Making America Great, First

THE TERM "AMERICA FIRST" has a pretty, patriotic ring to it. Charles Lindbergh used it to geed effect in mobilizing American resistance to entry into world War Two, as if the head in sand American people needed any encouragement or mobilization to isolationism. We the America first American people would have been perfectly content for Hitler to conquer the world, providing he left America first alone; we America firstering folk need no encouragement to be America first, America only. We happily let Hitler run amok for two years, unconcerned, until forced to act by the inconvenience of Pearl harbor. Germany first, Egypt first, Rome first; it aint the latest thing, and its an always popular brand, across cultures, to boot. To Americans of average or above average discernment, the question is: "So what? What's the big deal"? This, because nobody in America who has ever been born, raised, and buried in these United States has ever contemplated prioritizing anything, including other nations, ahead of the U.S.A.. What, precisely, would be the alternative? Most Americans have never even been to another country. much less had reasons for being loyal to one. The only exceptions to American hegemonic citizen loyalty are God, and family. The exact order in which God, family, and country are prioritized depends upon the individual's religious devotion and marital status, but no other nation encroaches in the hierarchical trio. Nobody, not even Benedict Arnold, ever put another nation ahead of American allegiance. Arnold has been given a bad rep in the fake news media. His intent was to persuade the British to be merciful on the rebellious colonists, whose defeat he saw, incorrectly, as inevitable. Before the Civil War, Americans were loyal to their states first, and their country second. Virginia first. New Hampshire first. The war changed that. The United States "are" became the United States "is". But, as we say, that was then, this is now. During his mercifully brief inaugural cliché ridden address, Donald J. Trump, ever the patriot, repeated: "form now on, its going to be..America first..America first". Twice, presumably for emphasis. His intonation bespoke ground breaking innovation, as if he had created. He hadn't. No demagogue who ever set head beneath a self styled crown ever admonished his sycophants to pledge allegiance to some foreign power. Put another way, excessive, pandering patriotism is the refuge of scoundrels. Or, as Goethe said: "patriotism corrupts history". Demagogues corrupt everything, with vacuous clichés such as "make America great again", as if America were not already great, and "America First', as if there were any alternative, or as if America had not always been first, would not always be first in the hearts of its citizens, no matter what.