Support for "Obama Listens to Mexico in Border Security Plan"

Melissa Del Bosque's (blogger for the Texas Observer) general audience for her blog, "Obama Listens to Mexico in Border Security Plan" may indeed be for those on the left, although The Observer does attract a wide audience, including righty's who are looking for something to argue. Bosque notes that while Lieberman and Goodhair feel Obama is not doing enough to fight "drug cartels with the border security plan," He is making a "logical step" by acknowledging "Mexico's drug problem is also our drug problem".

Bosque's comment's; "The word logical never entered the Bush Administration lexicon which focused on building border walls that cost $12 million a mile," and "I’ve used the word logical three times when talking about the federal government," are pretty clear statements that Bosque is in support of Obama and not the Bush administration. Not to mention her stance and audience live in the left, considering her apparent lack of support of the Federal government in general; she's surprised the government is taking a "logical" approach at all.

I think it is sensible that Bosque is looking for a logical approach, since her blog is written in the same sense. She addresses the issue at the start of her article, her stance on the issue, and gives supporting points to show why she feels the way she does. Bosque already has a good deal of credibility, being a blogger for the well known Texas Observer - a paper that has existed to not always be the most agreeable paper, but one that is blunt and hopes to give their audience something to think about (a solid well-thought-out argument).

Bosque's claim that it's stupid to build walls to keep drug cartels out is valid. I can think of a few other walls built throughout history that were bad ideas - The Great Wall of China, and The Berlin Wall. We don't need anymore walls. By acknowledging "Mexico's drug problem is also our problem", we are not 'pointing fingers' so to speak. We are entering in a conversation with Mexico about how to solve a problem, rather than try to post blame. With Obama's plan, we are not only agreeing to communicate with Mexico, but also validating what they have been asking for for years, "a focus on the reduction in drug use in the United States and a crackdown on guns flowing south into Mexico". Bosque also states that in Obama's plan, "100 ATF officers" will be moved "to the border in the next 45 days to fortify ATF’s Project Gunrunner aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico." Man power is far more effective than anything we can build. This plan is focused on the "treatment and prevention of drug addiction. . .rather than building more prison complexes." By our trying to take responsibility and work with Mexico, we stand a better chance to accomplish something positive.





Del Bosque, Melissa. Texas Observer Blog. 2 April 2009. http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/