By Allan Wall
12/04/2007
Now that Vicente Fox is no longer president of Mexico, he’s more mobile, because constitutionally the President of Mexico can’t leave the country without Congress’s permission.
He’s definitely a man on the move. It’s hard to keep up with him as he jets from speech to speech.
On November 17th, in "sanctuary city" Durham, NC, Fox received a standing ovation for a speech in which he called on us to build "bridges not walls."
After that he flew across the pond and met with the Club de Madrid, in Spain on November 19th and the 20th and then flew back across the Atlantic and wound up in California, where he bashed the border wall, endorsed Hillary (not for the first time) and expressed his disapproval of the U.S. immigration debate.
On Nov. 26th he was in Washington, D.C. to sign an agreement with the Woodrow Wilson Center. And on Nov. 29th he was in Virginia to meet with the U.S. branch of the Fox Center Consultative Council. (Fox has opened Mexico’s first Presidential Library.)
In the old days, Mexican presidents tended to keep a low profile, often electing to enjoy their loot outside of Mexico. Fox, however, is changing the role of a former Mexican president by aspiring to become a jet-setting world statesman, along the lines of Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev or U2’s Bono. The kind of guy who never shuts up, in other words.
Turns out there’s a lot to be said for a former head of state retiring, playing golf and tending to his presidential library.
As president of Mexico, Fox did preside over a stable economy. But in the area of substantive reforms, he didn’t accomplish a whole lot. His administration failed to dynamize the Mexican economy to provide more, and better paying, jobs for Mexicans in Mexico. He frittered away time and political capital in encouraging illegal aliens in the U.S., bashing U.S. immigration policy, and promoting globalism.
Fox recently came out with a book called Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith and Dreams of a Mexican President.
Fox’s collaborator on this literary masterpiece is none other than Bush advisor Rob Allyn. It’s a small world after all!
And get this — Revolution of Hope was not written for Mexican readers — it was designed for the American market, is only for sale in the U.S., and only exists in English!
Why?
Larry King asked Fox about this in an interview:
KING: Is this book written for a Mexican audience? Because it seems like it’s for an American audience.
FOX: It is. It is for an American audience because I think that the migration issue is a key issue. It has been for 100 years and it will be the issue of this 21st century.
KING: But this …
FOX: So I’m trying to have a dialogue with U.S. public opinion to convey my thinking and my beliefs on this issue.
Larry King interviewOct. 8th, 2007
Yes indeed, Fox is "trying to have a dialogue with U.S. public opinion" on immigration. Except it’s not really a "dialogue", it’s a Vicente Fox monologue.
Fox is bringing his propaganda monologue on a grand tour of the U.S.A. Fox is plugging his book and promoting his brand of mass immigration/globalist mumbo-jumbo, meddling in U.S. internal affairs, slandering Americans who don’t agree with him, and repeatedly endorsing Hillary for president.
Most everything is going according to script for Vicente, although some protestors have shown up to protest his presence — some Americans who want the law enforced, and some Mexican critics of Fox.
On October 17th, Fox threw a tantrum on a Los Angeles Spanish-language program when the host wanted to talk about a corruption accusation in Mexico rather than plug the book. So Fox got angry and walked out of the studio. [Watch it on Youtube.]
Yet with all Fox’s energetic promotion of his agenda, I sense a certain frustration. He’s been trying for years to get the gringos to have a more open immigration policy. But he sees things as moving in the opposite direction.
In fact, the more Vicente Fox shoots his mouth off, the more he helps immigration restrictionists. Fox’s arrogance is so over the top that it is waking up more Americans as to what is going on.
Outside his circle of business tycoons and globalist jet-setters, Fox has never displayed any real interest in understanding ordinary Americans who are negatively affected by illegal immigration.
Thus in an interview with the Associated Press in New York on October 8th, Fox blasted "racism" and "xenophobia" as the reason Americans don’t cotton to the Fox agenda:
"The xenophobics, the racists, those who feel they are a superior race … they are deciding the future of this nation." [Ex Mexico Prez: Racists Stop Immigration, AP, Diego A. Santos, October 8th, 2007]
Sounds like Mike Huckabee!
Fox is a man with a mission. But I sense he is getting impatient, and frustrated, as the slowly waking American public becomes aware of what is really happening.
As Fox tirelessly visited assorted corners of U.S. territory, he continued to lecture his hosts:
CALIFORNIA
On October 25th, Fox assured the audience at the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Legends and Leaders dinner that
"Walls don’t work. The Chinese wall didn’t work. The Berlin wall didn’t work against freedom. This one won’t work either."
Ah, but Mr. Fox, are you afraid it won’t work — or are you afraid it will work? [Former Mexican President Decries U.S. Immigration Policies, by Timothy Roberts, East Bay Business Times, Oct. 26th, 2007,]
STORM LAKE, IOWA
In Storm Lake, Iowa, on October 27th, Fox came out in favor of a woman president for each country. (Hmm, how would Fox like it if VDARE.com’s Brenda Walker were U.S. president?)
Fox repeated his skepticism and concern about the United States' plan to build a wall along its southern border:
"That was not the spirit of those who came to found this nation."
Actually, one of the first things the Jamestown settlers did 400 years ago was build a fort to protect themselves.
And Fox told Iowans that
"God did not create borders. He did not create divisions."
In fact if you read the story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible, [Genesis 11, 1-9] it was God Himself who divided mankind. [Former President Fox: Nations Would Benefit from Female Leader, By Henry C. Jackson, Associated Press, October 26, 2007]
Also in Storm Lake, Fox tossed out this rather bold statement:
"The American dream is not exclusive to the citizens of this great nation."
Uh, actually Vicente, the American dream, by definition, belongs to the American people. Mexicans should have their own dream, the Mexican Dream. The problem is, you don’t understand that distinction. [Illegal Immigrants with Jobs are critical to U.S., Fox says, By Lisa Rossi, Des Moines Register, October 27, 2007]
SOUTH DAKOTA
On November 1st, speaking at a college in South Dakota, Fox tried to tell us that nothing could get done in the U.S. without Mexicans:
"Who is going to build the hospitals, the hotels, the highways? They are being built by immigrants. At many of the packing plants in this state, in Iowa, in other states? … Who is going to harvest the vegetables in California? Who sets your table in many restaurants? The service economy is highly supported by these people."
It’s funny you should mention packing plants, Vicente. Thanks to illegal Mexican labor, wages there have been cut in half in the past few decades. [Ex-Mexico leader praises immigrants, By Melanie Brandert, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, November 2, 2007]
WILKES-BARRE, PA
On November 5th, in a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Fox called for an open work force in the entire western hemisphere. He said the U.S. was an "aging nation" in need of workers. Fox decried local officials (like the mayor of nearby Hazleton) enacting anti-illegal immigration legislation:
"It’s a federal issue and should be addressed by Congress," he said. "When you do not act and you do not meet problems, you leave empty spaces."
But when the U.S. Congress fails to enact an amnesty, he doesn’t like that either.
Fox took another swipe at the wall, which launched the former Mexican president into an incoherent mumbo-jumbo riff:
"I cannot understand why a wall is being built. What is the fear in this nation? Who is this nation trying to isolate from? Why the inconsistency? When President Reagan comes in Berlin and shouts 'Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall … ' The threat to this nation is not immigrants. The threat to this nation is isolation. Instead of building walls, we should be building bridges. Bridges of understanding. Bridges of trade. Bridges of love." [Fox calls for open work force in the Americas, By Coulter Jones, Wilkes-Barre Citizen’s Voice, November 6, 2007]
CINCINNATI
On November 7th, Fox was in Cincinnati, speaking to an Hispanic chamber of commerce. There Vicente utilized the "nation of immigrants" motif:
"Immigrants built this great nation," "When we look back far enough, we are all immigrants."
If you define "immigrant" as anybody whose ancestors came from elsewhere, then everybody in the world is an immigrant, making the term completely useless.
Fox’s own paternal grandfather (the surname was Fuchs then) emigrated from Cincinnati to Mexico. [Former Mexican president a 'local guy, Business Courier of Cincinnati, October 17, 2007]In Mexico, Fox almost never mentioned his American heritage, but lately he’s been babbling on and on about it, as a way to shame Americans into supporting mass immigration.
Fox says of his grandfather that
"He brought down to Mexico the core value of the founding fathers," he said, calling for a return to those values." Huh?
It’s not that he’s for open borders, says Fox, but rather a "reasonable, sound, common-sense solution" to immigration.
Fox also talked about the development of the European Union, as a model for North America — a "successful continental trade agreement." [Mexican Leader speaks to Chamber, By Stepfanie Romine, Cincinnati Enquirer, November 8, 2007]
Allow me to point out that back in 2002 I wrote an article for VDARE.com about Vicente Fox’s Madrid speech, where he openly called for a union with the U.S. and Canada modeled after the European Union.
ATLANTA
On Nov. 12th in Atlanta, Fox said there were two kinds of local governments in the U.S.A. — governments that are "humane" (i.e. don’t enforce immigration law) and those governments that are "really going too far, and violating human rights in certain situations" (i.e. enforce the law against illegal Mexicans).
Fox was speaking at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, but across the street a score of Minutemen were protesting. Fox called these Minutemen "xenophobes" and complained that the whole matter of immigration is "being managed by fear". Fox also slammed TV hosts Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly for "violent aggression" and said "I think they should be more tolerant and bring in more facts".
When Fox was asked how Mexico can create jobs so Mexicans don’t feel like they need to emigrate, he let the cat out of the bag:
"It’s not that they don’t have jobs in Mexico, but that they make more money here."
Bingo! As I've pointed out before, many Mexican immigrants had jobs before leaving Mexico and some are even middle-class Mexicans. [Former Mexico president: Cobb immigration policy 'going too far', By Mary Lou Pickel, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 13, 2007]
ANSWER TO A GOOD QUESTION
In Fox’s aforementioned Larry King interview, he hit on many of the same topics, such as the infamous wall. Of course, he came out in favor of licenses for illegal aliens, had the temerity to deny that Mexican illegals get free medical care, endorsed Hillary, and said of Bill Richardson that "he’s so Mexican in his interior."
And when he was bashing the wall, Fox asked a question himself, which really sums up this whole issue:
"Who is going to stay inside that wall and who is going to stay outside?"
Congratulations Vicente, you've summarized the whole issue! Americans will stay inside the wall and foreigners — unless they have permission to enter — stay outside.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
P.S. Who is paying for all this propaganda?
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.