Or simple-minded politicians.
The US and the world are facing a growing and complex set of interrelated problems. But few people have the time and patience to understand them. Many politicians know this all too well. So, instead of being honest with voters, they lie. They offer simplistic “solutions.” They create easy targets for voters to blame. Targets who have already been victimized, such as migrants and transexuals.
These people, they say, are the reason low to middle income voters are struggling. They tell voters that migrants are taking our jobs, filling our housing stock, and driving up prices when, in fact, the only jobs they are taking are those that no American citizens want. They also falsely claim that migrants are driving up crime rates.
The same politicians claim that transexuals are defying God and destroying our nation’s morals. They want you to believe that aspiring young male athletes are willing to permanently change their bodies, to undergo extensive hormonal therapies and to have their genitals removed, so that they can invade girls’ locker rooms and unfairly compete with the so-called weaker sex.
Seriously? How stupid do they think voters are? Never mind. We already know the answer to that question.
Now let’s take a look at the real problems we face: Climate change, human rights violations, mass shootings, religious conflicts and wars, poverty and food insecurity, wealth disparity and greed, corrupt and repressive governments, corporate consolidation of markets and resources, corporate treatment of workers as mere commodities, propagandist media, overcrowded urban areas, and hollowed-out rural areas.
There are no quick and simple answers for any of these problems. The issues are complex, and, in most cases, one drives the others.
For example, mass migration is the result of many factors. Very few people on the planet would leave their homeland, uproot their families, and, in many cases, walk thousands of miles through a gauntlet of hardships, violence, and obstacles just to take a poverty-level, back-breaking job elsewhere. That is, they wouldn’t unless the conditions in their homeland were much worse.
These migrants are leaving their homelands under threat of death – from wars, violent gangs, drug cartels, vicious dictators, greedy oligarchs, religious and political persecution, ethnic cleansing, and climate-caused droughts. They aren’t just looking for the promise of a better life. These men, women, and children are escaping almost certain death.
What happens when we deport them? In all likelihood, they will die. And their deaths should be forever burned into our collective conscious. Of course, many of those in prosperous countries will simply shrug their shoulders, offer thoughts and prayers, and claim their deaths are God’s will.
In fact, the anti-immigrant crowd is more likely to be concerned about the possible economic consequences of mass deportations. Deporting up to 12 million undocumented workers from the US could be catastrophic to our economy. After all, these are the workers who pick our fruit and vegetables, who process our meat, who cook our food, who clean our offices and hotel rooms, who repair our roofs, who do our landscaping, and nanny our children. Many have become friends and neighbors. And the plain fact is, we need these people.
But they should have entered the country the right way, you say. They should have stood in line to apply for immigration. The unfortunate truth is that it takes approximately three years to enter “the right way.” Most of those escaping their homelands would be dead by the time they received approval.
So, if walls, razor sharp concertina wire, and the threats of deportation are not the answer to migration, what is?
Clearly, a big part of the answer is to deal with the causes of migration. Of course, addressing climate change is a multi-generational task. So, there needs to be some interim way to humanely house and feed its victims. That only takes a willingness to help and money – likely less than we’re spending on walls. The other factors driving migration require governmental fixes – deposing dictators, ending persecution, and jailing gangs.
That all seems very daunting. But, in many cases, we – the world’s most prosperous nations and empires – created these problems and supported corrupt governments. We absolutely should be part of the solution.
Of course, that takes an honest, caring and sensible government at home. One run by politicians that are willing to level with voters, to understand the complexities and explain them to voters, to address the issues, to inspire, and to lead.
Unfortunately, such a government is nowhere to be seen on our horizon.