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Editor’s note: This commentary is partially adapted from Rachel Campos-Duffy’s monologue on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on December 30, 2024.
In the wake of President-elect Trump’s victory, the MAGA movement has struggled with this question: What is ‘America First’? Is it people or profit? Many insist that America is defined by its economic and military power. However, America is more than GDP growth, the stock market or even the “idea” of self-management. It is a physical place with people who share a common history, tradition and culture.
Central to the “America First” issue is the Internet debate raging over the expansion of the H–1B visa program, which allows American employers to hire foreign workers and is fiercely defended by tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy and Musk are competitive people, and their desire for America to win the global game against our adversaries seems genuine. But the question is what is your definition of victory? And on whose account should it be played?
MUSK AND RAMASWAMY IGNITE MAGA WAR OVER FALSE IMMIGRATION AND AMERICAN ‘MEDIOCRITY’
The H-1B policy was created to bring the “best and brightest” to America and solve the problem of labor shortages in specialized fields. It sounds noble on paper. However, in practice, American workers are severely abused and undermined in technology jobs that no one can credibly argue Americans don’t want to do.
And in 2021 A study by the US Census Bureau found that as many as 72% of STEM graduates in America do not even work in STEM-related fields. So, is it really a labor shortage or is it about corporate profits at the expense of citizens who cannot compete with cheap foreign labor?
Who can forget what happened at disney 2014 when IT workers were laid off and forced to retrain their foreign born replacements if they wanted to get severance pay? Americans are not opposed to bringing in more geniuses like Musk. But let’s not pretend that all of Disney’s foreign replacements were Einsteinian upstarts. These workers come under restrictive conditions, are paid less, work longer and cannot leave their jobs without risking deportation. They also come with the hope of becoming citizens and bringing their families through chain migration. It’s a rigged game, designed to create cheap labor and make it impossible for American citizens to compete.
DAVID MARCUS: MAG’S H-1B ‘CIVIL WAR’ IS EXACTLY HOW POLITICS SHOULD WORK
Ramaswamy argues that the problem is not mass immigration, but American culture itself. We need these foreign workers, he says, because our culture has “worshipped mediocrity” for decades. We celebrate the prom queen instead of the math champion. Athlete over birthday boy.
It’s a convenient theory, but it misses the mark entirely.
American culture is not the problem; its destruction is the core of the problem. American culture gave the world electricity, airplanes, automobiles, Elvis, the Internet, Rocky Balboa and “Star Wars.” What we are witnessing now is not the failure of American culture, but its deliberate erosion—a campaign of demoralization fueled by decades of mass immigration and an education system poisoned by cultural Marxism—a foreign and utterly un-American ideology.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are competitive people, and their desire for America to win the global game against our adversaries seems sincere. But the question is what is your definition of victory? And on whose account should it be played? (Getty Images)
Disparaging prom queens and promoting an “America Last” visa policy will not restore our greatness. It’s a distraction from the real problem: the dismantling of our national identity, the takeover of our schools by communist activists, and the devaluing of American labor.
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Constitution tells us that the most important duty of our government is to “promote the general welfare” and “secure the blessings of liberty” to the American people. There was a time when America lived up to that promise. During his travels in America in the early 19th century, the French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville observed that America is great because America is good.
Unfortunately, we are replacing goodness with godlessness. Some of MAGA’s newest members are Silicon Valley atheists who envision a cold technological and corporate future for us — one that doesn’t value the humanity and vulnerability of its own citizens.
Secularism, transhumanism and AI will never satisfy the soul. America needs Godfamily, love and a return to real, not virtual, relationships. And that includes the relationship between citizens and their government — a government that truly cares about them and prioritizes them.
The answer to our problems is not to import millions of people from around the world. The answer is rediscovering who we are. Ben Franklin, the Wright brothers, Sunday church, family dinners, rodeos, skyscrapers, rock and roll, Friday night lights and homecoming queens. The answer is to fix what is intentionally broken in our culture and institutions.
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America is not a sports team and winning the stock market is not the definition of success for America. “America First” is not a slogan; that is the guiding principle.
MAGA is concerned with respecting our history and Christian values. It’s about prioritizing our people, our families and our American way of life.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is the host of “Bongino Early Release Report with Evita”.
