Texas has a Texas-sized fentanyl problem. In 2021 alone, nearly 71,000 Americans lost their lives from synthetic opioid overdoses. A substantial portion of this lethal supply infiltrates the U.S. via the Texas-Mexico border.
While some Republicans advocate for military-style intervention against Mexico to curtail the inflow, Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette says this oversimplifies the issue. He argues that Texas GOP lawmakers should heed their own advice and acknowledge that some blame lies with their own citizens.
Long, long time ago, I can still remember how Republicans told us to own up to failure. And back then I found that sounded great. That’s right. We should all carry our own weight and take responsibility for our behavior. I can’t remember but I was probably snide when I figured out the GOP had lied, because when fentanyl killed teenagers like cyanide, all Republicans did was blame Mexico far and wide.
I’m feeling nostalgic; what happened to the Republican gospel of self-sufficiency, and not looking to government for anything, let alone something important, like the raising of our kids? What about the GOP sermon on not blaming others for our failings or playing the victim or shirking responsibility for our actions, decisions and stupidity? Or the Republican “hang-’em-high” approach to getting high and their advice to “just say no” to drugs? Where did all that hot air go? Well, I’ll tell you what. You can’t find a trace of it in Texas.
When it comes to fentanyl, an extremely lethal drug that young people should not be messing with but are, the Lone Star State has become the unofficial capital of excuse-making and blame-shifting. When tragedy strikes, everyone is to blame, it seems, except the kids in the suburbs who broke the law and took illegal opioids and then died when it turned out the pills were laced with fentanyl.
When the finger-pointing starts, no one blames the kids who were dumb enough to put an unknown and unauthorized substance into their bodies, or their parents who should have been paying closer attention.
What’s that you say? You expect an elected official, a Texas state legislator maybe, to have the guts to say all that in public at the next town hall meeting he has with constituents? I don’t know — that sounds like a pretty good way for a politician to become unpopular with powerful people who can vote him or her out of office.