Pat Buchanan's new book makes for interesting reading. I'm afraid Mr. Buchanan doesn't do much to persuade--his rhetoric occasionally resembles that of the Klan resurgence or the uglier side of John Birch Society. I'm not so much a protectionist or a White Pride advocate as I am simply concerned about the direction we take when we allow a nation's worth of aliens to exert the sort of political pressure I saw in LA in May.
His historical account is very good reading and, I think, well researched and easily verified. That attrocities were committed by both sides in the Mexica American War is not debatable. That Aztlan never existed is also almost certain. Buchanan's assertion that there were never more than a few thousand Spanish speaking Mexicans in all of California, that their presence never extended to the northern half of the state was new information for me.
In any case, I do suffer from Nationalistic pride (call it patriotism) and I have the sense that, were all of that land to have remained in Mexican hands, it would have been as unproductive as has been the rest of Mexico--to this day a third world nation. California has it's problems, but reextending Mexican rule there will solve none of them.
Ditto Texas. Ditto New Mexico. Ditto Old Mexico, for that matter.
Today Vincente Fox spoke out against the fence. Compared it to the Berlin Wall. Said it would hurt relations between the two countries. But in the end, I'm not convinced our relations are all that good. His government is corrupt or inept or both. His people have a huge advantage in the world in natural resources and beautiful weather, but they remain underemployed and undereducated. Contrasted with India, which 40 years ago had considerably worse economic conditions than Mexico, who has made better use of the decades?
It's telling that Mr. Fox compares a border fence to the wall in Berlin. It tells me that he already thinks (as members of his administration have openly stated) that the Mexico really extends well north of the border. You see, the Berlin Wall divided Germany. The difference is that this fence is not dividing Mexico. It is a border fence. The Berlin wall, Mr. Fox, was built by it's owners to keep people in. Our wall, ineffective as it may turn out to be, is being built to keep people out. We wouldn't ordinarily need to do this if you didn't promote illegal emmigration as a birthright of your unfortunate people.
I want Mr. Fox and everyone else to consider that the United States isn't getting much out of the "relationship". They badmouth us, export their unemployed, undereducated and infirm. Import our dollars and continue to allow drug- and human- trafficking gangs to run the northern border regions. We build factories and refineries. Eventually, they nationalize them. Their military fires across the border on our citizens. They escort drug caravans into our land and have killed our border patrol agents.
We've become the world's lone superpower and most productive economy with precious little assistance from our neighbors who are barely capable of managing their own affairs.
Will the fence work? Not by itself, but it's a symbolic start. Increasing patrols, deploying troops at the border will absolutely reduce the incentive to try to cross. Stepping up enforcement, passing a national Prop187, reserving American entitlements for American citizens and legitimate residents, punishing (with jail time) and penalizing employers who break the rules will break the back of the "reconquista".
Like all big problems, there are things each of us can do, if we care.
For my part, I won't hire Mexicans to work on my property unless I have proof of legal residence and a work visa. I do insist that my contractors show me proper documentation for their laborers and I insist that violations result in monetary penalties--$100 per instance. I may pay 10% more for a roofing job, but I doubt it. It's still a competitive bidding situation. I don't patronize businesses that I believe encourage or hire illegal immigrants. As the housing market softens up a bit, individuals have a great deal of leverage. Why tolerate a contractor bringing criminals onto your property when you don't have to?
Write your congressmen and tell them you like the fence, but it's not enough. 700 miles of fence doesn't adequately cover 2400 miles of porous border. Fences are passive. Tell them to insist on local enforcement and federal support for it. English is really the only language the government needs to provide. Localization of documents, textbooks, signage is costly and a disincentive to assimilate. It takes a government issued photo ID to get on a plane or to buy a cerveza. Counterfeit resistant photographic or biometric voter identification is an idea whose time has come. Also, voting by noncitizens is an assault on this country every bit as serious (and likely much more effective) than a terrorist attack. Make it easier to identify those folks, take their stuff and expel them from the country.
Stand your ground. Do your part (like recycling) to reduce the economic incentive to invade and the invasion will stop. They don't really care much about the land. They want to coopt your lifestyle instead of improving the one in their own country. We just need to make that the considerably more costly option.
Cheers,
DT
