Like many a retired person, I have developed a significant number of habits. Among them are caffeine, tobacco, eating too much, and saying “WHAT?” when people are trying to talk to me. The Simon Cowell-created talent show, “America’s Got Talent,” has wormed its habit-forming ways into my other bad habits.
After ten-plus years of “Make America Great Again” and “America First” rhetoric, I wondered how this talent show has escaped criticism from patriotic millionaires and billionaires everywhere.
Slow to the uptake, I only started to notice in Season 21, and I’ve seen most seasons; I’m rather embarrassed to say how much America (Great and First) is in America’s Got Talent.
The show has four celebrity judges front and center in everything that goes on, from greeting contestants backstage to X-ing out any lousy talent they disapprove of. You would think a show with America’s in its title would be judged by Americans. But no. Two are from the UK, one is from Canada, and the fourth is from Colombia.
Where is the outrage from the MAGA/America First crowd?
Terry Crews, the pec-flexing host of the show, was born and raised in Flint, MI, a most American city.
After its months-long slog to the finale last month, the ten finalists for the America’s Got Talent championship included just four Americans. Nene Royal, a guitar-shredding rock singer from Phuket, Thailand, won. In addition, there were contestants from China, South Korea (two of ‘em), Canada, and Ukraine.
Again, I’ve heard nothing about the outrage of the MAGA/America First crowd. Why?
his issue to the true arbiters of political correctness: the commission that changes the names of bodies of water, intelligence agencies, and government military overseers.
From now until the end of time, or the ratings plummet, we shall name this important social and cultural television show, “The World’s Got Talent.” After all, we called baseball’s championship “The World Series,” even though the only country with eligible teams is Canada.
It turns out that the current crop of craven politicians and their cynical consultants aren’t the first ones to run on the platform plank of “America First.” I’m young enough to remember the 60s and 70s, when everything from cars and kitchen appliances to televisions/radios was made in America, by Americans (for the most part). If you wanted to be ostracized in middle America back then, you’d drive a Toyota or a Volvo. You’d hear shouts of “Go to Japan to buy your gas, you …” or “You’re driving a socialist car, you …” Imported, foreign-made cars were only for the rich, and there weren’t that many of them back then.
The phrase “America First” emerged in American politics in the late 1800s, primarily as an economic slogan. The Republican Party and various newspaper publishers used “America First and Always” to advocate for high protective tariffs to favor domestic manufacturing over British and European imports. Sound familiar? Early in the next century, it doubled as a popular domestic travel slogan (“See America First”) promoting internal tourism over European trips. Who knew tourism even existed in the dark ages of the 20th century’s arrival?
In April 1915, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, invoked the phrase “America First” to define his foreign policy of American neutrality in the coming World War in Europe. He also used the phrase domestically to pressure recent immigrants to abandon loyalties to their homelands, promoting “100% Americanism.”
Both Wilson, the Democrat, and Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican, ran on “America First” platforms in 1916. In 1920, Republican Warren G. Harding successfully campaigned on an “America First” isolationist platform following the war, using it to oppose U.S. entry into the League of Nations.
In the coming decade, the slogan became closely tied to nativist movements, immigration restriction, and political extremism. Politicians invoked “America First” to pass the Immigration Act of 1924, which set strict national origin quotas. During its height in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan adopted “America First” as one of its primary rally mottos. By the late 1930s, explicit white supremacist and fascist-aligned groups—including the German American Bund—frequently used the phrase in their public materials and rallies.
After World War II, “America First” was largely ignored by mainstream politicians due to its association with pre-war isolationism and appeasement. In the 1990s, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan resurrected the term to champion protectionism and non-interventionism during his campaigns for the Republican Presidential nomination.
Despite its inane conspiracy theories, sometimes proud ignorance of history, and the spineless nature of political leaders, I love America.
But hell, the whole damned world has talent.
