America First: Extreme Nationalism and Americanism in American History

The term ‘America First’ has a dark history of extreme white nationalism and is deeply rooted in racism, anti-immigration and xenophobia. However, the origins of this phrase stems from 1915, during the Great War, where President Woodrow Wilson and Americans used this slogan to oppose any US involvement in the First World War, in order to protect their own national interests. ‘America First’ was a form of American nationalism, but its meaning had evolved over time and had become distorted into a dangerous ideology by extreme white nationalist groups such as the Klu Klux Klan, who had tainted it with ‘dark forces of prejudice and intolerance’ against ethnic minorities. Behold, America illuminates the dark, ominous edge of the term ‘America First’, arguing that it was initially used in political conversation as a national catchphrase during the anti-war movements, but the term had been plagued with a dangerous connotation for Nazi sympathisers and outright fascists in the United States.

Churchwell argues that over time, ‘“America First” became a code for neo-Nazism’ and was fuelled by resentment, anger and violent hostility. The term is strongly associated with the collective vision of white supremacists who demonised ethnic minorities and promoted white nationalist, anti-immigration policies in America. This dangerous ideology reveals the extreme patriotic empowerment of the USA and mirrors the dark origins of ‘America First’ as it became a prominent ‘motto for the KKK’. Although, the demeaning phrase was initially affiliated with protectionism and isolationism of America, it became intertwined with the idea of ‘100 percent Americanism’ which was a justification for violent racism. Behold, America highlights how ‘America First’ was a dangerous ideology with a dark history, one that is deeply entangled with the America’s brutal white nationalism, racism and slavery. It exposes the clash between white nationalists and the issues of nativism, immigration and xenophobia.

Behold, America illustrates the journey of the term ‘America First’ evolving from America’s neutrality during the Great War into a darker meaning with deep nationalistic views of white superiority. The concept of ‘America First’ has a substance of extreme white nationalists who ‘quantified people in terms of ethnic and racial composition’ and their complete indulgence in the radical idea of the ‘One-Drop Rule’. This dangerous racial ideology was the foundation of ‘slavery and miscegenation laws in many states’ and caused violence against ethnic minorities in the United States for many decades. The ‘One-Drop Rule’ was associated to ‘America First’ and became a driving force for white supremacist rallies such as the rising powers of the KKK, who were strongly fed by the ‘nativist and anti-immigrant sentiment’ against African Americans and undesirable whites. Churchwell explains how the phrase was originally used as a stance for American isolationism and their neutrality during the Great War, to how it transformed into the widespread idea of ‘one hundred percent Americanism’ and the dangerous turmoil of fascist sympathisers and anti-immigration movements. This shows the deep patriotic root and extreme jingoism of ‘America First’ and how American nationalism entailed the idea that foreigners were ‘[constructed] as aliens or un-American’. Behold, America states that racial attacks against ethnic communities ‘stands in danger of oblivion’ and functioned through eugenicist ideas and white supremacist nationalism. It reveals that the initial use of ‘America First’ was to encourage dis-entanglement from foreign affairs and American non-intervention in the Great War as a form of nationalism, but it spiralled into a dark ideology by extremist groups/nationalists who used it ‘against other identities and exaggerated national unity’ as a form of symbolic violence. The dark origins of the term ‘America First’ from the progressive era to WWII, became increasingly linked to white-ethno nationalist movements and was utilised as a slogan for American fascism. The white American greed and desire for supremacy among ‘100 percenters’, the KKK, and fascists, became a foundation for racial slavery and violence. Anti-immigration acts such as the John-Reed Act, targeted ‘undesirable’ white immigrants and ethnic minorities, which created ‘a sharp and ruthless dividing line between the master races and the dark-skinned subject peoples’. This shows that ‘America First’ is a dangerous ideology that originates from nativism, slavery and fascism where certain groups of people were demonised and ‘denied of full humanity’ in order to protect white superiority and privilege.

Chruchwell argues that ‘America First’ had a core nationalistic tone regarding foreign affairs, but the ‘strong claims from nationalists for ethnic purification’ had obscured the meaning into an anti-immigrant vision and white superiority due to the ‘rising threat of “one hundred percent American” fascists’. Churchwell examines the evolution of the phrase and how it is loosely used by Trump and his supporters today by focusing on its historical link to white nationalist groups. She insinuates that the phrase was used as a legitimate form of nationalism, but it’s meaning had changed throughout time as different extremist-nationalist groups had distorted it into a dangerous ideology, using it as a prominent slogan to ‘take America back and restore its older, purer American society’. Churchwell recounts the dark history of ‘America First’ and relates it to the dangerous ideologies of ‘being free from foreign entanglements’, racism, white supremacy and nativism. She articulates how the ‘strong social pressure towards patriotism’ in the contemporary political situation under Trump embodies the xenophobic and white-ethno supremacy that prevailed in the 20th century. Behold, America locates the origins of ‘America First’ to Mussolini’s fascist Italy and discovers the parallel in the emergence of the KKK in America. This shows how ‘America First’ and ‘100 percent Americanism kept allying itself to fascists’ in the United States and reveals how the phrase is a dangerous ideology that caused ‘disastrous outcomes that were certainly not inevitable’ for ethnic minorities.

Overall, the use of ‘America First’ during the 20th century, had attained different meanings over time. The initial meaning focused on America’s unilateralism and neutrality in the Great War, and its nationalist anti-war involvement in order to sustain America’s own self-interests. The term illuminates America’s foreign policy of isolationism and protectionism and accentuates America’s prioritization of national/domestic affairs and self-determination before global events during the first half of the 20th century. However, this term had been distorted by white extreme nationalists who believed they had the right to ‘judge the “worth” of immigrant communities and ethnic minorities’. ‘America First’ became fused with xenophobia, nativism, racism and white supremacist groups who sparked anti-immigration movements and violent attacks against ethnic minorities. This shows that ‘America First’ is a dangerous ideology as it evolved from a dark history of neo-Nazism, fascism and racial discrimination, which is still prevalent in our contemporary world.