Michael Scott | Fountain Hills
There’s been plenty of talk with code words here in Fountain Hills.
One that bothers me is the word “first.” Its origins are worrisome. Originally it was used by President Woodrow Wilson in 2016, referring to a U.S. isolationist policy that emphasized American exceptionalism and non-intervention.
In my mind, it goes further than that.
America First was a slogan of a foreign policy group called the “America First Committee,” a none-interventionist pressure group. That “committee” had a variety of U.S. supporters and the movement had spin-offs of anti-Semitism, and fascist rhetoric link it to Nazism. It was also used addressing slavery and white nationalism, with connections to immigration, nativism and xenophobia, all background fascist movements. The KKK used the phrase in the 1920s, too. Some even say American Christian nationalism is based on the belief about American superiority and a divine connection. And we won’t forget, more recently, that “America First” became Trump’s official foreign policy doctrine.
Just another way of saying “first.”
So why should we care?
Our founding fathers wanted a secular government; they express this in the first few lines of the First Amendment.
Clearly, when I see terminology used in a Fountain Hills local election, I have to wonder what a candidate may be trying to say. Is it just coincidence, or is there something more implicit in the slogan? Is the person trying to say that “let’s take care of Fountain Hills and don’t worry about our neighbors or regional needs or goals,” leading us to believe that Fountain Hills will vacate its regional responsibilities? Or even worse, is the code word “first” trying to say what many of us are thinking it means, yet remains unsaid: Fountain Hills should be a white, senior, Christian municipality where no one else is welcome, and no one else’s opinions are valid?
You decide what you think “Fountain Hills First” really means.