With currently half the western population pushing a significant anti-science agenda (even greater than half if you consider that there’s also not insignificant anti-science ideals in various left wing groups as well, albeit not usually to the point of ripping kids out of education), that seems like a nearly impossible proposition unless there’s a significant political awakening.
The space race has shown that America hates losing more than it hates science. We're kind of early but e.g. the race back to the Moon is on. If there's a credible threat of losing a race to fusion power I'm pretty sure US politicians would be able to sell that threat to the public in a single afternoon.
I'm not sure why you are being downvoted. The original question is political in nature and polls run by both major sides of the political spectrum in the USA support your argument.
Anything political or feeding the flames is not encouraged on HN. Especially if it appears bipartisan, personally. And many of us are in other countries so the whole subject is usually annoying.