Returning America to Truth, Justice, and Common Sense

The America First Plan

Twenty Republican Points to Make America Great Again

On July 15, the Republican Party Convention, meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, passed and published its 2024 Republican Platform. The Republican Platform of 2024 is not pep rally hubris. It remembers and exalts the history of America’s foundation and the struggle and sacrifices of generations of patriots in overcoming enormous difficulties, striving to become not only a great nation but a shining example of government guided by truth and dedicated to justice. However, it also warns us that forgetting our history and abandoning the truths and values that made us a great nation are severely undermining our future.

“But now we are a Nation in SERIOUS DECLINE. Our future, our identity, and our very way of life are under threat like never before. Today we must once again call upon the same American Spirit that led us to prevail through every challenge of the past if we are going to lead our Nation to a brighter future.”

Twenty Republican objectives to “Make America Great Again” are listed below in a short form that can easily be understood and shared. It will take more than electing Donald Trump President of the United States again to achieve most of them. We also need to elect a clear majority of Republicans to both the US Senate and the US House. We must keep a substantial conservative majority on the Supreme Court and continue to increase the placement  and election of  judges  and district attorneys faithful to the US Constitution and its principles in Federal, State, and local jurisdictions. Moreover, every state government and local government is important to the America First Plan and Making America Great Again.  

Twenty Points to Make America Great Again

1. Seal the border, and stop the migrant invasion.

2. Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.

3. End inflation, and make America affordable again.

4. Make America the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!

5. Stop outsourcing, and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower.

6. Large tax cuts for workers, and no tax on tips!

7. Defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.

8. Prevent World War Three, restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East, and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country -- all made in America.

9, End the weaponization of government against the American people.

10, Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders.

11, Rebuild our cities, including Washington DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again.

12, Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world.

13, Keep the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

14.Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.

15. Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations.

16. Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.

17. Keep men out of women’s sports.

18, Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.

19. Secure our elections, including same-day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship.

20. Unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success.

Commentary

Points 1 and 2. No amnesties!  Amnesties multiply illegal immigration by a factor of two to three. An amnesty, even a small one, will multiply to more amnesties. Many illegal immigrants will respond on their own, if we simply apply immigration law to the employment place and to welfare payments. Only emergency medical care should be allowed, and that should be billed. If illegally employed, the bill should be paid immediately by the employer. We also need to clean  up huge loopholes like birthright citizenship. Legal immigration should not hurt American workers or burden the US economy. It should be primarily governed by merit and need. About half of illegal immigrants do not come across the border; they receive visitor, work or other visas and then violate them, going illegal. Visas must be strictly controlled.  Enforcing immigration laws at the workplace, in healthcare, and welfare is absolutely necessary. Family immigration preferences for legal immigrants must be limited to immediate family and genuine humanitarian necessity for relatives beyond immediate family.   

Point 8. We need to rethink our foreign policy. It needs to be realistic, but it also needs to conform to our own concerns about truth and ethical values. Power gives respect, but truth and national character are necessary for credibility. We must remind ourselves that all nations have national security concerns that deserve careful consideration and respect. We need to rein in some of our intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, and restructure and require our intelligence agencies to give our leaders expert analysis and truth needed to keep our country and allies secure. We need to reject the example of “Project Ukraine,” which is crushing Ukraine, badly damaging the economies of our European allies, risking unthinkable war, and destroying our diplomatic and national credibility.

Points 12 and 16. Get rid of Critical Race Theory, DEI, radical gender ideology, and other untested or performance debilitating social theory in the military immediately. Stop using our military as a social experiment laboratory. We will not be prepared for war or be a serious deterrent to war until we get rid of this debilitating social nonsense. We need to keep our standards high to assure personnel are fully qualified and our nation is fully protected.  Promotions and assignments need to reflect merit, experience, and appropriate enabling qualifications.

Conclusion

The 20 points are followed by this statement:

“When America is united, confident, and committed to our principles, it will never fail. Today and together, with Love for our Country, Faith in our People, and Trust in God's Good Grace, we will Make America Great Again!”

Our national motto is: “In God We Trust.” Those who trust God make a serious effort to honor and obey His teachings.

“It says in the Old Book, He who honors me, I will honor.”—Chariots of Fire, 1981 movie

This was based on 1 Samuel 2:30 KJV, which says in part:

“…for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

On Sunday, July 6, during the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Scottish runner Eric Liddell read a passage from Isaiah 40 at the Scots Kirk, a congregation of the Church of Scotland in Paris. This passage should guard us from the arrogant and self-sufficient pride that blinds us to truth and is the destroyer of leaders, Babylonian towers, and nations.    

This included Isaiah 40:15-17 NKJV:

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing,
and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.

Isaiah 40: 21-24

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when He will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

Isaiah 40: 25-26

To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; Not one is missing.

and Isaiah 40: 28-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

May God protect and deliver President  Donald Trump from every design of evil and bless him with wisdom and strength for every decision and task of government and leadership.    

South Carolina patriot Henry Laurens (1724-1792) was the fifth President of the Continental Congress, from November 1, 1777, to December 9, 1778. One of the most fervent of American patriots, he was a signer of the Articles of Confederation in 1777 and a key political leader during the Revolutionary War.  Laurens sacrificed his wealth and health and lost a beloved son in his unwavering dedication to the cause of liberty and the defeat of tyranny. His words are remarkably appropriate for our own troubled times. Every American should remember them:

“At a time when liberty is under attack, decency under assault, the family under siege, and life itself is threatened, the good will arise in truth; they will arise in truth with the very essence and substance of their lives; they will arise in truth never shying from the Standard of Truth, never shrinking from the Author of Truth.”