Highlanders

This is not an anti-Republican post. It’s an anti-self-delusion post. It’s also Friday and I’m not getting good sleep, so it makes me cranky.

I’m not looking for any political points one way or the other because:

1) I don’t care, because

2) …it doesn’t matter, because

3) …the entire political class is morally and ideologically bankrupt.

But the bellicosity coming from GOP contenders regarding the challenges at the southern border and the deep dysfunction in LATAM is further evidence that the best that decision makers in Washington – and apparently all would-be decision makers – can do is apply failed 20th century geopolicy to our 21st century reality.

Nothing says “leadership” like applying yesterday’s thinking to today’s problems. Just logging political points by holding up the decaying thrice-defeated paper tiger of our armed forces as the solution to a multifaceted, multigenerational problem we’ve otherwise not taken a meaningful interest in solving. That is, until “dirty brown people” who “don’t speak the language” and who somehow “want to take your jobs” clog our border towns. It’s convenient to ignore the plight of others until the inconvenience is brought to our doorstep. When we decide to turn our collective attention to that inconvenience, it’s easy to think we can apply simple answers. Rally behind the flag. Vilify an outsider. Bonus points if they’re poor.

Let’s (endlessly print and then) throw taxpayer money and camouflaged bodies at the inconvenience, hold pressers and thump our starched-shirted chests, and then – in 10 or 20 years – count the bodies, render some scapegoats, and print more money to push down the debt we incurred.

Because it worked so well in Korea.

And Vietnam.

And Iraq.

And Afghanistan.

I don’t have the answers to address challenges at and below the southern border. But then again, I don’t go around telling everyone I do. I’m quite certain nobody else does, either.

It’s obviously been a long time since I last posted, and it may be a long time again. Maybe not. Who knows? Too many other things transpired since I was last in a posting rhythm that I can likely never catch up on. But some muse triggered me to renew sharing thoughts pseudonymously, so there it is.