Shame on Demagogues Exploiting "North American Union"!

Today I spent a few minutes listening to another nationally syndicated talk radio show and felt outraged and embarrassed to hear the guest host (an otherwise bright and well-informed conservative) facilitating the twisted, ignorant mounting public hysteria over the looming menace of a “North American Union.”

This paranoid and groundless frenzy has been fomented and promoted by a shameless collection of lunatics and losers; crooks, cranks, demagogues and opportunists, who claim the existence of a top secret master plan to join the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one big super-state and to replace the good old Yankee dollar with a worthless new currency called “The Amero.” Another delusion usually associated with these fears involves the construction of a “Monster Highway” some sixteen lanes wide through Texas and the Great Plains, connecting the two nations on either side of the border for some nefarious but never-explained purpose.

Actually, I am afraid of wasting government money on useless mass transit or light rail projects, but I’m hardly terrified by road-building. Any time they want to build super-highways and lay down old-fashioned asphalt to facilitate cars and reduce traffic, every red-blooded American ought to stand up and cheer—especially when the construction takes place largely through private financing.

But aside from the chilling prospect of a “Monster Highway” (why is a new road in Texas supposed to be so scary?) there’s no reason at all to believe in the ludicrous, childish, ill-informed, manipulative, brain dead fantasies about a North American Union. The entire chimera has been conjured up to scare people over nothing—to solicit contributions to fight a non-existent threat, and then when that threat never materializes the exploiters and charlatans who’ve been lying to you about this nonsense can beat their chests and say, “Look at that! We stopped the globalists in their evil, diabolical plans to terminate American sovereignty—now send us even more money!”

I’m sorry to sound cynical and intolerant about this stupidity, but I’m furious, actually – ashamed to be part of a proud medium (conservative talk radio) that increasingly encourages this paralyzing, puerile paranoia. The record couldn’t be more clear on the “North American Union” – there’s no one anywhere near the Bush administration, the Congress of the United States, Cabinet departments or even major think tanks who believes it’s a good idea to merge Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Yes, there was one article in the journal Foreign Affairs that suggested further reducing trade barriers and economic obstacles in the style of the European Union, but that article drew spirited opposition and condemnation from readers of the same magazine and other members of the Council on Foreign Relations. The goal of “North American Union” is far from a policy aim of the Council on Foreign Relations, let alone of the US government.

Concerning the feds, the entire horror story about “North American Union” is based upon the “Security and Prosperity Partnership,” an utterly innocuous, open, above-board, well-advertised and widely publicized initiative to promote inter-governmental cooperation to fight terrorism, the threat of Avian flu, improve and tighten border security, and promote mutual prosperity. The then Presidents of the three countries (Bush, Fox and Martin) met in 2005 to pledge to work together on such issues and to initiate open working groups to facilitate cooperation – BUT THERE WAS NO AGREEMENT OR TREATY OR COVENANT of any kind, secret or otherwise. To find more information about this unthreatening and appropriate project, try going to the website whitehouse.gov, or otherwise checking out government sources (especially the Department of Commerce) under “s.p.p.” to see what’s going on – and what isn’t going on.

The idea that there’s some malevolent, hidden agenda to abolish the USA through working more closely with Mexico and Canada to combat potential flu outbreaks is only slightly less sick and pathetic than the belief that our government orchestrated 9/11, or that Y2K would end civilization as we know it (because Bill Clinton wanted to declare martial law and suspend the election—remember that one?) The same bastards and creeps and jug-heads and drunks and reprobates (yes, they are all of the above) who are now scaring you over SPP or NAU or the Monster Highway were busy 7 years ago peddling the Year 2000 computer bug crapola (which I consistently derided and denied on the air). Did you huddle in fear, expecting blackouts and riots and food shortages on New Year’s eve seven years ago? If you did, don’t you feel embarrassed to entertain these new fears from the same asinine sources?

If those jerks could be so wrong about Y2K, why should you give the slightest credence to their warnings and alarms over this latest hysteria?

Remember when the same miserable cretins tried to frighten the public over the “UN is taking over our National Parks” garbage? They openly predicted blue helmets (and black helicopters, no doubt) at Yellowstone and Yosemite and Mt. Rainier and….. nothing happened. Northing! The world body hasn’t seized the Sequoias or the Grand Canyon because a few American natural wonders were designated as “World Heritage Sites.”

Please remember: the hysterics and fringies who now promote the “secret plan” to eliminate the border with Mexico are the same psychotics who for decades suggested that the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers and the TriLateral Commission and Bohemian Grove and Skull and Bones and the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds were all working together to make sure that Communism took over the whole world. But then, inconveniently for the conspiracists and Birchers, Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher and Pope John Paul and Lech Walesa forced the Soviet Union into collapse and some of the formerly Commie nations (Poland and Hungary and Czech Republic prominent among them) now count as our closest, most valiant allies, and are members of NATO, in fact..

So what happened to the all-powerful conspiracy of international bankers and globalists and commie dictators? Ah yes, they just got the old Soviet Union to play possum for a while but soon they’ll be roaring back (isn’t Putin a former KGB man?) and prove that they’re even stronger than before --- even though the once mighty, now largely dismantled nation has lost more than a third of its population and nearly half its natural resources.

The problem with the demagogues and exploiters is that they make it more difficult – vastly more difficult – for decent people to face the real problems involving our border with Mexico (which clearly, undeniably needs better security and more protection) and to correct the altogether unacceptable outrage of more than 12 million illegals who live and work in the United States in open contravention of our immigration laws.

Yes, we need immigration reform, but if substantial elements of the right become fixated on secret plans for “North American Union,” then they will make themselves irrelevant to the national debate framing and shaping that reform. Paranoia is paralyzing, and leads to powerlessness and marginalization.

In the 26 years I’ve been a conservative Republican I’ve never seen our party and our principles facing greater danger of pushing our ideas and our leaders out of the mainstream, out of the sunlight of sanity and rational discourse and into the fever swamps of sickness and delusion and dementia.

Please – take careful note of anyone in politics (even some “reputable” US Congressmen) or media who gives even a moment’s credence to the “dangers” of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or the North American Union, or the Monster Highway. Write down the names of such people, and remember the names. And then when the fraudulent stories have been discredited or simply disappeared (like the brain-dead, laughableY2K scare, or the U.N. National Parks conspiracy, or the concentration camps and black helicopters that were supposed to menace opponents of globalization), or when the tall tales have morphed into some other attempt to paralyze the unsuspecting public with paranoia, please refer once again to the names on your list of fatuous fear-mongers AND TREAT THEM WITH THE DERISION AND CONTEMPT AND DISREGARD THEY SO RICHLY DESERVE.

No one in my line of work, privileged to earn a living by communicating with the American people, can justify lying outright about non-existent dangers for the sake of ratings or popularity or shock value or “emergency fundraising.”

Where does the money go from such contributions? Usually into the pockets of the blood-sucking exploiters (check out the Washington Times expose of the “Minutemen” as an example). Meanwhile, has anyone heard recently about the “Paul Revere Society,” promoted by a prominent talk host, which was supposed to protect us from a Mexican invasion? It’s disappeared into thin air (and rumored scandal) but what happened to the funds you contributed out of idealism and enthusiasm and well-intentioned commitment?

You may not agree with me on everything I say or report in this blog or on my radio show but I can promise you one thing: I will never lie to you, or pander to your fears, or try to exaggerate dangers when I know better. I will tell you the truth to the best of my ability and I refuse to insult your intelligence with ludicrous conspiracy tales.

Some of my colleagues are dissembling, and they know it, and they ought to be ashamed.

Please take note of who they are and force them, some day soon, to face some consequences.

2 posted on 12/28/2006 9:53:23 AM PST by Checkers ("...(play) outside in the sun all day...or...sit at your computer and do something that matters.")

Usually into the pockets of the blood-sucking exploiters (check out the Washington Times expose of the “Minutemen” as an example).

Medved can't even get his own facts straight here. The fundraising issue is with an offshoot of the Minutemen, not the larger group. Makes you wonder just what other facts he doesn't have straight.

This paranoid and groundless frenzy has been fomented and promoted by a shameless collection of lunatics and losers; crooks, cranks, demagogues and opportunists,....

Do you suppose Medved lurks here at FR?

I work for a large global corporation and watched the 4th qtr wrap up video presented by the COO of the company. When he referred to global sales he talked about our European Operations, Asian Operations and NAFTA Operations. Not the US or American operations (all but 1 division are in the USA) but NAFTA. They routinely refer to NAFTA as if it were the governing authority. I feel extremely uncomfortable every time I hear it used that way.

And BTW, the COO is an American. I wonder if he refers to himself as a Naftan.

Just ask him to be consistent in his usage. European, Asian, and North American. Problem solved.

Are you sure the fundraising issues might not include The Paul Revere Society, among others?

Excellent and very satisfying column by Medved. Long overdue.

I guess no one told Michael about the toll road four football fields wide that they're trying to get built in Texas.

This paranoid and groundless frenzy has been fomented and promoted by a shameless collection of lunatics and losers; crooks, cranks, demagogues and opportunists, who claim the existence of a top secret master plan to join the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one big super-state and to replace the good old Yankee dollar with a worthless new currency called “The Amero.”
-snip-
... there’s no reason at all to believe in the ludicrous, childish, ill-informed, manipulative, brain dead fantasies about a North American Union.

Wow...isn't this just a little over the top? The phrase "me thinks he doth protest to much" springs to mind.

As soon as I typed my response, I realized that this thread will wasted on mere popcorn. I'm thinking Mexican beer.

17 posted on 12/28/2006 10:06:59 AM PST by Checkers ("...(play) outside in the sun all day...or...sit at your computer and do something that matters.")

I guess no one told Michael about the toll road four football fields wide that they're trying to get built in Texas.

Medved's rant is best understood by the fact he is a social conservative but big government liberal.

He's going to ignore the eminent domain and national security issues involved with the NAFTA super-highway because it is a public works project.

18 posted on 12/28/2006 10:08:37 AM PST by peyton randolph (No man knows the day nor the hour of The Coming of The Great White Handkerchief.)

"And BTW, the COO is an American. I wonder if he refers to himself as a Naftan."

I would ask him that if I were you. I would have another job lined up first though. =)

I love my job...I'll just watch the video at home and make my snide comments to my wife. I know...real brave! LOL

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