first” has a dark past. And the present incantation is echoing ill will. If you love Trump and his Jingoism, then you should be aware of its intolerable roots. Either Donald Trump doesn't care about the ugly history and the connotation of the phrase as he seeks to establish an isolated and prejudiced nation, or he is simply too ignorant to avail himself of the truth. My understanding is that both of these assertions are true.