The USA has a new war on drugs. This time it is not crack cocaine, but the opiate fentanyl. This has been a growing problem in recent years and everybody promised to sort it out as part of their election campaigns.
So far, the president has cancelled scanning machines to check for smuggled drugs, and pardoned a notorious drug dealer who profited from sales of the drug in its early days. He has hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs – this was the original of many reasons for the tariffs – and is threatening military action against his neighbours if they don’t sort out the US fetanyl problem.
This seems to fit into a pattern of typical policy making for Maga. First, get rid of any policy that is grounded in reality or might be effective in any way. Second, invent an insane policy that cannot possibly work, but insist it is the only way, or that it will get results fast.
The point of all of this is not to actually do anything, but to give the appearance of doing something. This policy will never solve the fetanyl problem, because it does nothing to address either the problem or its causes. However, they can say they are doing something to their supporters. When everything gets worse, they can blame Canada, Mexico, Kulaks, leftists, whoever, in order to distract from the fact that they aren’t doing anything.
I have a feeling this is going to be normal governance.