Donald Trump is a product of American sadness — not its remedy

Donald Trump is a product of American sadness — not its remedy

If Donald Trump truly cared about the fentanyl crisis, he would focus on where the drug is being consumed rather than where it originates.

Where sadness is endemic, there is hunger for relief, but instead of addressing the root causes of societal pain, Trump is implementing policies that will produce even more pain.

In Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography (2014), Richard Rodriguez wrote:

If you would understand the tension between Mexico and the United States that is playing out along our mutual border, you must understand the psychic tension between Mexican stoicism – if that is a rich enough word for it – and American optimism. On the one side, the Mexican side, Mexican peasants are tantalized by the American possibility of change. On the other side, the American side, the tyranny of American optimism has driven Americans to neurosis and depression, when the dream is elusive or less meaningful than the myth promised. This constitutes the great irony of the Mexican-American border: American sadness has transformed the drug lords of Mexico into billionaires, even as the peasants of Mexico scramble through the darkness to find the American dream. [Emphasis mine]

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