American Catholics share political structures from both their secular and religious worlds. Protestants, Muslims and Jews do as well. The multiplicity and relative success of such groups have often led to to the formation of American-based structures that lobby on behalf of various countries and international organizations. For example, a new organization was recently established that lobbied Americans of Ethiopian descent to support Glenn Youngkin as Governor of Virginia. The group’s name: “The American-Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee.”

Most similar entities employ the word “America” in their titles as a way to presumably stress their support for, and identification with, the United States as the key focus of their objectives. Certainly, this argument has been instrumental in the success of AIPAC, “The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee,” over the last seventy plus years. Its stated purpose is to lobby in support of a “strong” American-Israeli relationship that strengthens the national interests of both countries. But, when clashes arise between their respective elites, the trouble begins. Too often, American interests are not first and foremost.

As a political scientist, I often encounter those who object to policies that Israel favors, but the United States opposes. The Iran Nuclear Agreement, supported by President Obama, but resisted by the Trump administration, is such an example. When support for the agreement was expressed on the premise that it strengthens American security, not weakens it, AIPAC and its local members et al, publicly contended how harmful it would be to Israel. American security was often missing from their concerns. This is an ongoing problem with too many individuals and organizations: a favored country or group’s interests take precedence over concerns that America may be weakened. Yet, it remains my strongest belief that if we diminish American security, we also harm the interests of our friends and allies. Nowhere does this consideration operate more than with the American-Israeli relationship. Just this week, it was revealed that security officials in Israel admitted that their country’s political leadership was wrong to oppose the Iran nuclear deal. They contend that their country has become less safe now that a ceiling was removed on Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, the crucial ingredient in a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu and Trump put political standing ahead of their country’s respective security, and military force has now become a more likely tool to stave off Iran’s nuclear objectives.

Regularly, policymakers and advocates provide no coherent reason(s) for supporting the positions they adopt. American interests are missing from the equation. They insist that yes, America might possibly be “slightly” harmed by certain policies; for them, what’s important is the narrow economic and/or policies advocated by their favored country, or ethnic and or religious entity.

Examples of such behavior in the domestic arena are obvious: the opposition of the oil industry towards reducing the effects of carbon emissions on the climate, is perhaps the most egregious instance of supporting profits over individual health. This attitude readily plays out in the halls of Congress. The Republican Party and its “know-nothings” demonstrate, on an almost daily basis, that its members are more concerned with their political standing and survival than they are with the national interests of the United States. It is time to call them out at every opportunity, or this country will continue on its slide towards further decay in its values and the strength of its democracy.