America Must Come First

Recently, I’ve criticized the President for a series of doomed liberal domestic policies he has pushed onto the American public. To me, Mr. Bush is obviously pandering to expand his electorate come November. He has sold his conservative base down the river in hopes of gaining some moderate Democrat voters, expanding the narrow margin of victory in the 2000 election. Now, it isn’t in my nature to express such criticism without having some sort of idea as to how these problems should be solved. These ideas aren’t the end all/be all of policy, but they could be a helpful point in the right direction.

I’ve considered the legislation and ideas proposed by the President and the results I think they will have on the nation. Aside from excessive spending, which is problematic enough; I’ve found two key areas where the President has initiated insufficient and futile policy—education and immigration. We’ll begin with education.

The No Child Left Behind Act is destined to be a failure. It is already headed strongly in that direction. The key is that government schools do not lack the funds necessary to educate. Funding is not the issue. We’ve been pouring money into the education system for years, seeing only marginal results. The two problem areas in our current educational system are: Who is teaching our children and what the children are being taught.

Teachers are overwhelmingly trained by institutions of higher learning, dominated with liberal psychobabble concerned more with the student’s feelings, than his or her education. It is only natural that the products of these institutions are mindless zombies, driven to teach feelings over logic. This goes hand in hand with the second problem. Educators, now driven by this liberal ideology, push the sham that is multicultural education onto students. Rather than focusing on the positives America has to offer, teachers now focus on the damage America has done. They ignore the great contributions that our society has made, instead promoting our downfalls and shortcomings.

The solutions to these problems are quite simple. First, since it is obvious that teachers are a major problem, perhaps it is time for an overhaul of the structure that produces them. By putting the weight of the White House behind an initiative supporting intellectual diversity on college campuses, the President could take a great step in reducing the indoctrination that occurs in universities across America. This proposal will force colleges and universities to hire conservative professors to go along with the abundance of already present left-wingers. The bill has already been through the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and is waiting for mark up to be introduced on the Senate floor for debate. This initiative, should it pass, would be a major leap in changing the current educational system.

Secondly, it is time to create a new educational curriculum for American students. This social policy can be dubbed, “America First” and has two portions.

Under the first provision, the practice of multicultural education would be reduced. America would become the central focus for the studies developed in government schools. The culture, heritage, and importance of American society would be the primary focus of such a system. Students would be instructed on a variety of issues, including the understanding of the English language, mathematics/science, civic responsibility—including a thorough understanding of American federal government, history and civil duty (voting, etc…)—and an explanation for the rule of law and its value. Other cultures, while not totally ignored, would be emphasized to a lesser degree than that of America. As a Social Studies Education major, I can tell you that this would be a complete reversal of the current situation.

To go along with this concept, the President could use the “bully pulpit” to stress the importance of the English language—proposing a possible Constitutional amendment making it the official language of the US. This would act as a homogenizing influence on society, creating pride and understanding across all ethnic boundaries.

The second phase of this “America First” policy would entail rigid immigration reform. As mentioned, these reforms would be rigid, but not radically different or extreme. We can start by enforcing the laws that we currently have. I’m a pragmatist. I realize that rounding up the 12 million illegal aliens that are in this country right now is just not practical; therefore, parts of the President’s “guest worker” plan would be used.

Documenting the illegal population would be priority one. This documentation process cannot be stressed enough. We need to know who these people are and what they are doing here. Secondly, we must hunt down those who have overstayed student and visitor visas. Again, it is of the utmost importance, for the safety of the country, that we know who is here and why. Once we know this information, then, and only then, can we discuss what we are to do with them. Along with this, rather than increasing the number of visas granted per year as President Bush proposes, a strict cap would be put on immigration to allow assimilation of the current generation of both legal and illegal immigrants.

To deal with the illegal immigration trend, border agents would be re-enforced with the National Guard or Army Reserves, in hopes of stopping illegal aliens before they become imbedded in the country. If a shift in military resources were necessary to accomplish this enhanced border presence, American troops could be pulled out of international peacekeeping missions. This could gain several thousand soldiers for our necessities at home.

Again, these are just ideas that can be used to change the current direction of our country. I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel here, these ideas have been around for a long time, it is just time for them to be renewed.

America is suffering major damage. If we don’t make some major changes now, later will be too late.

Wow. "Several thousand."

Too bad you need several HUNDRED thousand troops to make a dent.

If there is enough political will to do anything about illegal immigration, then troops would be unnecessary.

If there is NOT enough political will to do anything about illegal immigration, then troops would be useless.

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