In search of the Golden Mean

In one of its latest surveys, the prestigious publication The Economist offered a deep analysis of the current situation surrounding the war on drugs. With strong evidence against the historical approach that has been built around the drug problem, the newspaper offers a "messy" solution which makes a case for legalisation. According to The Economist, legalisation's greatest benefit would be that of transforming a law-and-order affair into a public-health issue.

The war on drugs, as it has been fought for the last century, has been a disaster. No doubt about it. Yet, despite all its failures, this war has been based on a noble moral principle whose ultimate purpose is a drug-free world. As Utopian as that may be, I still believe any war on drugs should include that principle as part of the strategy. The well-intended and pragmatical solution proposed by The Economist leaves behind that moral rationale with an unanswered question: Why legalisation is the only possible way to move the problem from a law-and-order issue into a public-health one?

I strongly believe that the current approach of the war on drugs is doomed to fail again, and again, and again. However, before venturing into the legalisation proposal I still believe there are alternatives in the middle that could strenghten the war on drugs without running into the unknowns of legalisation. Fighting drugs is not a white and black issue and, thus, it should not be a matter of choosing between the current approach or the alternative of legalisation. An honest strategy to fight drugs should involve a middle point between these two extremes, a "Golden Mean" that finally allow us to shape the kind of policy we have not seen for the past 100 years.

Wake up Republicans!

"We love people." That is, according to Rush Limbaugh, the core value of conservative America as he expressed it before an enthusiastic crowd during the last Conservative Political Action Conference. Honestly, I don't really know how much truth there is in such a statement. What I do know is that the interlocutor wasn't the right one.

For most of his career, as a right wing radio personality, Rush Limbaugh has become famous for his denigrant attacks against all those who don't fit in his ideal image of the world. From his racist statements to his contempt for human rights (he believes Guantanamo is just a tropical resort for Muslim terrorists), Rush Limbaugh represents the ugliest side of American conservatism.

If the GOP is willing to flirt with Limbaugh it better be prepared to pay a high political and moral price. It's time that Republicans start doing something about the assault on their party!

El profeta equivocado

Si algo le faltaba al debacle republicano después de las elecciones del año pasado que erigieron a Barack Obama como presidente de los Estados Unidos era permitirle al ala derecha de los medios de comunicación del país definir el liderazgo de dicho partido.

Rush Limbaugh, el famoso y controvertido comentarista radial artífice de un sinnúmero de ataques indignantes contra todos aquellos que considera sus enemigos, ha comenzado a elaborar una guerra en contra de la administración Obama que muchos conservadores han aplaudido con el mismo entusiasmo expresado por los asistentes a la Conferencia de Acción Política Conservadora (CPAC por sus siglas en inglés) llevada a cabo recientemente.

Después de escuchar el discurso de Limbaugh en CPAC es difícil digerir la primera frase con la cual define los valores del conservatismo estadounidense. Según Limbaugh, los conservadores del país se caracterizan por encima de todo por su amor por la gente. No sé si eso será cierto. De lo que si estoy seguro es que el interlocutor no es el adecuado. Limbaugh es una persona que ha denigrado a todas las minorías del país (de lo cual no se ha salvado ni el propio Obama para el cual dedicó la canción del negro), una persona que ve lo mejor de su nación en su caracter imperialista, una persona que atacó a los abandonados del huracán Katrina por defender a George W. Bush y una persona para la cual Guantánamo no es otra cosa que un resort tropical para musulmanes. Si todo lo anterior es amor por la gente, Limbaugh nos quedó debiendo una explicación de la palabra amor antes de expresar su tesis.

Afortunadamente, varias voces de la derecha estadounidense han manisfestado su preocupación con respecto a darle cabidad al mensaje de Limbaugh en el desarrollo de lo que será la agenda conservadora de los próximos años. Preocupación fundada por encima de todo en el temor de que voces como las de Limbaugh no le permitan al partido republicano adaptarse a nuestro tiempo lo cual podría eventualmente traducirse en más derrotas políticas hacia el futuro.

Para la administración de Obama y el partido demócrata en general, tener una oposición delineada por voces de personas como Limbaugh podría dar estupendos dividendos políticos y por tal motivo la Casa Blanca sutilmente ha querido responder a la pelea que el comentarista radial les está planteando. En otras palabras, bien podríamos estar ad portas de una eventual novela política que será interesante de seguir.

Sin tener ningún tipo de simpatía por los republicanos, espero que el partido de Lincoln y Reagan no termine por aceptar el cronismo de un radical como Limbaugh. De lo contrario, el movimiento conservador estadounidense podría finalmente terminar de ahogarse en la misma imagen retrógrada en la que ha venido flotando en los últimos años. Si luces es lo que busca el partido republicano, Rush Limbaugh es definitivamente el profeta equivocado.

A note to English speakers

Welcome to my blog!

This is my very first post. Honestly, I was a little confussed about the way I was going to approach this blog. As a native Spanish speaker, I write mainly in Spanish and most of my columns in this blog will be in Spanish language. However, my desire to share my voice with the world is something I do not want to neglect in this page.

I do not really know at this point how much I will be writing in English but I am going to try my best to have a decent balance between the two languages. If you are someone who has experience writing bilingual blogs, I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts regarding this challenging process.

Thanks,

Carlos