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by Bruce Walker |
June 5th, 2006
Although it is sometimes hard for Americans to understand, it is profoundly in our interest to have Mexico blossom into the same sort of successful Latin nation that Spain has become, that Costa Rico has long been, and that Cuba once was.
Those conservatives upset about the position of President Bush on the immigration issue need to understand that there are two equally important elections in the latter half of 2006: the American general election in November and the Mexican presidential election in July. Mexican was long a one-party state, governed by the hopelessly corrupt PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), and the election of Vincente Fox six years ago as the candidate of PAN (National Action Party) was a double victory for those of us who want Mexico to become a prosperous, friendly, free and democratic nation.
First, the PAN victory meant that the one-party system which was an effective dictatorship had been broken. This destruction of PRI rule is complete. Polls for the July Mexican presidential election show that the PRI candidate is running a slow third in public opinion polls. The more Mexico remains a real democracy, the better for us.
Second, PAN is the most conservative (or least Leftist) of the Mexican political parties in the new and real multi-party political system of Mexico. That does not mean that Fox or PAN will embrace pro-Americanism, market forces, low taxes or everything that the Republican Party would also want (certainly the Democrat Party in the United States does not embrace pro-Americanism, so we cannot complain too much); but PAN is by far better for America than any other political party in Mexican history.
Opinion polls had been showing for years that the next president of Mexico was going to be Manuel Lopez, the Marxist Mayor of Mexico City. He, too, is not a member of PRI, and the very fact that Lopez and Calderon, the PAN candidate, were running ahead of the PRI hack indicates that multi-party democracy has truly taken root (i.e., the PRI machine is broken.)
Now Calderon is running ahead and opening a significant lead in the July 2, 2006 Mexican presidential election. This is very good news for the United States, the Mexican people, and for decent people all over the world. Once that July election is over, President Bush will have a great deal more flexibility in dealing with immigration problems than he does today.
President Calderon will be able to insure greater cooperation between the United States and Mexico on three key issues: terrorism, immigration and oil. Because Mexico allows a single six-year term for the office of the president, President Calderon at the beginning of his term can take politically unpopular positions which will, in the long run, yield major benefits to Mexico and other emerging democracies.
He will be able to afford to work more closely to control the border with America, both in terms of limiting the illegal immigration and also working to prevent and to expose terrorism planned for the United States. What makes this particularly helpful is that this will be only a few months after Stephen Harper became the Conservative Prime Minister of Canada with a much more sympathetic attitude toward fighting terrorism and controlling illegal immigration. That means that the United States will receive additional executive support from both of its territorial neighbors very quickly and before the November 2006 elections.
Beyond that, Calderon will be able to help keep oil production in Mexico high and prices low, putting more pressure on those nations hostile to America but dependent upon oil dollars to do the same. The happy election of a Conservative Prime Minister in Canada, which is also a major producer of oil and gas, will enable President Calderon to reduce the power of Chavez and friends to blackmail America.
Although it is sometimes hard for Americans to understand, it is profoundly in our interest to have Mexico blossom into the same sort of successful Latin nation that Spain has become, that Costa Rico has long been, and that Cuba once was (before Castro). Mexico, with a good government or a better government than it has had in the past, will become over time a magnet for those who truly want to be Mexicans to return home (just as Italian-Americans have, when they wished, returned home to Italy.)
Once Calderon is in office for six years, the entire complexion of our most pressing political issue, immigration, will be much harder for Leftists to use to incite anger in America against conservatives. July 2, 2006 is a very important day. Watch it closely. Like elections in Germany and Canada, this is an “under the radar screen” election, but one that can change geopolitics overnight.
bwalker2004@cox.net
Visit their website at: http://www.amazon.com/Sinisterism-Secular-Religion-Revised-Updated/dp/1432705466
Responses to "How the Immigration Issue Changes on July 2"
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I may be mistaken, but weren't all these wonderful things supposed to happen when Vincente Fox became president? Wasn't he supposed to bring change to a corrupt government and be our good buddy?
I also don't understand why it would be in Mexico's best interest to help us with our immigration problem. Their poor, unskilled and unemployed citizens come across the border to the U.S., taking a burden off the Mexican economy, then they send billions back home. Unemployment figures improve there and it's a great source of no-cost revenue. It's a complete win for the Mexican economy. Fox wasn't giving out directions to the U.S. because illegal immigration was hurting Mexico.
I hope I'm wrong on this, but I don't see why any Mexican president would want to mess with this sweet deal.
Regarding flexibility, I don't think our president needs any more. I think he needs less. If the man was any more flexible on this illegal immigration issue, he'd be a pretzel.
Bottom line is, we've heard this song and dance before and nothing really changed. Instead of one corrupt political party in Mexico, now they have two. I'll be impressed when there are actual changes to go along with the promises.
Comment by Ron S. | June 5, 2006
True, it is not in Mexico's interest to help the U.S. with their immigration problem. The less people they have to deal with and employ, the better they are.
Comment by PoliticalCritic | June 5, 2006
Another case of "S/he's Gonna".
Tell us what the candidate has done to merit this wave of enthusiasm. Are any of the bold predictions based on past behavior? Like what?
This is like calling the George Bushes conservative.
Comment by John Corrigan | June 5, 2006
Our current president is a lame duck. He's not going to "work" anything out on fast-tracking Mexican illegals. Mexico's new president will lead a still-corrupt country chock full of people that want to get out and start a better life somewhere else. Showing my musical heritage, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".
Comment by CoffeePot | June 9, 2006
I disagree with the seemingly obvious premise that it is not in Mexico's best interest to prevent large numbers of their most motivated citizens from immigrating to the United States by the only means available to them.
The first point to clarify is that while it may very well be the case that it is in the immediate best interest of a particular Mexican head of state, or political class to support large numbers of their citizenries’ extralegal immigration into the Untied States, doing so avoids any real motivation to fundamentally change government policy. Absent institutional support for building a functional modern society based on something other then commodities prices, it is, almost by definition, not the case that it is in the best interests of the state itself. Simply put the best interests of an entrenched political class are not the same as those of the state itself.
Sovereignty matters.
If Mexico is to avoid devolving still further into a vassal state, of the United States of the America(s), and is to avoid having such matters as immigration policy and ultimately the price of its commodity products dictated to it by its larger sovereign neighbor to the north, it must develop the infrastructure, educational opportunities and suitable transparent governance necessary to give its best and brightest a stake in the future of the nation.
A quasi open boarder such as the one that exists between the Mexico and the Untied States allows nearly unfettered travel, for the truly motivated, in one direction only, has the perverse effect of greatly increasing permeate illegal immigration for the families of itinerate workers due a border crossing that is both unreasonably dangerous and prohibitively expensive to risk familial visits.
In order to alleviate the extralegal immigration and de-facto American apartheid that the polices of the both the Untied States and Mexican governments perpetuate; any guest worker program will need to offer extended work-visas for those people who have employment contracts verifiable in conjunction with the issuance of biometrically forgery resistant passports by the government of national origin.
This would allow open back and forth travel for workers who may not desire permeate residence, rather prefer to able to see their families in their ancestral homeland.
Perhaps more importantly this would allow the institutional development necessary to support real political reform required if the benefits of free trade are to be enjoyed by free citizens of sovereign nation-state’s south of our boarder.
Comment by Etienne Taylor | June 11, 2006
I don't think it is only conservatives upset with Pres. Bush on the illegal alien issue. One may infer from poll numbers,only neo-Maoists and the slavocrats who hire the illegals are in accord with the President.
Comment by e.b.miller | June 12, 2006