If you’re keeping track at home (and if you’re a parent, you probably are) we have a growing list of shortages in America. The newest addition to this disturbing list is children’s medicine. Items like Tylenol, Advil and Motrin are hard to find. Target has placed a limit of two transactions. That’s including website purchases as well as actual brick and mortar store purchases. So, if your child is sick or in pain… good luck. So, add medicine to the basic items we as a nation are lacking. Yes, there is still a baby formula shortage. Yes, there’s also a shortage of Amoxicillin. That’s the go-to first line of defense antibiotic that doctors use to treat almost every type of infection. This is quite a list. Food for babies, medicine for children and the most basic form of antibiotic. We don’t have enough, and we need it. Here’s the solution I’d like to propose: America First. Make this stuff here. In America. What a novel idea!
Somewhere, the idea of America First got twisted into meaning something upsetting and emotional. It’s an odd phenomenon. Here’s what America First means to me: We as a nation are completely self-sufficient. If some shit goes off the rails, like it did in China with Covid, we can still continue on. We don’t NEED any other country. We can do business with them. We can negotiate deals with them. But if shit hit’s the fan, and it will. It always does. We can still supply Americans with the basic necessities. When did this become controversial? What the fuck is up with that? Remember when President Trump dug in and kept steel mills open in the US? There were actually people who opposed that. It’s insane. You NEED steel to make things.
If there is an upside to Covid, it’s this. We’ve gotten a teeny glimpse of how bad things could get if a real conflict happened between the US and our ‘trade partners’. Remember, this is a friendly shortage. We’re told everyone is doing what they can to solve the problem and we still lack basic shit. Now imagine it wasn’t friendly. What in the fuck would we do then? That’s a terrifying notion. It should be. We would be screwed six ways to Sunday. So, the solution is simple: America First. We need to be completely self-sufficient and self-sustaining. There is nothing controversial about that.
