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The Border is Vanishing as Mexico Pushes North
Daily Beast ^ | 09/10/2012 | Robert D. Kaplan

Posted on 09/10/2012 5:54:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

America’s foreign policy emanates from the domestic condition of its society, and nothing will affect that society more than the dramatic movement of Latino history northward. Mexico’s 111 million people plus Central America’s 40 million add up to half the population of the United States. Eighty-five percent of all Mexico’s exports go to the United States, even as half of all Central America’s trade is with the U.S. While the median age of Americans is nearly 37, the median age is 25 in Mexico and even lower in Central America (20 in Guatemala and Honduras, for example). The destiny of the United States will be north–south, rather than the east–west “sea to shining sea” of continental and patriotic myth.

Half the length of America’s southern frontier is an artificial line in the desert, established by treaties following the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848. I have described before how crossing this border, having traveled by bus north from Mexico City, was as much of a shock for me as crossing the Jordan-Israel border and the Berlin Wall. Surrounded by beggars on the broken sidewalk of Nogales, Sonora, I stared at the American flag indicating the border. The pedestrian crossing point to Nogales, Ariz., was in a small building. Merely by touching the door handle, I entered a new physical world. The solidly constructed handle with its high-quality metal, the clean glass, and the precise manner in which the room’s ceramic tiles were fitted seemed a revelation after weeks amid slipshod Mexican construction.

There were only two people in the room: an immigration official and a customs official. Neither talked to the other. In government enclosures of that size in Mexico and other Third World countries, there were always crowds of officials and hangers-on, lost in animated conversation. Soon, as in Israel, I was inside a perfectly standardized yet cold and alienating environment, with empty streets and the store logos made of tony polymers rather than of rusted metal and cheap plastic. After weeks of turbulence and semi-anarchy, these quiet streets appeared vulnerable, unnatural even. Arnold Toynbee writes, in reference to the barbarians and Rome, that when a frontier between a highly and less highly developed society “ceases to advance, the balance does not settle down to a stable equilibrium but inclines, with the passage of time, in the more backward society’s favor.”

Since 1940, Mexico’s population has risen more than fivefold. Today it has swelled to more than a third the population of the United States, and it continues to grow at a faster rate. East Coast elites display relatively little interest in Mexico, focusing instead on the wider world and America’s place in it. America’s southern neighbor registers far less in the elite imagination than does Israel or China, or India even. Yet Mexico could affect America’s destiny more than any of those countries.

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TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: border; illegals; immigration; mexico
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1 posted on 09/10/2012 5:54:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

America is being invaded and overrun and most Americans are standing around playing “switch”.


2 posted on 09/10/2012 5:58:41 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Diversity and political correctness. The real reason 09-11-01 happened.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Did anyone see that report yesterday? Mexico arrested 3 members of Hezbollah.

yup


3 posted on 09/10/2012 5:59:56 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: SeekAndFind

Que?


4 posted on 09/10/2012 6:00:07 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the world.)
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To: SeekAndFind

IF Othuga’s re-elected, there won’t be much left up here to draw the illegals up after Margaret Thatcher’s famous “other people’s money runs out” scenario. I’m almost, (almost) tempted to wish, if it’s going to go to hell in a handbasket anyway, that O’Thuga IS re-elected. That way, those who are left will be as sick of the Democrat Party as I am right now.


5 posted on 09/10/2012 6:04:32 PM PDT by Twinkie (In whose eyes a vile person is contemned. Ps. 15:4a)
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To: SeekAndFind

Pappy Bush brought us NAFTA (enacted under Clinton but it was his initiative). Pappy Bush failed to enforce the immigration law passed during the Reagan Administation. His successors have merely perpetuated what he put into motion. George and Jeb are proudly bilingual and pro open borders. The ongoing invasion of this country from the south is something that legitimately can be blamed on the entire Bush family, starting with the patriarch.


6 posted on 09/10/2012 6:10:50 PM PDT by Soul of the South
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To: FlingWingFlyer
That's about the size of it and no matter who wins the election, nothing will change.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
7 posted on 09/10/2012 6:28:00 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Soul of the South

The ongoing invasion of this country from the south is something that legitimately can be blamed on the entire Bush family, starting with the patriarch.


Sorry, but things got out of control even before that. Judicial decisons under Carter paved the way. And Reagan gave us defacto Amnesty in 1986 while doing zilch to beef up enforcement afterwards.


8 posted on 09/10/2012 6:33:05 PM PDT by rbg81
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To: SeekAndFind
The proper term is RECONQUISTA.

White Americans can no longer resist. The inability to resist has become physiogical. We have become a people fit only to serve others.

9 posted on 09/10/2012 6:37:29 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: SeekAndFind
The proper term is RECONQUISTA.

White Americans can no longer resist. The inability to resist has become physiogical. We have become a people fit only to serve others.

10 posted on 09/10/2012 6:39:48 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS

physiogical=physiological. Sorry!


11 posted on 09/10/2012 6:41:15 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS

Illegals are government growth hormone.

30 million illegals is enough to create nearly 50 congressional districts and they don’t even need to vote to do it. If they do vote, that means nearly 50 democrat congressional districts.

We should ask ourselves how much it costs to administer the average congressional district? How much pork does an average district take? How much in earmarks?

Imagine how much better off we would all be if we had less democrats in congress and less wear and tear on infrastructure and how much less taxpayer burden.

Frankly, I don’t see America as we knew it surviving at this point.


12 posted on 09/10/2012 6:43:58 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: cripplecreek
Reminds me of a book.


13 posted on 09/10/2012 6:44:10 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Soul of the South

Its okay - just dont say Boosh, it makes some people around here very angry. (not me)


14 posted on 09/10/2012 6:46:11 PM PDT by Gasshog
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To: cripplecreek
At one time it was all claimed by Spain. Then in 1598 the old king died ~ and with him the great disputes of the 16th century. His son came to the throne, looked around, hired on some fairly bright guys to influence him, and decided Spain needed to REDUCE its presence in North America.

With that the smart guys in Spain drew up the Treaty of London (1604) and Philippe II/III crammed down Spain's preferences.

First he gave Acadia to his childhood playmate, James of Scotland. Secondly he gave his French cousins the watershed area for Hudson's bay, down to the Great Lakes, and East to a line drawn separating Acadia from what would be New France. Third, he recognized his Russian cousin's claims to Alaska and set the drawing of a line between that territory, New Spain and New France pending further explorations ~ which entailed finding the entry at 54/40 to the Inside Passage. Everything to the South was New Spain all the way to a line drawn from peak to peak in the Eastern Cordillera's highest elevations.

He set aside a place for EVERYONE ELSE IN EUROPE. It was bounded on the North by Acadia (at today's NY-PA state line) It was bounded on the South by Carolana (at today's VA-NC state line) and bounded in the West by that line through the mountains.

He called it "VIRGINIA" ~ after Elizabeth of England.

Then he set some fairly simple rules for Catholics and Protestants to follow when living in areas occupied by those of the other religious preference.

From that the English determined that Protestants could settle in Virginia and they proceeded to make their plans. Still the earliest census at jamestown reveals that a broad array of people from throughout Europe came to Virginia, not just Englishmen.

But then, through the turmoils of the late 1400s and 1500s, England had become a land of immigration. We often think of our America as being that place to which persecuted people fled, but it was England first ~ which was, at the time, a fairly decent place to live compared to most other places.

Spain could then focus on other things with higher paybacks ~ like silver mines in mexico and peru.

Eventually history happened and things changed ~

15 posted on 09/10/2012 6:46:58 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: SeekAndFind
The pedestrian crossing point to Nogales, Ariz., was in a small building. Merely by touching the door handle, I entered a new physical world

The Nogales crossing is one of the most jarring on Earth.

It's like being transported in time, or between two universes.

You could stand in the parking lot of the old Safeway above the main entry plaza, look up on the hills to the Southeast in Mexico, and see rows and rows of shacks with tin roofs. Look left, to the North, and it was normal warehouses, office buildings, houses...any other American city.

Jarring doesn't describe it. Astonishing, unbelievable, a portal to a horror house...that's the best description.

16 posted on 09/10/2012 6:57:47 PM PDT by Regulator
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To: SeekAndFind

This is actually good. As the income labor pool from Mexico increases, wages will decline and we’ll be more competitive on a fundamental, not fiat, basis with emerging economies. As that same labor pools acquires wealth, it will spend it - here in the U.S. As this occurs, rule of law will take hold to protect the growing wealth, so the gang issue becomes less of a concern. Unless they hate tacos, your kids will be better off than under the senior-skewed economy we have today.


17 posted on 09/10/2012 7:12:58 PM PDT by gotribe
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To: cripplecreek
Absent a miracle America will not survive much longer. Wait until the redistribution become violent due to the impatience of the conquerors.
18 posted on 09/10/2012 7:25:18 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: GeronL

Did anyone see that report yesterday? Mexico arrested 3 members of Hezbollah.


They were just sightseeing!


19 posted on 09/10/2012 7:40:05 PM PDT by chessplayer
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To: Gasshog

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/world/europe/11cnd-prexy.html?hp

“The political process sometimes isn’t pretty to look at,” Mr. Bush said. “There’s two steps forward and one step back. We made two steps forward on immigration, we took a step back, and now I’m going to work with those who are focused on getting an immigration bill done and start taking some steps forward again. I believe we can get it done. I’ll see you at the bill signing.”

I posted here on June 11th or 12th (2007) that I had taken down Dubya’s framed photo from my wall. It’s covered with dust bunnies somewhere.

Those gushing `A Day in the Life of George W. Bush’ tributes were over the top, in my opinion. Politicians I support either do their jobs or they lose my support. If they do a good job, they get an “Employee of the Month” credit.

One of the presidents’ duties is to protect our country from foreign invasion, and they have failed at it miserably since Carter’s administration.

If Romney doesn’t do it or won’t try, as far as I’m concerned four years from now he’s on his own. But Obama is a proven dud on this—and practically every other issue.

I’m anxious to give someone else the job. Anyone who doesn’t feel the same way is, as our uninvited “guests” might put it, loco in la cabeza.


20 posted on 09/10/2012 8:29:22 PM PDT by tumblindice (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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