Outgoing President Trump’s America-first foreign policy makes sense to the incoming Biden administration because it makes sense to Americans left and right. Here is why:

No sensible American would buy the idea that America should withdraw from the outside world, even though America is capable of supporting itself. Like it or not, America is the sole global superpower. Its foreign policy has to be an extension of its superior military power, which, however, has to be sustained by a superior economy. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating a militaristic foreign policy. I am advocating an economics-based foreign policy which will advance American interests and blunt any job-killing encroachment from abroad. If Americans do not live well, the military edifice will crumble. Should that happen, America would be no more. No wonder the United States Constitution is about national security as much as it is about personal freedom. 

Whoever becomes American president must keep America safe and free. It is therefore hard to imagine that an American president does not put America first when conducting his foreign policy. If Joe Biden gives people an impression that America is second in his mind, he will likely face the music in the midterm election two years from now, which will also bode ill for the Democratic Party in the next presidential election cycle. The silent majority is watching.

We are living in a time when things could turn on a dime.

--- Lingyang Jiang