On the EDge: Time for United States to become a good neighbor

July 23, 2018 Utah Channel 3

OPINION – Despite the historical hoopla and chest thumping, democracy is a fragile thing.

It is not the destiny of all nations and is not the solution for all nations, particularly those that have been under the rule of emirs, kings and strongmen for millennia.

It was tough when the United States broke from the British in 1776 and it is tough for emerging nations today.

Especially Mexico.

Although its 1917 constitution called for democratic institutions, it wasn’t until 2000 that la voz de la gente – the voice of the people – began to be truly heard with the election of Vicente Fox and his National Action Party, which ousted the authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party that had manipulated the voting system and dominated Mexico’s government on the national and state levels for seven decades.

Felipe Calderón, another National Action Party politician, succeeded Fox in 2006. His election sparked unchecked violence as he declared war on the drug cartels and his misguided economic policies sent the nation into a financial tailspin. Angry voters went to the polls in 2012 and elected Enrique Peña Nieto, who leaves office this year with approval ratings barely over the 10 percent mark after a tenure marred by scandal and corruption.

It set the stage for the July 1 landslide victory by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the nascent National Regeneration Movement (Morena Party), a liberal political group that campaigned on the promise of restoring national pride, instituting sound economic principles and restoring trust in government.

He was swept into office with more than 53 percent of the vote, crushing his nearest opponent by more than a 2-to-1 margin.

On election night, he promised voters he would push for a civil relationship with the United States, one “rooted in mutual respect and in defense of our migrant countrymen who work and live honestly in that country” and added that migration should be a matter of choice, not necessity. He promised to “strengthen the internal market to try to produce in the country what we consume and so that Mexicans can work and be happy where they were born, where their family is, where their customs and their cultures are.”

How this will all play out, of course, remains to be seen.

Obrador is a maverick.

He says he will not live in the presidential palace or travel on the presidential plane, which, he says, is now for sale.

He’ll live and move among the common people instead of setting himself apart in regal style, as so many world leaders do.

He promises to cut his salary in half and plans to end pensions paid to former presidents.

He has also promised to reform the constitution to allow sitting presidents to be tried for corruption and electoral fraud.

He has also promised mid-term referendums to allow voters the opportunity to toss out elected officials – including himself – if they are dissatisfied.

Again, we will see how this plays out.

His popularity is growing among Mexicans who have seen how he already has become a target of the White House’s disdain for all things Mexico, earning the racist, stereotypical moniker “Juan Trump” by the president, who has smeared everybody from Hillary Clinton to Marco Rubio to Kim Jung-Un with insulting diminutives.

This will not end well for the United States as the president continues to alienate the nation’s closest neighbors and long-standing allies.

Somewhat cooler heads are prevailing in the State Department where officials are trying desperately to clean up the mess their boss has created.

That’s why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already met with Obrador in an effort to instill some calm in the roiling sea of contempt the demand for a border wall and incendiary statements the president has made about Mexico and Mexicans have created.

“We know there have been bumps in the road between our two countries, but President Trump is determined to make the relationship between our peoples better and stronger,” Pompeo told Obrador.

That flies in the face of the “Juan Trump” references, racially charged comments the president has made and the unreasonable demands being placed upon Mexico by the president who has mercilessly bashed the nation.

U.S.-Mexico relations were further strained after a tense telephone conversation between Trump and Peña Nieto when the president insisted that Mexico would pay for a wall along the border and threatened to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement, which most economists have said helps the economies and workers in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and is a policy rooted in the Ronald Reagan administration to eliminate barriers to trade and investment among the three countries.

The rift was so severe that Peña Nieto canceled a visit with the president.

North of the border, there has also been fallout with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the rising trade wars.

North America is clearly not Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, where our amiable host walked us through life’s challenges and painful issues and frequently placed the focus on brotherhood and peacefully working through anger and anger issues.

North America, particularly the United States, has become a place where anger has prospered and grown; where neighborliness is restricted to those who look, act and subscribe to the same political, cultural and religious strains; where kindness has been replaced by hostility; where hate has supplanted love.

The United States is not setting a very good example of democracy and the freedoms and liberties it entails for its neighbors to the south who are trying to continue the transition.

Good neighbors embrace each other, encourage each other, they don’t covet their successes and demand a piece of their pie.

Good neighbors do not insult each other, devalue each other, look for every advantage over each other.

Good neighbors do not build prohibitive walls to isolate themselves.

Good neighbors know that what is good for the entire community is good for them as well, with success enriching their lives.

It’s time for the United States to become a good neighbor instead of the bully on the block jacking you up for your lunch money.

No bad days!

Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.

Email: edkociela.mx@gmail.com

Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela