Doing Good

During the last great debate of Republican knuckleheads, Ron DeSantis was asked what he would do to solve our current drug epidemic.

He responded by stating that he would invade Mexico on Day One to take out the drug dealers.

It was an attractive response, and, of course, it garnered much applause.

If I were a candidate, how would I respond?

Just for a second, pretend that I am a candidate.

Here goes:

Well, certainly my first inclination would be to go down into Mexico, like Governor DeSantis, and kick some ass a la General George Patton.

There’s no one that America hates more than a bad guy. I am no different from many of you who are outraged by drug dealers destroying the lives of innocent people.

But before I marched into Mexico, I would feel obligated to ask some questions.

The first question I would ask myself would be if there is anything that we can do here in the United States to lessen our reliance on drugs.

What is fueling the importation, the illegal importation, of drugs is our citizens desire for these drugs.

This desire did not exist to this degree 75 years ago.

So what has changed in the United States of America?

What has changed in the United States of America is that we have weakened the family structure in our country.

We fueled this weakening by outsourcing well paying manufacturing jobs.

In 1970 a line worker at GM without a college education could make the equivalent of about $70,000 today.

That’s a lot of loot to the average working guy.

Unfortunately, we eliminated many of these types of jobs in favor of jobs at Starbucks and other retail outlets.

These jobs don’t pay anywhere near that kind of money that was paid in 1970.

This put immense financial stress upon the family and the family structure.

When we put stress upon the family structure, divorce results. Divorce traumatizes children.

Traumatized children go on to to have many more psychological problems.

Many of these kids turn to crime, vandalism, prostitution and drug use.

Additionally, traumatized, children tend not to receive a strong education. We increase the chance that they will do poorly in life.

My feeling is that if we strengthen the family structure, we will immunize ourselves against many of these problems and social ills.

We like to talk about the strength of the family unit in America, but how many of us are willing to do something about it?

Well, I would like to do something about it.

We have to have a frank discussion with ourselves.

Are we going to bring manufacturing back to the United States?

Are we going to bring back well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the United States?

If we are not going to do that, then we must find a way to increase the amount of money that people at Starbucks, McDonald’s, and other retail outlets make.

If we are going to live in a service economy, then it is paramount that the people in this service economy can make a lot more than just a living wage.

When we increase the amount of money that people make, we will strengthen the family unit and then lessen drug use in the United States.

With that stated, though, I understand the attractiveness of marching into Mexico and kicking some ass.

Everybody likes a guy like General Patton, at least the way he was depicted in the movie.

I remember the scene where George C Scott, the man who played Patton, got out there and directed traffic.

It all made us feel good.

Americans like a man of action.

But are actions like that, kicking ass in Mexico – are they doing good or are they just making us feel good?

I tend to think the latter.

Let’s suppose that we go into Mexico and kick some ass. Everybody knows that these fentanyl labs and drug labs can be set up within days after we destroy them.

Doesn’t it seem logical that if we go into Mexico and kick some ass, a new person will come in and set up a new lab within weeks?

Then are we going to have to go in there and kick ass again, again, and again?

That’s a lot of ass kicking.

Let’s assume that we thoroughly cleanse Mexico, what is going to stop people in Central America and South America from filling in the gap?

Let’s suppose that we kick ass down there also.

What is going to prevent the people from Southeast Asia or China setting up drug labs and importing the drugs from there?

There is nothing to stop that.

As long as we have a huge demand here in the United States, we will continue to have a large illegal importation of drugs.

Therefore, my policy would be to find a way to decrease the need for these foreign drugs.

Therefore my plan of attack would be to strengthen the family unit.

For that reason I would defer going into Mexico in order to kick some ass.

I would not take measures that make us feel good. I would instead take measures that do good.

Therefore, my focus of attack would be to take a counterintuitive approach and to increase the financial strength of the American family.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Archer Crosley

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