Preserving American Values

“Make America Great Again” is a great slogan.  Who wouldn’t vote for someone with that goal? 

The problem is that Trump’s MAGA is a deceit. Each and every principle of MAGA—either in concept or in execution— does not make America great again.  Instead, it makes America smaller.  Let me explain.

The overarching theme of MAGA is “America First.”  It is to that end that illegal immigrants are being deported; that wokeness is being eliminated from all Federal and Federally-funded programs; that tariffs are being placed on foreign-produced goods; that regulation of business is being rolled back or eliminated; that the America working man and farmers are being supported; and that we are returning to our founding principles.

That sounds great.  But let’s look deeper at each aspect.

Before I do that, though, what made America great to begin with?  I think that everyone would agree that our system of government, where government is elected by and responsible to the people, where people have basic rights, and where no one has absolute power, were core principles that made America great and a light to people around the world.

The second thing that made America great was our workforce.  America occupied a vast space, but there were too few people to inhabit it and work it.  And so America opened its arms for more than a century to massive waves of immigrants from around the world. Most of the immigrants—our ancestors—arrived here penniless with no education.  But America offered them the opportunity to gain an education, to work, and to own land.  And they and America prospered together.

The third thing that made America great was the brilliance of America’s titans of industry.  Whether it was Vanderbilt or Rockefeller or Carnegie or Morgan or Ford—these men not only built financial empires, they built American industry and transportation into a world-leading force that made America great and powerful. 

However, they were also ruthless and had no consideration for the well-being of workers.  They were known as the Robber Barons because they achieved their power not just through the application of their intellect, but by exploiting and abusing both their workers and the environment.  By the turn of the 20th century, the country had had enough of their power and abuse of workers; the Republican administration of Teddy Roosevelt started the Progressive movement that reigned in the power of big corporations and focused on public welfare. This movement continued to grow until the Reagan presidency.

The fourth thing that made America great was the land itself.  Without the bounty that nature provided there would be no greatness in America because there would be no basis for economic might. There would be little industry; we would not be called the “breadbasket of the world.”

So with that understanding, how do the elements of MAGA work out?

1.  Illegal Immigration:  There is agreement among both Republicans and Democrats that illegal immigration should be stopped at the border.  However, what to do with the 11 million who have been living here for years, mostly working and paying taxes (yes, illegal immigrants pay taxes)?

Trump says they are criminals and should all be deported. As I have noted in another article, “Defining the Democratic v Republican Battle,” those are not the facts. And so Democrats should argue that if an illegal is a convicted criminal, yes, deport that person.  

But otherwise they should be given a path to citizenship. Even though they entered illegally, these people are very much in the tradition of earlier immigrants—they are working hard, they are raising families, and they are contributing to American enterprise, usually in jobs, often in meatpacking or agriculture, that America workers have no interest in. 

2.  Eliminate DEI programs (wokeness) from all Federal and Federally-funded programs: The Declaration of Independence states explicitly that “all men are created equal.” That means exactly what it seems on its face to mean—see my article, “What Exactly Does ‘Equal’ Mean in the Declaration of Independence.” 

Being aware of the discrimination that women, Blacks, people of color generally, LGBTQ people, and others have suffered in their attempt to live their lives and pursue their dreams is “wokeness.” Given the centrality to the Declaration of Independence of the right of all people to pursue life, liberty, and happiness and government’s role in “securing that right”—DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) programs are as American as apple pie and so should not be deleted from government’s programs. 

Giving ever more people the right to make the most of their lives through true equal opportunity is consistent with what made America great and will make America even greater. However, two outgrowths of wokeness—preferential treatment and politically incorrect speech—are not consistent with the American way and should be rejected. See my “Defining the Battle” article noted above.

3.  Tariffs and Regulatory Rollback: The basic idea is hard to argue with: protect American business from foreign competition and restrictions on their profit-making ability.  But there are two problems.

The first is that tariffs applied broadly, as Trump has done, don’t work. Historically, they end up harming a country’s economy and industry. 

We don’t live in a time where the United States is a self-contained economic entity.  Corporations need to sell their goods abroad in order to prosper. So open markets help American industry. But, open markets must be implemented in a way so that the American worker is not harmed.

Regarding regulatory rollbacks, most regulation of business has as its purpose the protection of workers, consumers, or the public good.  As such, these are essential to the health of our country and its citizens.  Corporations receive the benefits of incorporation because they provide a benefit to society, not just because they make money for shareholders.  This social aspect of corporations is critical to making America great.  See my post, “Towards a Reformed Capitalism.”

4.  Support for the American worker and farmer: This is of critical importance to making America great again.  The problem is that Trump talks the talk, but he doesn’t walk the walk.

Trump passed enumerable Executive Orders in this first 100 days, but the purpose of most was to aid big business.  There were none that were focused on improving the financial situation of the suffering American worker.  The dream of tariffs creating more American jobs is unlikely to happen.  What tariffs are doing is raising the price of everyday products that workers buy; and that will only become worse as the months progress.

And as for farmers, as in Trump’s first term of office, his tariffs are creating huge losses for farmers by killing the Chinese market for soybeans, and increasing the price of tractors and fertilizers.  Trump did provide a bail-out for farmers then, and he has said he will do so again, but the point is that these tariffs were bound to have this effect so if you are really trying to improve the rural economy, you don’t apply tariffs in the way he did. 

Also, many of Trump’s cutbacks to Federal programs (Medicaid, school funding, and FEMA relief, to name a few) as well as his immigration policies are having a significant negative impact on rural communities, thus hurting farmers and their families.

To make America great again, government must develop policies and programs that will lift the American worker back to his middle class status and will rebuild rural economies.  Trump has not done that.

5.  Returning to our founding principles:  There is indeed nothing more important than returning to our founding principles, as articulated in our founding documents. 

However, liberals and conservatives—let alone MAGA adherents—have major differences in the interpretation of those principles. As I related in my article, “The Far-RIght’s Biggest Lie,” the far-right has deceitfully spun the meaning of those principles by omitting from their interpretation the impact of the Declaration’s central principle of the equality of all men. They thus have no consideration of the impact of their actions on the rights of others. Their interpretation would bring us back to the days of the Robber Barrons. 

Trump also has eviscerated the principle of no one with absolute power and the balance of power the Founders created to ensure that.

Make America Great Again is a wonderful slogan.  But Trump and his MAGA allies do not understand what made America great or what is needed to make it great again.  

Democrats do. It’s when everyone—business and workers, the public and politicians— act in symbiosis towards a common goal, not in conflict.  And what is the common goal? It is a country seeking to implement the principles, the promise, of the Declaration of Independence.