During most times and among most people, good relations between Mexico and the United States would be looked upon as a good thing. But if you feverishly hate Trump, you root against American interests, like David Frum of The Atlantic magazine. It's no big surprise since a few months ago, Frum wildly accused Trump of planning to build a network of "concentration camps."
In his latest symptom of extreme Trump derangement, Frum snarled on Friday that the good relations currently being enjoyed by the two neighbor nations is in reality "appeasement" by Mexico. The headline was "Why Sheinbaum Can Surrender to Trump."
Contrary to appearances, the Sheinbaum secret is appeasement. The reason Mexico’s president has not been called out for her Trump-complaisance is that the country’s political opposition and independent media are too crushed to name the policy for what it is. But the evidence is in.
Got it? The good relations between Mexico and the USA is the result of "appeasement" ...at least according to poor Frum who can't stand the idea of Mexico cooperating with a United States led by Trump.
It really irks Frum that Mexico agreed to cooperate with the USA on six fronts.
President Trump has made six big demands of Mexico. Sheinbaum has granted them all. Let’s proceed, one by one:
1.He wants much more active Mexican cooperation on immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.
2.He wants Mexico to receive people deported from the United States, including people who are not Mexican nationals.
3.He wants Mexico to adopt a more militarized approach to drug interdiction.
4.He wants a new tariff regime to shift more North American manufacturing from Mexico to the United States.
5.He wants Mexico to join U.S. trade actions against China.
6.He wants Mexico to submit politely to this shakedown, and not make too much fuss.
And after going into detail about how well these specific areas of cooperation are working, Frum grumbles that it is the result of "appeasement."
Even if Sheinbaum’s appeasement approach were Mexico’s best option, her model cannot be emulated by other states, especially democratic ones. A prerequisite for her strategy is that she leads a society that is consolidating into a one-party state, with a media subject to ever more stringent restrictions and government control.
...Sheinbaum’s political biography is that of a cadre of the left. But today, the most important political cleft is not the fading distinction between right and left, but the rising conflict between liberal and illiberal, democratic and autocratic. As Mexico follows America into illiberality, Mexico’s leadership finds itself surprisingly favored by Trump’s Washington, along with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and El Salvador. In contrast, the formerly close U.S. ally Canada is consigned to join Ukraine, Denmark, Panama, and the democracies of Europe and East Asia on the Trump enemies list.
Sheinbaum’s policy of Trump appeasement may well be the least-bad course open to Mexico. But it should be seen for what it is, not misunderstood as the brave resistance it most definitely is not.
Got that? Cooperation with the United States while it is led by Trump can be due only to "appeasement" ...at least in the highly agitated mind of David Frum. Try to imagine him boiling over if his native Canada were more cooperative.
