Most political philosophies work better as theories than in practice. Take communism, for example: If you’re struggling under a different political model, communism has some truly splendid talking points, and if you think otherwise, you’ve lost the plot. There’s a reason why it’s still so appealing to millions of revolutionaries.
The problem, of course, is that communism is utterly dysfunctional in the real world. By many metrics, it’s the most destructive political system in history. But despite its (considerable) track record of death, destruction, and devastation, its popularity continues. No matter how many times it crashes and burns — no matter how many times communism promises Valhalla yet delivers Pyongyang — there’s always a new generation of Marxist sheep ready to bleat on command.
The cycle never dies, because “theory” and “practice” are different. Thus, its real-world failures are irrelevant to the next generation of true-believers.
The gulf between theory and practice is also true in American conservatism: Sure, pretty much all conservatives agree on the general principles of limited government and personal liberties, but an awful lot of the nuance is fodder for debate. It’s why we still argue over tariffs, foreign policy, and more.
At various times, Liz Cheney, Joe Scarborough, Arianna Huffington, George W. Bush, and the National Review were all self-declared warriors for the conservative cause. If you were a conservative, these were the people who had your back. Now?
Yeah, not so much.
Same is true about American liberalism. (Which helps explain their remarkable degree of dysfunction, backstabbing, and infighting.) Today’s Democratic Party is chock-full of philosopher-kings and special interest groups battling for supremacy: socialists, unionists, environmentalists, LGBTQ-ers, “Defund the Police” acolytes, radical feminists, and more. And they all claim to represent the same side!
And obviously, they all can’t. What would put a smile on the face of a Detroit union worker would outrage a West Coast liberal.
But “America First” is different. Unlike the others, it’s as much a destination as it is a philosophy.
That’s because it’s a philosophy grounded in pragmatism.
Therefore, the ultimate litmus test of “America First” policies is “America First” results.
And this brings us to the current kerfuffle within the Republican Party over Israel’s decision to end Iran’s never-ending quest for a nuclear WMD. On one side, there’s the braintrust of Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
On the other is President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin… and the overwhelming majority of the GOP base.
In fact, along with abortion, one of the key differences between the two parties is their support for Israel. According to a Quinnipiac Poll from six days ago, which asked voters whom they supported, Israel or Palestine:
Among Republicans, 64 percent say the Israelis, while 7 percent say the Palestinians, and 29 percent did not offer an opinion.
Among Democrats, 12 percent say the Israelis, while 60 percent say the Palestinians, and 29 percent did not offer an opinion.
U.S. support for Israel is now a partisan issue. This extends to Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities:
According to the latest Reagan Institute Summer Survey, 45% of Americans say they would support Israel launching airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails.
— Ronald Reagan Institute (RRI) (@ReaganInstitute) June 16, 2025
🟥60% of Republicans support the strikes; 27% oppose
🟦Just 32% of Democrats support; 51% oppose…
As usual, President Trump didn’t pull any punches:
Trump: I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen. pic.twitter.com/Ys8Bpe1WWv
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 16, 2025
This doesn’t mean the MAGA movement is clamoring for another Middle East entanglement. The opposite is true: Trump ran on the platform of opposing “forever wars” and being an agent of peace.
The Tucker Carlson contingent isn’t only predicting doom and gloom — it’s also predicting the “end of the American empire” and accusing everyone on Trump’s side of being a “warmonger”:
The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would…
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 13, 2025
Whatever you think of tariffs, it’s clear that now is the worst possible time for the United States to participate in a military strike on Iran. We can’t afford it. Thousands of Americans would die. We’d lose the war that follows. Nothing would be more destructive to our country.…
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 7, 2025
Nothing wrong with being anti-war. I’m anti-war. You’re anti-war. Children are anti-war! Same way every rational person is anti-hate, anti-crime, anti-cruelty, anti-disease, and anti-death.
Unfortunately, it’s not always up to us. You can be as anti-crime as you want, but if a criminal wants to break into your house, guess what: You’re gonna be a crime victim.
War and marriage have a lot in common: If the other party wants to change the status quo, it doesn’t really matter what you want! (All’s fair in love and war, kiddies.)
For peace to prevail, everyone must behave peacefully. Peace requires unanimity. But for war to break out, it’s kind of like Highlander: You only need one.
Which is why a nuclear-armed Iran is NOT consistent with “America First” OR pacifism.
Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
This has been a MAGA cornerstone policy since Donald Trump first descended those golden steps 10 years (and one day!) ago. The horrendous, God-awful Obama nuclear deal gave the Iranian mullahs a free, legally binding path to unlocking the nuclear genie.
That was the outcome Tucker Carlson and MTG’s side preferred.
But it wasn’t an actual solution to the Iranian nuclear problem. It was can-kicking: The cowardly, craven Obama administration kicked the can a decade down the line, so another president would have to deal with it. (And not only that, but he also airlifted billions of dollars in unmarked bills for the Iranians to fund their terrorist proxies!)
President Obama made a desperate and terrible deal with Iran - Gave them 150 Billion Dollars plus I.8 Billion Dollars in CASH! Iran was in big trouble and he bailed them out. Gave them a free path to Nuclear Weapons, and SOON. Instead of saying thank you, Iran yelled.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
If Trump hadn’t ripped up the ridiculous Obama nuclear deal, the sanctions restricting Iran’s centrifuge usage would’ve expired in 2026. That’s less than 200 days away!
So this was a problem that was always gonna be coming to a head by the end of 2025. You can only kick the can so far. Eventually, the centrifuges were gonna come home to roost.
Pacifism and isolationism are philosophies. They’re theories. They’re ideologies. But here in the real world, we’ve gotta deal with reality.
It’s part of being a grownup.
The scary reality is, an Iranian nuke doesn’t care if you’re a self-declared pacifist. To the mullahs, you’re still an infidel — the Great Satan! — and their terrorist proxies believe they’re honoring Allah by slaughtering civilians.
That includes you and your family.
The great lesson of the Iraq War wasn’t that WMDs don’t matter. If anything, they matter more today than ever before: The Ukraine-Russia war (and to a lesser extent, the current Israel-Iran conflict) has demonstrated the rise of highly mobile weapons, secret border crossings, and asymmetric tactics. For many reasons, including four years of the Biden administration’s open border policy, the American homeland is uniquely vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.
Instead, the lesson from Iraq was to ALWAYS place pragmatism ahead of ideology.
Transforming the Middle East into a hotbed of democracy was a noble ideal. Would’ve been lovely if it had worked. Alas, it was pragmatically stupid! Simply from a risk-reward perspective, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Not even close.
There’s a time for robust intervention — which is why, for most of the post-World War II period, “appeasement” was such a dirty word, and Neville Chamberlain was so despised. There’s also a time for hardcore isolation.
Isolationism, pacifism, and interventionism aren’t absolutes. At best, they’re guiding principles — but more than anything else, they’re tactics. To advance America’s interests, President Trump needs to use the right tactic at the right time.
He must be relentlessly pragmatic!
But how do we know what’s the right tactic?
Simple: “America First” is as much a destination as it is a philosophy. Therefore, the ultimate litmus test of an “America First” tactic is an “America First” outcome.
The Tucker Carlson-Steve Bannon-MTG braintrust favors an outcome that will directly lead to a nuclear-armed Iran. Don’t kid yourself: Eventually, that WILL be the end result of endless can-kicking by these so-called “peacemakers.”
That’s the irony of President Obama’s so-called pacifism: Obama didn’t actually make ANY peace whatsoever; he postponed war, funded terrorism, propped up the Iranian regime, and made the problem far harder for his successors. That’s not pacifism!
It’s selfishness.
President Trump sees the world differently: Iran can negotiate the end of its nuclear weapons program, or it’ll be taken away by Israeli strikes. But one way or another, Iran will NOT be allowed to have nuclear weapons!
Ask yourself, which course of action is really, truly “America First” — and which is attention-seeking contrarianism for its own sake?
And that, boys and girls, is how you unmask the REAL “America First” traitors, backstabbers, and MAGA phonies.
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