Democracy in Peril: Solving the Crisis of the U.S.

/ Mexico Border

In 2002 when President George W Bush gave the State of the Union Address he labeled

Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the so-called axis of evileven though they never really

collaborated on anything. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and

World Trade Center, our national psyche was severely devastated and many government officials

readily cited the axis as the number one threat to the security of the country. Nearly ten years

later the threat from overseas remains the same, over seas, but that threat was always a physical
threat that could be relatively contained. Today, the border between the United States and

Mexico poses both the greatest threat and most promise to the future success of American

democracy because the violent problems that plague the region can only be overcome if citizens

are willing to exercise their democratic muscles by respecting others democratic ideals,

demanding equal justice, and embracing our differences as strengths. Using the Jean-Paul

Sartres dedication to the individuals radical freedom and Cornel Wests three deep democratic

traditions, I will argue that the problems facing the United States/ Mexico border can be

overcome. In order to find solutions, though we must first identify the barriers that stand in our

way.

When President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in the United States and around

the world in June of 1971 he created a cabinet level office to combat what he believed the

greatest issue facing the American public at the time.[1] Nixon started the Drug Enforcement

Agency with a Congressional budget of $371 million and by the end of the century it ballooned

to more than $17 billion.[2] In spite of billions of dollars of American government efforts, the

illicit drug trade is thriving more than ever, and it is estimated that global drug trafficking is now

a $400 billion industry with more than $70 billion of that coming from the United States.[3]

Nearly forty years after Nixon declared the war on drugs it has failed in every effort one can

think of, and some are now blaming it for the brutal violence that is ravaging our democratic

neighbor to the south, Mexico. For the better part of the last decade the country has been the

1
bystander of a different kind of drug war. Highly trained, armed, and deadly organizations such

as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Arellano-Felix Organization have taken control of entire Mexican

states and are responsible for thousands of murders each year including journalists, countless

civilians, and even federal narcotics agents.[4]

The power of drug kingpins in Mexico is spilling over into the American cities in Texas,

Arizona, California, and everywhere in between. In recent months the Secretary of Homeland

Security Janet Napalitano even requested the United States government activate and mobilize

military forces along the border.[5] The violence that has painted the streets red with blood in
Mexico is slowly moving into the United States and our government is trying to combat a grease

fire with a water hose. Scholar and champion of democracy Cornel West argues that overly

militarized government responses exhibit an evangelical nihilism that promotes only canned

responses to complex problems because democracy matters little, plutocracy reigns, and empire

rules.[6] The drug war being fought along the U.S/ Mexico border is endangering the process

of democracy in both countries because as Mexican officials move their families north of the

border to flee the murderous retribution of the cartels, we in the United States casually dismiss

our responsibility in the situation by simply flexing our military might. There are more options

available to the United States other than increasing the brutality with more soldiers, guns, and

violence. It is not a drug war that is terrorizing the U.S./Mexican border; it is a war on

democracy that has multiple fronts that we as citizens must confront because our nations future

depends on our ability identify these threats and neutralize them.

Identifying threats to democracy on a societal level must begin with the individual.

French existentialist Jan Paul Sartre argues that the power of one person to influence others is

inherent in the expression of ones radical freedom.[7] The United States of America is a society

built on the assumption that all men are created free and equal, but considering our troubled

history, even that statement is disingenuous. In a country that spreads the rhetoric of free and

equal Sartres atheist existentialism compels each individual person to confront his or her own

complacency because [wo]man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole

2
world on [her] shoulders; [s]he is responsible for the world and for [her]self as a way of

being.[8] American freedom, as we readily acknowledge, is the beacon of hope for many of the

worlds oppressed peoples, but along with that freedom comes the responsibility to protect it

through the exercise of democracy. Sartre denies the ability to excuse our accountability for both

our actions and inactions as free people because we are creating the image others will follow.

Living in a democracy the individual is not alone, and although Americans have premiered their

individuality Sartre reminds us that we are members of a society whose actions have implications

beyond our own personal existence. In light of Sartres radical responsibility of a free individual
we can see that how our nation responds to the violence occurring along the U.S./ Mexico border

is a reflection of every single Americans dedication to democracy.

The war being waged by drug cartels and American evangelical nihilism is only one of

the major threats to our idea of democracy and life that we must face in order to accept Sartres

call to radical freedom. By far one of the most fiercely waged battles in the border-zone, and the

rest of the country for that matter, is the fight for and against allowing legal immigration. In a

country that was built by slaves and remodeled with immigrant labor the question of allowing

people access to the so-called American dream should not be a question at all. The reality,

however, is that the policy of the American government is to restrict the flow of both

documented and undocumented people into the United States for reasons as varied as national

security, economic protection, and even racism. The policy toward undocumented immigrants in

the United States follows what West would call paternalistic nihilism because while many of

those in the position of power understand the value of immigrants in terms of their labor the so-

called liberal elites refuse to acknowledge them as being worthy of the same access to freedom

and democracy than those born here.

On the national level many powerful leaders acknowledge the problems American

immigration policy has created along the border, but none have yet been willing to examine the

issue in way that treats people with the respect they deserve.[9] Wests idea of paternalistic

nihilism can be used to describe how U.S. Immigration policy works to further alienate people

3
along the border from their own democracy. In his 2004 work Democracy Matters, West

describes three nihilisms, evangelical, paternalistic, and sentimental, prevalent in American

society that hinder our ability to sustain a democratic identity. Of them, paternalistic nihilism is

sometimes the cruelest because even though one may express a wish that the system could be

made to serve more truly democratic purposes, it has succumbed to the belief that a more

radical fight for a truer democracy is largely futile.[10] American Immigration policy has not

changed very much over the last century because there have not been enough people willing to

lead the fight for a truer democracy. Migrants to the United States provide millions of dollars in
cheap labor, and are easily exploited through fear making them a prime target for exploitation by

corporate interests. One of Wests most stringent characteristics of a paternalistic nihilist is a

persons connection to corporate interests because more often than not the paid interests trump

the will the electorate. Overcoming the barrier of paternalistic nihilism is an important step to

securing a future for democracy especially in regards to the U.S./ Mexico border because as the

narco-violence continues to grow and the global economy continues to decline, we will be forced

to welcome more and more immigrants into our society. It is up to individual people to take a

stand and demand their government reject nihilism in any form by embracing the influx of

people, not resisting it.

Wests assertion that nihilism in American society is one of the biggest detriments to the

future of democracy finds another anchor in the realm of journalism that he labels sentimental

nihilism. He attacks the mainstream media in the U.S. because it often rests on the most basic

and elementary causes and effects of major complex events saying that, sentimental nihilism is

content to remain on the surface of problems rather than pursue their substantive depths.[11]

The issues that surround the southern U.S. border are highly complicated, multifaceted

evolutions of more than a century of social, economic, and political strife, and reducing problems

such as narco-violence and immigration to dichotomous good and evil debates prevents any real

attempt at a solution from being found. Conservative talking heads such as Lou Dobbs and Rush

Limbaugh are joined by elected officials such as former Senator Tom Tancredo and Sheriff Joe

4
Arpaio to vehement oppose anti-immigrant rhetoric that seeks to criminalize the some 12 million

undocumented people who are now living in the United States as well as the thousands still en

route.[12] If Americans are trying to secure their democracy than they must stop listening to the

anti-democratic rhetoric of these sentimental nihilists because those who engage in biased

reporting reinforce the deep polarization and balkanization of the citizenry and contribute much

to the decline of public trust in meaningful political conversation.[13] American immigration

policy is mired in the niggerizing rhetoric that is spread so easily through the mainstream media,

and our democratic ideals suffer the brunt of this negativity because it reinforces the cynicism
people have toward their government and society. Unfortunately the ubiquity of nihilism in all

three forms West discusses has clouded the meaning of democracy for so many people that many

of them could not answer the question, What is democracy?.

To be the champion of democracy one must be able to define it, to pick it out from the

crowd of other forms of society, and most of all to know what it is not. In his treatise on the state

of American democracy, West cites a deep democratic tradition that cannot be owned by the

United States, but says it is here that the seeds of democracy have taken deepest root and

sprouted most robustly.[14] The group of faulty men that produces the Declaration of

Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, created the foundation for a society that

would produce the most access to personal liberty the world had ever known, if you were white

and male. Though our democracy may have begun under questionable circumstances it has

thrived because it has been able to change according to the pressures of people who exert their

will on government. That is the meaning of democracy, and for West it is an active exertion of a

persons will to make elites responsible because it is at its core and most basic foundation the

taking back of ones powers in the face of the misuse of elite power.[15] West understands that

democracy is not an abstract concept that is best left to the metaphysicist, but a physical exertion

of what Sartre would call the free commitment, by which every [wo]man realizes [her]self in

realizing a type of humanity.[16] People who recognized the need for a better form of society

built our democracy, and those individuals who accepted the burden of their freedom with open

5
arms have strengthened it over the last two hundred years. These champions of democracy bang

and hammer at the very meaning of the word to smith out the imperfections using the tools West

calls deep democratic traditions.

The United States of America is driven by several ideologies that are the basis for the

success of democracy in spite of the most dangerous climates it has faced. West describes the

contributions of Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison among others that

have continued to wield the force of Socratic questioning as a weapon of prophetic justice

against the enemies of democracy while maintaining a tragicomic hope for a better future. The
crimes against humanity that color our nations history have threatened its very existence, and the

individuals who recognized that their participation in society as radically free beings have helped

ensure its survival. According to West, to be a democratic individual is to be flexible and fluid,

revisionary and reformational in ones dealings with fellow citizens and the world, not adhering

to comfortable dogmas or rigid party lines.[17] As citizens we are all charged with the task of

defending democracy by questioning the policies of our government and demanding they adhere

to our most noble ideals. To ensure the survival and continued success of our society, as we

know it, we must allevery single American citizenstrive to become champions of

democracy.

Resisting the flow of anti-democratic dogmas is a dangerous endeavor. Many of those

who attempted to leave a positive mark on American society paid for it with their lives. The

violence that colors our history in the forms of racism, sexism, classism, etc., is a power that can

deaden the humanity in those it touches. Like malevolent bacteria that eats a person from the

inside out, oppression restricts ones ability to hope for better days. West heralds the legacy of

those people who face these debilitating circumstances and thrive in spite of them. Calling it

tragicomic hope it is has offered the most penetrating insights and energizing visions that

have pushed the development of the American democratic project.[18] The ability of

oppressed peoples to survive and thrive in the face of unprecedented resistance is the most

promising characteristic of our society because it is what gives birth to new and better definitions

6
of democracy. The American democracy has been under siege since its inception, but only now

is it dangerously close to being irrelevant. In Democracy Matters West argues that the most

promise to the success of our political society can be found most evidently in the blues. While

that assertion is valid and West masterfully makes his point, his focus weighs to heavily on the

threats to democracy emanating from the U.S. occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not on the

boogeyman hiding in our closetthe war zone that is our border with Mexico. It is clear that the

many different problems, questions, and issues that are stewing in a pot of narco-terrorism along

the southern U.S. border are not going to just go away. We must, as free citizens beholden to the
responsibility placed upon us by our membership in the American society, confront the problems

associated with the U.S/Mexico border because if we are successful in that endeavor we can rest

assured that democracy is safer and more secure than ever before.

The bloody terror of narco-violence and the political policies that force thousands to

endure the gauntlets of death that are the deserts of the American Southwest threaten to breed

further discontent and dissatisfaction with the United States government. There is hope,

however, in the grassroots political movements that are working both sides of the national divide

to protect our battered democratic ideals. Children of the border-zone have grown up and are

using their newfound agency and power to raise more awareness of the hypocrisy of the

governments response to drug related terror. In February of 2009 the El Paso city council heard

arguments on a resolution that would urge an "open, honest national dialogue on ending the

prohibition of narcotics".[19] Even today such a proposal is met with questions of the proponents

sanity, but it is critical to the continuing progression of democracy that we as citizens keep

making such demands. For West, a robust democracy must be brought to life through

democratic individuality, democratic community, and democratic society.[20] The survival of

our democracy depends on our ability as individuals to stand up in the face of anti-democratic

powers and exercise our liberty through active participation. This means that every person must

be an agent of change by witnessing injustice and making a determined effort to stop it.

7
 The inhumanity of the current immigration system in the United States is strikingly

appalling. Across the country there are numerous private prisons, such as the T. Don Hutto Unit

north of Austin, Texas, that house entire detained families who may or may not have been here

legally. Workplace raids, like the one on Shipley Doughnuts headquarters in April of 2008, are

the main tactic used to full places like T. Don Hutto, and still people millions of people risk

everything to bask in the saving grace that we call democratic freedom.[21] The fact that so

many people see our form of society as a beacon that calls them, lures them to leave behind

everything they have ever know to embark on an trip that has only one guaranteeto be nearly
fatalis a testament to the enduring quality of our national endeavor. Our democracy can be

saved, but it will require us to listen to the people being oppressed by the likes of Joe Arpaio who

chains women to gurneys during childbirth because as Brother West informs us the premier

prophetic language is the language of cries and tears because the human hurt and misery give rise

to visions of justice and deeds of compassion.[22] The U.S./Mexico border when considered in

terms of both the violence of the drug wars and the inhumanity of current immigration policy is a

dangerous problem to our form of democracy, but it is also a place where we can rediscover what

democracy really means. We have to listen to the people on the border, American citizen or not,

who are living the consequences of American immigration policy, forty years of the drug war,

and overall imperialist antagonism, because they will be the ones to lead us out of the

democratic muck.

The individualistic ideology that the United States thrives on is a very important part of

our national identity, but no matter how isolationist we may try to be we will always be tied to

our neighbors. Like separated conjoined twins, the United States of American and Mexico have

interwoven histories, identities, and futures that structure our current relationships. The horrific

violence of the current drug war in Mexico and along the border is one of the countrys many

problems that directly involve the United States. Another is the tragic problem of immigration

that does not appear to be solved or ending any time soon. The dire situation these problems are

causing not only in Mexico but the United States as well threatens the survival of both

8
democracies. The callous disregard for U.S. culpability in the current drug trading wars breeds a

new type of imperialism that works only if democracy is soundly neutralized. If the violence of

the drug war was not enough than immigration may be the final battleground for our way of life.

To deny people the chance at success for polemical and blatantly false reasons is about as

undemocratic as you can get, in fact going further its anti-capitalist as well. If the United States

is going to survive both politically and economically it needs to have a serious and respectful

debate about the contributions immigrants have made over the course of the nations history. The

border-zone is a space that demands attention and serious democratic muscle flexing because our
ability to survive rests on its deliverance from the terror it is now facing.

[1] Robert Young. "Nixon Declares War on Narcotics Use in U.S." Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file), June 18,

1971, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed December 15, 2009).

[2] The Federal Governments Response to Illegal Drugs, 1969-1978, ONDCP fact sheet 172873.

[3] Who Are Americas Drug Users? Frontline. 2008, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/

buyers/whoare.html.

[4] Jaime Bone, Drug Cartel in Deadly Challenge to Law, The Times (London), July 16, 2009.

[5]

[6] Cornel West, Democracy Matters, (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 61.

[7] Jean Paul Sartre, from Existentialism is Humanism,

[8] Jean-Paul Sartre, From Being and Nothingness, (The Philosophical Library, 1956).

[9] For more information on U.S. Immigration policy see: Fixing Immigration, Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2009;

Marshal Fitz, Solutions: How Should Our Immigration Policies be Reformed?, Washington Times, October 11,

2009;

[10] West, 32.

[11] West, 39.

9
[12] Kenneth Tomlinson, Talk Radio Static, Washington Times, February 23, 2008; Albor Ruiz, Dobbs Ruins

CNNs Latino Program Aim, Daily News (New York), October, 18, 2009; Timothy Egan, Disorder on the

Border, New York Times, March 29, 2008.

[13] West, 38.

[14] ibid 68.

[15] West 68.

[16] Sartre, 204.

[17] West 70.

[18] West 102.

[19] Torrey Meeks, El Paso Dialogue on Drugs Leaves Some Speechless, Washington Times, February 2, 2009.

[20] West, 203.

[21] T. Don Hutto: Americas Family Prison, http://tdonhutto.blogspot.com; James Pinkerton and Susan Carroll,

Raid on Shipley Headquarters, Houston Chronicle, April 17, 2008;

[22] West, 214.

10