The simpletons' parade

Presidential contenders promote violence at home and abroad

(Note: while the Speakers drama is certainly interesting, I think the analysis has been beaten to death. I will, however, discuss an idea to fix this in a future column.)

Donald Trump has violence in his heart, and he is showing it to the Republican base. Appalling as this may be, his success in persuading other candidates for the GOP presidential nomination is more disturbing.

Proving that their hearts are also shadowed by violence, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley have all embraced the former president’s suggestion. They too think the United State should consider invading Mexico in order to attack the drug cartels that smuggle opioids across the border, fueling an epidemic of fatalities among American drug users

No one can dispute the facts about opioid deaths. In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, the death toll exceeded 60,000.  Despite his promise to fix the problem, the number stood at almost 92,000 at the end of his final year in the White House. Last year, it stood at just over 107,000.

In the face of this crisis, voters do want to see government action, but using the military in a sovereign nation is a stupid idea that would constitute an illegal act of war and disrupt our relations with our biggest trading partner for decades to come. But it appeals to the darker side of human nature, where anger, fear, and aggression.

In a fearful country awash in guns purchased for self-protection, firepower has a particular appeal. Add all the TV and movie violence we absorb -- by one estimate viewers see 200,000 acts of fictional violence before age 18 – and you have a significant number of people who  may fantasize about using force to solve seemingly intractable problems.  

http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

On the domestic front, Trump recently promised that if he’s elected in 2024 he would somehow empower police to shoot shoplifters on sight.  "We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft,” he told a GOP crowd in Anaheim. “Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store." As members of the audience applauded, he raised his voice to repeat the word “shot."

It should be noted here that Trump has proposed this kind of violence before. During his presidency he advocated police attacks on rioters, declaring, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He was a little more subtle when he told followers to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!; LIBERATE MINNESOTA!; LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under seige."

Let’s consider where Trump’s proposals would take us. Were police to start summary killings of petty thieves, they would undoubtedly make some mistakes that would kill or main the innocent. This sanctioned violence would put our peace officers on a par with the police in the Philippines where extra judicial, street-level executions have been used against drug trade suspects. Unleashed by an autocratic president who exceeds Trump in his tough-guy talk, this policy has earned global condemnation.

An invasion or the use of air power against cartels in Mexico would also lead to collateral damage and could make us a pariah state in the same category as Russia as it wages an unprovoked war of conquest against Ukraine. Do we really want to go there?

Trump’s rank manipulation of his supporters, and the others’ rush to join him, amounts to a simpleton parade. The former president and his challengers willfully ignore the complexity of the two problems they would solve with guns and bombs. They dismiss the genuine but difficult solutions.

As an Air Force pilot, I participated in a long-running joint US/Columbia campaign that used American surveillance aircraft and trainers to guide the Columbian government’s attacks on coca farms, refining facilities, and cartel bases. The rate of cocaine production fell off a cliff. In the meantime, social and political elements of the project called Plan Columbia eventually reduced the murder rate by two-thirds and cut even more sharply into the rate of kidnappings for ransom. All this effort reduced drug exports to America.

A Plan Mexico, using joint policing efforts, US military surveillance assets, and programs to build a peaceful civil society should cut drug activities there as they did in Columbia. However, in this case we should also begin a serious effort to reduce demand by expanding treatment for addiction that would include more inpatient and outpatient facilities and wider use of the lifesaving drug naloxone and distribution of methadone to help people get clean and maintain their sobriety.       

At home, police know how to reduce petty crimes like shoplifting with concerted efforts to address low-level crime and increase patrols. (This approach is called the “broken windows” strategy because it addresses even the smallest criminal acts, like window-breaking.) Add partnerships with neighborhood activists and better surveillance in stores and you will go a long way toward a solution.  

Although they act like they are playing it straight and being honest when others prevaricate, Trump and his imitators are trying to fool voters who should know that the drug crisis and criminal activity cannot be solved by illegal force. Nevertheless, the GOP’s self-declared finest, people who believe they should be president, play the game of tough talk, appealing to the worst of us.