We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of a Superpower

It is impossible to overstate the gift of security, wealth, opportunity, and sheer innovation that these six foundational pillars of the US policy achieved for both the world beyond and Americans at home. To be clear, America’s eight-decade reign atop the world order was hardly without great human cost—felt most acutely by those on the far edges of the Cold War, from Vietnam and Cambodia to Africa and Latin America. But scratch at almost any titanic achievement of humanity across the last 80 years in human history and you’ll see the traces of America’s six foundational policies, from the astounding achievements in human health and well-being to the decline of world poverty to the very invention of the internet. Pick almost any measure of business success and I can show you how that six-part recipe applied. To choose just one: All four of the world’s $4 trillion companies—Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple—saw immigrants or their children play a key role in their success.