The thousands of people walking from Central America to the United States border will be a major symbolic issue in the Nov. 9 election. The Caravan has come to represent, for both political parties, a vote on who is morally right or wrong. This election has become a census of of how divided we are.
The conservatives accuse the liberals of giving away our security, and the liberals can only see babies in cages. There is no middle ground. One side must win and the other side lose. Career politicians seem to be more motivated by personal gain than by public good. All of the big issues drag on for decades.
Political parties are much the same as individual people — when faced with a difficult and emotionally stressful problem, they look away, or blame someone else, or get angry and irrational. The Caravan should be a policy issue, but we are hearing no policy discussion. Instead, both sides retreat to extreme, emotion-loaded arguments the do not address the real problems in a productive way.
The vast majority of Mexicans and Central Americans have no interest in invading the U.S. They would much rather stay home. I have visited the region for decades, and I have learned that the people who live there deeply love their countries — their families and all their culture is there. Most migrants who work in the U.S. send their money home to build better lives for their families.
The crisis in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador is a humanitarian catastrophe. The Caravan is a mass demonstration of a plea for help. Criminal gangs in those countries have overwhelmed the ability of the governments to protect their citizens. There is a similar problem in the cartel-controlled areas of Mexico. We also must not forget that we contributed to those problems by military and economic intervention and our own epidemic of drug abuse.
The problem is that Honduras, Guatemala and other Central American countries have, because of poverty, become dangerously unlivable for huge numbers of their people. As a result, their economies are devastated, tourism has collapsed, and now the U.S. government is threatening to cut off current humanitarian aid.
The real issue is about neither politics nor morality, it is simply that our neighbors’ house is burning down and they are begging for help. The Caravan recalls the story of the journey to Bethlehem — the government was involved there, too. It also recalls the U.S. turning away shiploads of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. How this passion play will act out will be decided by the election next week.
Currently, the largest voting bloc, the independents, are not being offered a choice that makes sense. Confronting desperate mothers and babies with military troops is absurd and barbaric. At the same time it is unrealistic to think a mass migration to the U.S. will solve all of the problems of Central America.
There is much that U.S.policy makers could do to address the root causes of the suffering of our neighbors. In some cases we must acknowledge that we caused the problem. For example, in many rural areas, local economies have been devastated by cheap, imported GMO corn. As a result, millions of peasants migrated to cities, where they were confronted by brutal gangs that originated in the U.S. The Caravan is running from that situation. It would be more economical and more humane to provide support to law enforcement and economic development in the home countries than to send soldiers to our border.
There are many practical ideas for strengthening our ties to our closest neighbors, but nothing can pass in the current political climate. There is a middle ground, if only we and our elected leaders will discuss it.
In the upcoming election, we must support candidates who reject extremism and endorse discussion and compromise. Perhaps the new Silent Majority is the reasonable middle ground. I eagerly await the results on election day.
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