Reactions to "America First"

Several in the traditional media have decried Trump’s use of the phrase “America first”, tying it to the America First Committee which opposed America’s entering World War II in the months before Pearl Harbor and even claiming  that through such a connection Trump is being anti-Semitic and “dark”. There are several things wrong with this  - the most  obvious being the fact that there is no evidence Trump cares about or  intended to associate himself with that anti-war group of over seventy five years ago.

Beyond that there is some convenient forgetfulness on the left about political situations and activities in this country in the time between September 1939 and December 1941. President Roosevelt’s efforts to support Britain and prepare this country for the trouble ahead faced opposition from a variety of sources.  The noninterventionists were a politically diverse bunch.  Norman Thomas, the leader and frequent presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, was both an anti-interventionist and a friendly associate of members of the America First Committee as were other prominent people who were far from conservatives.   During the period of the nonaggression pact when the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were de facto allies, American communists and their fellow travelers mainly followed Stalin’s directions and opposed intervention in what they called Britain’s imperialistic war.  (This changed overnight after June 22, 1941 when  the party line became one of demanding action against Stalin’s new enemy.) 

I would guess the  real objections are less to Trump's use of the slogan than to the notion behind it of a foreign policy based on this country’s national security interests. Many on the left have a fairly automatic hostility to actions advancing those interests and often to the interests themselves. 

I don’t know what Trump’s policy of  “America first” will  mean in practice. I expect there will be things to support and things to oppose.Much of what he as said about trade is just wrong.  We’ll have to wait and see. However I  have no  objection to the notion in principle.  No one expects the foreign policies of the  governments of France, Germany, Britain, or any other foreign country to fail to put their national security interests first.  Our government should do the same and especially should avoid wars and military interventions in places and situations in the Middle East where those interests are not threatened.