Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. Latin America is a perpetual American policy failure. US can't even deal with it's own Latin American constituents. It's not surprising we aren't a more positive force in the Western Hemisphere. US tendency to reduce policy to binary choices rarely advances our interests.

2. Since Castro the US has been playing catch-up in the region because we have advanced a narrative of better dead than red. Not for us because we enjoy a modest Social Security infrastructure. Farm subsidies & oil depletion. Current call to move towards a European social model

3. has been met with the customary John Birch #KochBrothers' red scare but this time is different. Trump has energized liberals. He also destroyed the traditional GOP conservative base replacing it with a white-supremacist rabble. Now is the time for liberals to get stuff done.

4. In Venezuela, US interests are clearly with the @jguaido interim caretaker govt. But Trump and his #KochBrothers acolytes mire us in binary anti-Socialist policy. So like China in 1949, Vietnam in 1954 & Cuba in 1960 we become a rallying cry of antidemocratic extremists.

5. America gets weaker and our adversaries get stronger. If we are going to stem the floods of refugees, we need to fix the plight of the most vulnerable. We need to go beyond the walls not cower behind them. Our policies need to show the people who feel abandoned

6. . that we stand with them. Rather than start another road to right wing death squads we should integrate our support with the left. But not a Russian or Chinese inspired corrupt left. We can help honest un-corrupt politicians both left right and center

7. form functioning democracies.

We may feel no duty to act in Latin America or elsewhere, in places like Syria and Yemen. Fine. Don't act out of duty. Do it for self preservation.
We can't build a wall high enough.
@TheDemocrats @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer @RepAdamSchiff