Because those are two different situations that have very little—if not nothing—to do with each other. There are two different American forces responsible for addressing each of them and they don't work together. It's like asking why you would stop a robbery when there's a fire happening across town.

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Why would you join such a fight when half the country considers you "irredeemable"?

What the hell does that have to do with anything? I'd be fighting for mine and my family and friend's interests, not someone's collective opinion of me.

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How can you really hate on putin when your commander n chief takes cash payments from our enemies?

Another non-sequitur. One has nothing to do with the other. A thinking person would condemn them both.

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Why would you blather on about defending "democracy" when you don't even believe elections in this country are fair.

I've personally never blathered about defending democracy. The way I see it some countries are never going to be free countries because they don't want to be and their citizens don't demand it. So what? What they end up doing may still impact my interests and the interests of my fellow citizens. Sometimes that looks like helping a country that does have some citizens in it who want freedom to achieve it or sustain it. It's not for them. It's for us.

As for elections I think they're about as fair as they ever have been. I think 2020 was a bit of an outlier because I think the stars aligned just right circumstantially for the Democrats to get just enough of an opening to be able to tip the election. But i also don't think that's the first time in our history that that has happened. And we still have created the highest standard of living this planet has ever known.

What is happening is that "conservatives" are falling for the same trick that Democrats have been falling for for some time. And for the same reason. They have abandoned their core principles.

All liberals have been able to think about for decades is how imperfect circumstances are. We have racism, we have sexism, we have bigotry, we have inequality, this is wrong, that over there is rotten, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And while someone is pointing, "LOOK...don't take your eyes off that garbage!" they are have totally missed the FACT that we now live in a society with the least racism, the least sexism, the least bigotry, the most civil rights, the least inequality (in terms of actual quality of life) that has ever existed on this planet.

Because all they can focus on is what's less than ideal.

It's a very toxic way to understand human existence. No one is ever satisfied that way. Everyone always wants to burn the world down when that's the viewpoint.

And entertainment hustlers like Tucker Carlson have figured out that you can sell that sort of addiction to victimhood to people who lean right just like you can to people who lean left. Instead of The Man being only white people like it is to the left, it's now become rich and/or powerful people to the right. Instead of Institutional Racism being the Thing That Oppresses Us And Keeps Life From Being Perfect, it's the Deep State.

And it's amazing to me that the populist right doesn't see this. They can see it very clearly if it's Al Sharpton playing that tune, but can't see it at all when Tucker Carlson plays it. They can see other people selling ideas for money like they have x-ray vision, but can't see it when its their heroes doing it.

Anyway, the "Merca First" narrative is exactly what I just described above. If America stops intervening in world affairs the world WILL become a more dangerous place to live and there WILL be consequences that reach our shores. And the consequences of refusing to act will outweigh the consequences of action, by a big margin.