> Americans should have to compete with the labor pool of the entire planet.

You almost always do, with houw our world is set up. No matter what you believe.

> it was the consequence of generations of conscious decisions and actions.

Oh, yeah, you are worthy, the others aren't. Got it.

> it is perfectly reasonable to want my government to prioritize the needs of me and my compatriots over those of others who are not from here.

They are not, in fact, prioritizing the needs of your compatriots. They would if they cared about making your country more competitive.

But in fact, they are hard at work to alienate your allies, erase your competitive advantages and turn you into a dictatorship.

Good luck, you're going to need it. Don't worry, I know us across the pond are fucked too, but at least we are not throwing away our status as a superpower for the dumbest of reasons.

I think the hyperbole in your comment is clouding your point, which appears to be that you are skeptical that immigration restrictionism is on balance good for the United States, to which I’d say that immigration restrictionism is actually the default setting and the current era of high immigration is unprecedented and new. This is the same pattern in Europe as well. The US achieved its super power status during one of the more restrictionist periods for immigration in its history, so I don’t follow how moderating immigration just a little bit equates to “throwing it away”.

>at least we are not throwing away our status as a superpower for the dumbest of reasons.

If you would choose to believe, all of this is a strategic play to get off the resource curse (aka the Dutch disease), with resources in question being trust and US dollar being the world currency.

Throwing that away may be a good thing for US long term.