America is Dying (And How to Save It)
Part 2/3: Foreign Policy, Defense, Immigration, and National Identity
Hey Reader,
As I was editing these next two parts of this series, I had a worry. I worried that the next two pieces will bore you.
You see, we humans love to talk about problems. Problems are fun to discuss with friends. We can all sound really smart because we can identify the issues around us and intellectualize about it.
But, what’s really hard, is coming up with solutions. And solutions are way less fun to discuss. Problems engage us. We hear Breaking News on the TV and we turn the volume up to hear what bad thing just happened. But, weeks later, when the lawmakers and authorities are working on solutions to the problem and passing bills and laws, we have already moved onto the next problem.
The next two parts of the America is Dying series are about solutions. They aren’t as much fun as reading me ramble on about debt and fertility rates. But I think they are significantly more important to read than part one. Even though you’ll be bored by them.
So, Dear Reader, do your best to enjoy how I think we can fix America.
Love,
John
Words: 1220
Reading Time: 4-6 Minutes
The death of America will not be quick. When empires fall, they fall slowly. Depending on how you view their respective empires across time, it took centuries for the eventual collapse of the Roman and Ottoman Empires. America is exhibiting many of the same attributes of a failing empire: rising debt, a devaluation of its currency, spending money on entitlement programs and funding unjustifiable wars.
We are all living during the decline of a once-great nation. I’m sure that most of us can see the decline. I’m not without hope for our country’s revival, however. There are a series of solutions that we could implement to spark such a revival. We can reinvigorate the American Dream and then obtain it. There is no physical law that says we cannot. And if we begin rebuilding today, the benefits of the plan that I suggest we put forth will be felt tomorrow.
Foreign Policy and Defense
The plan starts with America ceasing the funding of all foreign wars. We must refocus our military on American defense. Part of the reason America funds these foreign wars is because we pledge to defend allied nations in nearly all circumstances. Israel and Ukraine are good examples. These are two countries that we gave assurances of defense to. And despite Israel conducting a probable genocide on the Palestinian people it claims to be at war with, and Ukraine fighting a losing battle with little hope against Russia, we continue to support them with money we simply do not have.
For America to think rationally about where it spends its military dollars, it must institute a “No Favored or Enemy Nations” policy. George Washington, in his farewell address, said that “The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave... it is a slave to its animosity or to its affection.”
As a founding father, he deeply understood why America was built and how to protect it. America needs to return to our historical ideals and leave all foreign alliances, both military and economic, such as NATO, the U.N., and the W.T.O.
This set of actions would help refocus American leaders on America. In the future, with this renewed understanding of how to conduct foreign affairs, we can better defend America and American interests. We will greatly decrease the chances of another 9/11 because we have more military eyes honed onto American soil and looking out for danger. It would also massively help our debt problem, because so much of our federal spending goes to the military, which has never once passed a financial audit.
Immigration and National Identity
Once we focus our leaders back on America, we must ensure that Americans are truly Americans, and that citizenship in this Great Nation holds great meaning. We ought to have shared values. And we need to agree on the big picture. These are essential components of having a peaceful society.
That means America should have hard lines on immigration and stick to them. The current political landscape seems to concern itself only with border security. There hasn’t been meaningful immigration reform since President Reagan legalized 2.7 million illegal immigrants. Recently, President Trump added a $100,000 fee to the H-1B visa. If this is what modern immigration reform looks like, I would argue that American leadership has been focused on the wrong things lately.
Border protection is a crucial aspect of immigration policy. We need to ensure that we have strong borders in the long term. We need to build big, beautiful border walls between Mexico and Canada.
The Great Wall of China was built between the 14th and 17th century and spans over 5,500 miles. The borders between the US and Mexico and the US and Canada are roughly 7,500 miles combined. In the year 2025, it should be possible to build an immense set of border walls in far less time than it took the ancient Chinese. The current metal lattice structure that America has dividing us and Mexico is not sufficient for the world’s greatest nation.
Then, to secure our ocean-facing borders, we must station Navy vessels continually off the Costs of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf. We can do this for far less money than we spend on foreign war fighting. The American borders must be seen to outside nations as an impenetrable lining around a great fortress.
Then, we must tackle a deeper problem of immigration, which is that the fundamental makeup of our country is problematic. Our overly lenient immigration policy has flooded our country with immigrants who do not share American values or American ideals. They do not have the same vision for this country that our Founding Fathers shared.
US immigrants generated $80-85 billion in 2022 of remittance payments, which makes the US the single largest remittance-sending country. They do not see America as a place to invest their money. Immigrants view this country as a honeypot to distribute money back to the land they call home. It is time for America to put an end to the modern American immigrant’s lack of integration with American society.
The solution to this is to simplify the US immigration process and raise the bar for who is granted access to our Great Nation. To do this, we should revoke all immigration statuses and start from scratch. America should have a three-tiered immigration system: illegal, Green Card, and full Citizen.
Green Cards, under my suggested minimalist plan, would be granted to anyone who meets a few clear but demanding criteria. To get a Green Card, one must speak English, have no communicable diseases upon application, no history of criminal activity in their previous country or America, have a skill or skills that applies to a job with few applicants, and clearly be able to demonstrate American values.
The first three criteria are easy to test and are mostly objective. Being able to demonstrate American values would be the toughest to evaluate. But I believe a civics-style test would suffice, especially because this Green Card would not automatically grant you full citizenship. Furthermore, anyone in this country today who does not meet these Green Card criteria and intends to stay for a long period should be deported and required to reapply.
Full citizenship would only come to those who are either born here, of course, or who meet another set of even harder to achieve criteria. To achieve full citizenship, a person should have to renounce their citizenship in all foreign nations, have had a green card for five years, have had a U.S.-based income for four full years, and have conducted no criminal activity since being a Green Card holder.
In my opinion, if an immigrant is working hard in this country to make a living, contributing to our society, isn’t a criminal, and they are willing to revoke their citizenship to a foreign nation to become fully Americanized, I’m happy to let them into this country. I can be confident that such an immigrant most likely shares a value system like mine, and we can live peacefully together. There will be outliers and bad actors with the ability to patiently wait, of course. But this system would be a substantial upgrade compared to our current bureaucratic process that is typically avoided through fake marriages.