--- title: Republican Convention: Make America First Again description: The theme of Wednesday's Republican National Convention is "Make America First Again." Here's how we could do that most easily. canonical: https://time.com/4415334/republican-convention-make-america-great-again/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-20T22:43:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:56.218Z article:section: Politics og:title: Make America First Again? Here Are 10 Easy Ways to Do It og:description: Where we're currently No. 2. og:url: https://time.com/4415334/republican-convention-make-america-great-again/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cceb779a70ef2e5/69889ce9cd1bba1751701900/drinking-beer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1227 og:image:height: 690 og:image:alt: LEESBURG, VA., NOVEMBER 3, 2013: Co-founder and brewer Dan Stil og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Make America First Again? Here Are 10 Easy Ways to Do It twitter:description: Where we're currently No. 2. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cceb779a70ef2e5/69889ce9cd1bba1751701900/drinking-beer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Make America First Again? Here Are 10 Easy Ways to Do It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/) and [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) Jul 20, 2016 10:43 PM UTC  Co-founder and brewer Dan Stiles tries his wheat beer at MacDowell Brew Kitchen. Co-founder and brewer Dan Stiles tries his wheat beer at MacDowell Brew Kitchen. Astrid Riecken—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/) and [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) Jul 20, 2016 10:43 PM UTC The theme of Wednesday’s Republican National Convention is “Make America First Again,” featuring a lineup of speakers that concludes with Trump’s newly minted No. 2, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. “Unfortunately, years of bad policies and poor leadership have weakened our position in the world,” the [convention website explains](http://Unfortunately, years of bad policies and poor leadership have weakened our position in the world.). Which got us wondering: In what metrics is America _almost_ number one? Here are a few. 1. **The Economy.** According to the IMF, China overtook the United States as the world’s top economy in 2014, as determined by what’s known as [purchasing power parity](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ppp.asp), a way to measure the gross domestic product that accounts for exchange rates. China is [expected to overtake the U.S. in total GDP](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/america-is-no-2-and-thats-great-news/2014/01/17/09c10f50-7c97-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84%5Fstory.html) in the next few years. 2. **Health (Self-Reported).** The United States may rank 27th in life expectancy, but when it comes to how healthy we think we are, [we’re number three](http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/health/). 3. **Room to move.** Only Canada has a larger number of [average rooms per person](http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/housing/) at 2.5 in each household, while Americans enjoy 2.4. 4. **Beer consumption.** While the Czech Republic [led the world](http://www.kirinholdings.co.jp/english/news/2015/1224%5F01.html#table3) in _per capita_ beer consumption in 2014, the United States was second only to China in [total volume of beer downed](http://www.kirinholdings.co.jp/english/news/2015/1224%5F01.html#table1). 5. **Soldiers.** World Bank data place the United States at [third in total size of the military](http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.TOTL.P1?year%5Fhigh%5Fdesc=true), behind China and India. The size of the U.S. military has declined every year since 2011. 6. **Grandmaster Chess Players.** The United States is [tied with Germany with 89 active grandmasters](http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml). Russia has 234. 7. **Tourists.** France edges out the U.S. with 83.7 million international visits a year to our 74.8 million, according to the World Tourism Organization. 8. **Patents.** The United States has the [second highest number of patent applications](http://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo%5Fpub%5F941%5F2014.pdf) after—you guessed it—China. 9. **Time in Space.** While America has launched the most people into space, the Russians [have spent more time up there](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%5Fof%5Fspaceflight%5Frecords#Total%5Fhuman%5Fspaceflight%5Ftime%5Fby%5Fcountry). 10. **Walnuts.** The United States is third in world-wide project of walnuts, behind China and Iran. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4415334/republican-convention-make-america-great-again/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4415334/republican-convention-make-america-great-again/"},"headline":"Make America First Again? 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