The way Mexico is treated by Donald Trump’s government is not politically astute. Because of a disagreement on illegal immigration between the two countries, the American President has deemed necessary to solve the problem in the public arena by using statements that make the Mexicans lose face on the world stage. When a country’s government loses face, it is a sure recipe to stall negotiations and escalate political tensions. Saying to the Mexicans that they will pay for a wall that forbids them to enter in United States is reckless.
The economic input of Mexicans in United States
The American economic growth has always relied on a good proportion of workers accepting low salaries and poor working conditions, especially when they are considered illegal workers and come from Mexico and Central America. To eliminate that manpower and force the employers to double if not triple the salaries will only help increase the price of American products and risk a decrease in competitiveness. This will also impoverish Mexico and increase the inequalities between the two countries, since many “illegal workers” send money to their family abroad.
A wall that will be inefficient in controlling the influx of drugs into the United States
While generating endless tensions between land owners, political parties and countries, the wall will also require tremendous expenses that will in the end not really help to slow down the importation of drugs into the USA. Why? 95% of the containers coming in from Europe and Asia are not inspected in depth due to lack of human resources and material, as much as for the desire to expedite commercial operations. Time is money. So there are still important holes in the screening process. The book “Ninety percent of everything”, by author Rose George, develops on that very subject:
There is no easy way of stopping the importation of drugs in America or any other country. The importation of drugs will continue until the most serious gaps have been filled, and that means efficiently controlling what is inside the containers. This is where the billions of dollars have to be invested, not in the construction of a wall…
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Trump’s political slogan “Make America great again” does not make any sense when analyzed against the nominee’s words and actions.
You cannot make America great again if your political platform does not present a clear plan of action for the American population. Formulas like “Look at this crowd!”, “We’re going to build a wall” and “I would have liked to punch him in the face” are not promises for a brighter future.
You cannot make America great again if your economic ideas involve isolating America from its long lasting commercial partners. America created 255,000 jobs in the sole month of July (2016). For a country that, according to Trump, loses everything to its commercial partners, it sounds somewhat contradictory. A populist platform will not help the American population grow up and understand how business thrives.
You cannot make America great again by building up tensions between ethnic groups within the United States.
You cannot make America great again by constantly lying. Numerous declarations by Trump have been found untrue.
You cannot make America great again if the few general proposals you put forward contradict each other. Trump promises to lower the American deficit ($23 trillion dollars) and, at the same time, repeats that he will spend billions and billions of dollars to refurbish and bring the military capacity back to what it used to be. This is totally contradictory. It implies that the American population will pay for the new expenses while having to deal with serious cuts in the nation’s budget. Since the rich American does not want to contribute more than he actually does, and that the poor American is already almost unable to survive, it implies that a disappearing middle class will foot the bill. This will not make America great again but instead create the worst internal crisis ever in the United States.
You cannot make America great again by being rude, bullying, insulting and mocking whoever does not agree with you. That attitude does not help to build a greater America.
You cannot make America great again by being condescending towards prisoners of war. While some Americans where being made prisoners of war, Donald Trump was enjoying a comfortable living in the security of his home.
You cannot make America great again by lowering the political debate to a level never seen before.
You cannot make America great again by considering that dictatorship is synonymous of strong leadership. Under this angle, Hitler would be a great leader and we all know the consequences of his actions. Give the presidency to a gigantic and uncontrolled ego and the Americans, as well as the rest of the world, will pay the price.
You cannot make America great again by ridiculing Mexico, an extremely important neighbour. This country is a major commercial partner of the United States and has also a fantastic culture, for whoever is curious enough to open a book and read about it. But it takes curiosity and the feeling that there are other important people around the world than oneself.
You cannot make America great again if the republican vice-president and president nominees contradict each other about very serious matters on national TV, and if the vice-president nominee finds himself unable to defend the presidential nominee’s positions.
You cannot make America great again if the republican presidential nominee does not understand the consequences of being a populist nationalist. The Germans went through that in the past. I have included a video that is worth taking the time to listen to:
Let’s just hope that the current resentment from having received over one million refugees in Germany in a very short time frame will not help the extreme right to gain momentum and repeat the mistakes of the past.
You cannot make America great again by governing on fear. That does not make for a great future. You then have a population who needs several guns per person in order to be able to sleep at night.
You cannot make America great again if you continue to push for the population to be armed like no other country in the world. The shootings among Americans places the country in the top most violent country in the world. You can make America greater by reducing the number of guns in circulation and increasing the control on who can acquire guns.
You cannot make America great again if you do not understand, as a President, what is really going on in Syria in 2016. Summing it up to a simplistic description only adds to the confusion. In Syria, there are war crimes being perpetrated. The civil population and hospitals are deliberately targeted to protect and improve strategic military positions.
You cannot make America great again by stating that Hillary Clinton will be sent to jail if you are elected as President of the United States. This is done under authoritarian regimes around the world, and certainly is not a promise that will help the United States increase its credibility in the free world.
You cannot make America great again by destabilizing your NATO allies, or saying that you would use the nuclear bomb against Europe if necessary.
You cannot make America great again by promising that you will put forward tax reforms that will hurt your own businesses. Somebody who has fought to keep his hotels and casinos alive will not suddenly change his mind if elected President and start putting in place measures that will endanger what he has taken so much time to protect. It is nonsense. The person who is well positioned to modify a tax code that could hurt companies is someone who does not himself own the targeted companies.
You cannot make America great again by electing somebody who hates very frequent briefings. Being President of the United States requires being available, interested and able to listen to the frequent daily briefings. You must have the personality to cope with them, even if you would like to be somewhere else.
You cannot make America great again by staying silent on how to realistically lower the difference in revenues between Americans. I am not talking about equality between revenues, but lowering the extremes between the rich and the poor. This would certainly help to bring the American dream back to life, lower the social tensions and crime rate and give more sense to the theme “Make America great again…”. But I guess we are not there yet…