Donald Trump’s main issue is the fear of foreigners.  America faced a similar issue in 1941 with the America First campaign designed and financed by Nazi Germany to keep the United States from entering World War II.  Rachel Maddow details this movement in her book “Prequel, An American Fight Against Fascism” published in 2023.  Members of Congress read speeches written and printed in Germany belittling the Roosevelt administration for raising the threat of a German take over of Europe and suggesting Jewish people may be part of the problem.  Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, a North Carolina Democrat, proposed closing borders to European Jews saying they were “seeping into this country by the thousands every single month to take the jobs which rightly belong to Americans”.    He said “I would build a wall—so high and so secure that not a single alien—could possibly scale or ascend it.”  (Prequel-Page 220)  

The America First movement was massive. “When America First called a rally in New York City on May 23, 1941, the crowd could not be contained by the capacious Madison Square Garden—twenty-two thousand New Yorkers were jammed into the arena, waving small American Flags—fifteen thousand more people couldn’t get in” (Prequel-page 217). Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 killed 2,402 Americans and ended the America First movement’s efforts to keep the US out of the war.

Now, 83 years later, candidate Trump is maliciously maligning immigrants.    Trump’s foreign policy plans detailed in The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 report would end the humanitarian parole program.    As of April of 2024, 187,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered the United States with US citizens as their sponsors as they flee the Russian invasion of their country. Trump intends to close the borders to Ukrainians under that program. Trump even refused to say who he preferred to win the war in the Ukraine.

Like Hitler, Trump blames immigrants for all problems.  He proposes mass deportations.  Such rhetoric leads directly to violence and is a failed strategy for any country.  A country’s greatness has never been defined by its isolation from the rest of the world.

In the words of Lao Tzu from his book “Tao Teh Ching” published by Barnes and Noble Books in 1997 (page 125); “A great country is like the lowland toward which all streams flow.  It is the Reservoir of all under heaven, the Feminine of the World. The Feminine always conquers the Masculine by her quietness, by lowering herself through her quietness. Hence, if a great country can lower itself before a small country, it will win over the small country; and if a small country can lower itself before a great country, it will win over the great country.  The one wins by stooping; the other, by remaining low. What a great country wants is simply to embrace more people; and what a small country wants is simply to come to serve its patron.  Thus, each gets what it wants.  But it behooves a great country to lower itself”.

Chinese, Greek, and Hebrew writers refer to wisdom as feminine.  I agree with Lao Tzu, feminine quietness (wisdom) is better than masculine brashness. Americans are great when we protect victims of oppression.  I am proud of American support for the people of Ukraine, and proud of fellow citizens who sponsor foreign families.  The American population is a tapestry woven together of immigrants seeking freedom from oppression. The judge at a naturalization ceremony told new Americans, “Welcome home”.  Fellow citizens, let us keep America a great and welcoming country. Welcome is a powerful word.

By: Bill Patrie, Published in the Bismarck Tribune- September 2024

*Bill serves on the CATCH board of directors.  The views and opinions in this article are his and do not necessarily convey the views and  opinions of this organization, it board of directors as a whole, or its members.