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 Editorials | Opinions | April 2005 
Good Minds Think Alike
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - The Herald Mexico
| | It's a false comfort to expect a nation's deeds to be judged by its reputation. Mexicans, and the rest of the world, know it's the other way around. |
The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, working with the Mexican research university CIDE, released a survey last Wednesday comparing Mexican and United States public opinion on a number of issues. Naturally, most of the press coverage I've seen leads with the disagreements.
But is it really news that Americans and Mexicans each think the other is getting the better deal with NAFTA? Any bilateral agreement would be in trouble if both sides agreed on the one getting shafted.
And it's hardly surprising that the two populations have different views on what to do about cross-border migration. When the flow is virtually all one way, the affected countries are naturally going to have different ideas on what the problem is.
More interesting is the fact that Americans and Mexicans have exactly opposite views on the migrants' assimilation. Mexicans believe that their compatriots in the United States learn English well but don't assimilate. Americans think they assimilate fine but don't learn English.
The study authors aren't sure what that's all about, but I have a theory on the English part. If you don't speak a language, you might tend to think that anybody who learns even a little does in fact "speak" it. If you do speak it, however, you're not likely to consider a newcomer with limited command to have really "learned" it.
But the truly significant study findings, I'm convinced, come where the Mexican and U.S. public agree.
A lot of the convergence comes with attitudes about the U.S. international posture. Mexicans don't approve of the way it's being carried out by the current U.S. administration. No surprise there, since most of the world doesn't either.
But here's the kicker: American public opinion doesn't like it either. Mexicans and Americans are not at odds on this, as is often portrayed. They agree, for example, on the following, as worded in the survey's summary:
"Both [the Mexican and U.S. public] favor the United States, as the world's leading power, working with other nations to solve international problems rather than taking a unilateral or isolationist approach."
It's fairly safe to say that this is not a description of the Bush administration approach. It snubs international agreements like the Kyoto protocol, pulls out of agreements it signed onto, and refuses to abide by the decisions of international institutions it still belongs to. This is not an administration that works and plays well with others.
Here's another point of agreement:
"Helping to bring democracy to other countries ranks at the bottom of the list of foreign policy goals for both countries."
I doubt this means both aren't in favor of universal democracy. I take it instead as a rejection of using democracy as an excuse for foreign adventures.
A "democratic Iraq," remember, was only fourth in line as a reason for the invasion. It became operative only after WMD possession, involvement in 911, and "threat to the region" each fizzled out.
Here's one more common opinion:
"Americans and Mexicans agree that the United States should not play the role of world policeman and that the United Nations needs to be strengthened."
With more than 700 military installations abroad, the United States is a one-nation police force well-prepared and willing to act when constabulary duty's to be done. The U.S. public, to be sure, is not against foreign bases per se, but see them as security necessities rather than police stations, and think there are too many of them.
The mutual desire of Mexicans and Americans to strengthen the United Nations is obviously not shared by the current U.S. administration. The outright dissing of the premier international body during the run-up to the Iraq invasion might have been presaged by this comment:
"There is no such thing as the United Nations [ . . . ] There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States when it suits our interests and we can get others to go along."
Not exactly in the spirit of the United Nations, is it? But the man who said this, Ray Bolton, awaits confirmation this coming week of his nomination as the United States ambassador to the United Nations.
The question, or course, is why have Americans twice elected a president who stands for the opposite of what they and their southern neighbors believe? That's a key question of our times, and much ink has been spilled over it. We'll spill no more here, except to re-quote filmmaker Michael moore on the topic: "It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts."
One lesson in all this is that the Mexican public and everybody else around the globe who's appalled at recent U.S. behavior should be reminded that the American people aren't themselves the problem. The basis is there for a little bit of conversation about how to work together to solve this fine mess thrust upon us.
At the same time, the American people would do well to pay more attention to the gaping abyss between what they say they are and what their leaders have been doing. Silence is not golden at this moment in history.
If you take pride in being a peace-loving nation, you have to deal with the fact your government has invaded a sovereign nation on false pretenses, and makes it clear it won't hesitate to do it again elsewhere.
If you're shocked at torture, you have to deal with the fact that your military uses it. If you believe in international law, you have to deal with the fact that your government flaunts it.
Are those U.S. policies necessary evils in an age of terrorism, and therefore in the best interests of the people of the United States? We report. You decide.
Yes, it's hard to accept that you're country's doing wrong when you know in your heart it's a good place and a force for good in the world. But keep one thing in mind. It's a false comfort to expect a nation's deeds to be judged by its reputation. Mexicans, and the rest of the world, know it's the other way around. |
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