VDARE.COM - http://www.vdare.com/awall/060712_memo.htm
July 12, 2006
Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall
Misrepresenting The Mexican Election
On July 2nd, 2006, Mexico held its presidential election. Since my wife
is a Mexican citizen, she went to vote at her local polling station,
and I accompanied her. (Not being a Mexican citizen though, I didn’t
vote.)
I was impressed once again by the Mexican electoral system. As I have
pointed out, the Mexican voter registration system is superior to ours.
Only 7 American states use photo ID, and most states under the Motor
Voter regime don’t even require proof of identity, or citizenship.
But in Mexico every voter has a secure voter ID card, with a
photograph. When the voter arrives to the polling station, the poll
workers check it against a book with the photograph of every single
voter in the precinct.
We should copy the Mexican voter registration system.
The election itself went smoothly. Mexico has a good electoral system
and its operations were transparent.
The problem was—and is—the razor-thin distance between the two
front-runners: Felipe Calderon of the PAN (National Action Party) and
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known by his initials as AMLO) of the PRD
(Party of the Democratic Revolution.)
Calderon beat AMLO by only 243,943 votes. Unsurprisingly, Lopez Obrador
is not happy and is contesting the election.
The Mexican electoral court will have the final say, but I see no
compelling reason to doubt that Calderon will be declared the official
winner.
So what does a Calderon presidency mean for the U.S., and more
specifically, for the immigration question?
Remember that six years ago, there were high hopes pinned upon the
election of Vicente Fox, who, we were told was "pro-American." Fox and
his administration turned out to be the biggest subverter of U.S.
immigration law in Mexican history—with plenty of help on our side of
the border, of course.
Now, the same sorts of things are being said about the new apparent
Presidente-elect.
Calderon has been called "a U.S. style conservative" but that
characterization is misleading. [Mexican conservative could buck trend,
By Alistair Scrutton, Reuters, Jul 1, 2006] Yes, he is "right-wing" by
Mexican standards but is by no means a "U.S. style conservative."
Calderon wants to establish a national system of day care centers for
children, lengthen the school day, expand Fox’s social programs and
work toward universal health care. He refuses to privatize Mexico’s
PEMEX oil monopoly, despite the fact that, as a former secretary of
energy, he knows what a mess it is.
But AMLO made even more promises and seemed unable to explain how he
would pay for all of them. As the campaign progressed Calderon made
more promises to compete with Lopez Obrador. I saw Calderon speak twice
(and AMLO once) and the second time I saw Calderon, he was sounding
more AMLO-ish.
Hopefully Calderon will continue the sound financial policies of Fox,
not getting into debt, keeping the peso stable, that sort of thing. We
might also hope he can reform the economy to make it more productive.
But Calderon is certainly not a U.S. style limited government
conservative—there’s no niche for that point of view in Mexican
politics.
Along these lines, ***** Morris, spin doctor for hire, just wrote an
absolutely atrocious article about the Mexican election. [The
Republican Base Backs "Amnesty"? By ***** Morris FrontPageMagazine.com,
July 6, 2006]
In fact, Morris himself was probably involved in the election, as an
advisor to Felipe Calderon, just as he worked for Fox six years ago.
During the election, Morris told us we had to have a guest worker
program to please "the Mexican electorate" and thus help Calderon
Well, we didn’t and Calderon won anyway. Now Morris says we owe Mexico
an amnesty as a reward for electing Calderon. Here’s what Morris writes:
"Now that Felipe Calderón seems to have won and the threat that was
embodied by Chavista Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been defeated, it
is time for the Republicans in the House to look beyond their own noses
and deal generously with our neighbor to the south.
By "dealing generously with our neighbor to the south" Morris means
giving an amnesty to illegal aliens.
And by the way, why do Morris (or his editor) and other journalists
persist in including the accents in Spanish names? If we’re writing
English, we aren’t required to include those accents.
Morris completely distorts the Mexican election:
"The Mexican people have just rejected a leftist anti-American
alternative and embraced free-market capitalism in a dramatic vote. It
is one thing for middle-class Americans to do so, but for Mexicans,
many of whom are impoverished, to turn away from a candidate who
promises a 20 percent pay increase and free gas and electricity and
embrace a free-market alternative is a testament to the sense,
perspective, balance, wisdom, and maturity of the Mexican electorate."
There are so many misrepresentations here it’s hard to know where to
begin. In the first place, Calderon is a free-marketer only in a
relative sense.
Secondly, this was hardly a victory for "free-market capitalism."
About 60% of the Mexican electorate voted in this election, and of that
60%, only 35.89% voted for Calderon! How can Morris call it a dramatic
victory for free-market capitalism when the majority of Mexicans who
voted, voted against Calderon?
AMLO received only 243,934 votes less than Calderon, and many of the
impoverished Mexicans Morris refers to did vote for AMLO.
Morris distorts what Lopez Obrador promised. He didn’t promise "free
gas and electricity" - he promised a cut in the prices of such
services—and so did Calderon—who by the end of the election was
pandering harder to compete with AMLO.
Morris misses the boat on immigration :
"And, in the most recent Mexican elections, the leftist demagogue
(AMLO), who played on popular resentment against American immigration
policies…"
As I pointed out in a previous Memo to Mexico, ALL the Mexican
candidates, including Calderon, were for open borders.
Morris assures his readers that
"… the results of the 2004 elections in the United States and the 2006
elections in Mexico both attest to the fundamental conservatism of the
Latino voters."
If by "fundamental conservatism" you are talking about U.S. style
limited government conservatism, Morris is way off. As Steve Sailer
explained in a VDARE.com article in 2002 "on the question of more
taxing and spending, Hispanic Republicans are slightly more liberal
than white Democrats." Republican politicians can only out-pander
Democrats by abandoning their own principles.
Morris’ solution—amnesty, of course, as a reward to Mexico for electing
Morris’ candidate.
As for Calderon, I wish him the best.
I wish he would spend his six years as president of Mexico working to
improve Mexico’s economy, not meddling in U.S. immigration policy and
trying to dump his country’s social problems on America. But that’s a
fantasy.
The apparent Presidente-elect is already laying out what he expects of
U.S. immigration policy. He has slammed the feared border wall and
plans to go to the U.S. and visit Mexican-Americans. [Apparent Mexican
Winner Attacks Border Wall, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post,
July 8th, 2006]
Furthermore, Calderon wants all U.S. states to accept the Mexican
matricula consular ID so illegal aliens can get driver’s licenses, he
wants the U.S. labor market opened up to Mexican laborers and he wants
our immigration laws changed. [Calderón talks foreign policy, By Chris
Hawley, Arizona Republic July 8th, 2006]
Honestly, does anyone actually believe that a Mexican president, of any
party, cares what ordinary Americans think of immigration? Our own
president doesn’t care what we think. Why would a Mexican president
care?
So when the Calderon administration takes charge, you can expect more
Mexican meddling in U.S. immigration policy, just as we’ve tolerated
the past five and a half years from the "pro-American" Fox
administration.
On the immigration question, when Calderon replaces Fox, we can say
with "The Who"
"Meet the new boss—same as the old boss."
American citizen Allan Wall (email him) resides in Mexico, with a legal
permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan recently returned
from a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His
VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are
archived here his "Dispatches from Iraq" are archived here his website
is here.
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http://www.predatoryaliens.com
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org
http://www.daylaborers.org
http://www.newnation.com/index2.html
"The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave" by Heather Mac Donald
http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
http://idexer.com
www.AmericanPatrol.com
www.SaveOurState.org
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