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Man, there is a lot there. No, you were not the one that couldn't embrace the reality about political parties are indistinguishable when it comes to our national foreign policy. The US government is the entity that shapes and executes policy. You can read the thread and figure out who it is if you chose.

There was a suggestion that "I" should embark upon the task of Making Honduras Great Again, a ridiculous proposition; again, not you.

FR is most definitely becoming an echo chamber. Ad hominem attacks immediately out of the gate. It is almost as if the readership engages this forum with a knife-wielding mentality to destroy, rather than to try to understand a position. The mods are ineffective and there isn't enough reinforcement/maintenance of what the proper conduct is.

Losing Americanism.....absolutely and I could not agree with you more. Me and another Freeper had a long discussion on this. I summarize: We either get to a full-court press on developing conservative thought in our youth by way of a classic American education, or we are done. Nothing we do or say will matter.

You can't call it an invasion if the door is wide open. Neither can you blame a Central American for giving up on the utter failure of their governments in order to secure a better life. I have some family members that are using chain migration (DJT talked about it today at the Houston rally). We are naive to think people will not sacrifice for a chance to taste Uncle Sugar, and all he has to offer.

Want to know the jobs in Honduras that have the highest fatalities per capita? Journalists, police and lawyers, and truck/bus drivers. Truth, law, and commerce. Hondurans are deprived of unvarnished truth, justice, and prosperity/freedom of movement. And we are bitching about them coming here? They are in hell. It isn't much of a choice. All middle class kids come home from school and stay inside. Doubly so for females. We would do the same thing if we were in their shoes. Full disclosure: My niece is an attorney for the Attorney General of Honduras.I lost two nephews, murdered by MS-13. My pastor's maid had two daughters. Had. Past tense. They found parts of the body of one, and never found the body of the other.

Our immigration dysfunction goes back decades. We built this by ignoring the absolute privilege it is to be an American citizen. When Clinton's INS Director resigned because he didn't want the job after Congress' refusal to stop using immigration as a political football, no American said a word. No protests. No letter writing. No action. No nothing. And now everyone is pissed because our country has been transformed. Invaded? Well.......as a representative republic...."Where was EVERYONE when.........?" Get the point? This has been engineered for decades, not something that happened in the last few years. Obama was the coup de grace towards our immigration and foreign policies in Central America. I cannot even do it justice.

This is directly related to our public schools and their lack of teaching American Exceptionalism. We (as a country) didn't react when we should have.

Like you, I am against feeling obligated to take on any more immigration. In fact, our system is broken and has been broken for some time, I would immediately freeze all immigration until Congress rebuilds it-- after the Mid-Terms. And if they lose the House and can't ......2020 is the last chance. After that, the destruction of the United States is all but assured. Once a nation loses the ability to produce a crop of youth to ensure its survival, the jig is up. It just becomes a matter of time.

As a starting point, the Big Red One is in Ft Riley, KS. DJT should move it south permanently. Being stationed in Kansas is outdated thinking. There is nothing in KS to warrant it. The advance party stops the caravan in its tracks. along with 4th ID and each state's National Guard. That signals to everyone that we are woke, and that Congress must act to build the wall (you can't keep two infantry divisions in the field indefinitely).

Let's take a commercial break. Conservatives have done little in outreach to systematically educate Latinos why they should embrace and vote for conservatism. Cubans get it because they know what they came from. But everyone else comes from a culture where socialism is the norm, but not violently so.....yet. Venezuelans are now being culturally enriched. This will be a disaster to the US.

Now back to my response.

All of Central America's woes are not the responsibility of the US, but yes...some are. A lot of Freepers want to leave it at that. Cut them off, and say "good luck." That is foolish. There are only two major problems: economy and criminal justice. Help them solve those, and we have long time peaceful allies and trade partners.

If we cut them off....they are coming anyway, and we open up the possibility for China to waltz in. And China will. Venezuela's Maduro just took a trip to China for money. China has one model: lend money and then take away your freedom by absorbing you.

How much effort has the US spent on encouraging Central American businesses to be prepared to take over Chinese production of exports to the US? Laughable. We could help them produce jobs and manufacturing, and screw China in one swift move. Say what you will about Central America....they are not growing a military to put us into submission. China is.

Can the US help with gangs? Absolutely. You can distill the gang problem in Central America down to one sentence: The inability of each country to execute justice. Once you understand that, then you can solve the problem. Hondurans have been wanting the Death Penalty to come back. State Department needs to assist them in thinking rightly about gangs: they are not just criminal syndicates-- they graduated. They are destabilization agents that threaten the security and prosperity of everyone. They must be eliminated. They can be assisted by our State Department to make constitutional amendments (in Honduras it takes two sessions of Congress to make a change). BTW, we helped them write their constitution in the 1982 when the first peaceful transfer of power to civilian rule occurred (Suazo Cordoba). I was there as a teenager and was physically present at his inauguration. I was a hell of a trumpet player.

Did you know it took one US diplomat to change the El Salvadorian economy to a dollar-based? He mentored the ES government and did it in about one year. He was the Economic Secretary, Mr. Rooney. Forget his first name. So yeah, to answer your question, we can mentor. But we have to be serious about it. DJT-level serious. Bring back the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. It was called the DIC (pronounced DICK-- because they were). A liberal Honduran president got rid of them. They were the most feared law enforcement institution in Honduran history, and they got the job done. Sure, they needed some ethics training, but don't we all?

Reform the tax code. The problem in CA is that no one but the rich pays taxes. No one. Sound familiar? No one has skin in the game.

Add a constitutional amendment that looks suspiciously like the US 2nd Amendment. If you shoot someone is Honduras, you are going to the can until a magistrate sorts it out. Also, you need a lawyer to get a permit, thereby making it unaffordable and an unreasonable burden for many to obtain-- unless you have money or are connected.

Corruption is....endemic in Central America. Again, a crime and punishment issue: but I have been in Central America since I was 9 years old. It is not the same now, and it has always been corrupt. Although it is pretty rich for us gringos calling CA governments corrupt. A major US political party used the reigns of government to try to bring down a duly elected US president. Corruption is not new....it's how you condition citizens and institutions to deal with it.