The Mexico invasion Republicans fantasize about would create even more chaos: historian

President Ronald Reagan famously commented, "Latinos are Republicans; they just don't know it yet." Many MAGA Republicans of 2023, in contrast, have called for military action against Mexico in response to violence by drug cartels — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.

In a guest essay/op-ed published by the New York Times on November 1, author and Yale University history professor Greg Grandin observes that calling for military attacks on Mexico has become increasingly popular with MAGA Republicans — despite Mexico's willingness to work with the U.S. to combat the spread of fentanyl.

"The Mexican government is, in fact, cooperating with the United States to limit the export of the drug (fentanyl), recently passing legislation limiting the import of chemicals required for its production and stepping up prosecution of fentanyl producers," Grandin explains. "And even some of the cartels have reportedly spread the message to their foot soldiers, telling them to stop producing the drug or face the consequences. Still, in a show of Trumpian excess, Mexico is depicted as the root of all our problems. Bombing Sinaloa in 2024 is what building a border wall was in 2016: political theatrics."

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Grandin goes on to stress that military action against Mexico would create and aggravate problems — not solve them.

"For now, calls to bomb Mexico are mostly primary-season bluster," the author/historian writes. "But if a Republican were to win the White House in 2024, he or she would be under pressure to make good on the promise to launch military strikes on Mexico."

Grandin continues, "Those efforts are not just bound to fail; they also could even make matters worse…. Further militarizing Mexico's drug war would lead to more corruption, more deaths, more refugees desperate to cross the border. And those displaced, if Republicans had their way and Mexican cartels were classified as terrorist organizations, would have a better shot at claiming asylum, since they would be fleeing a formally designated war zone.

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Read Greg Grandin's full New York Times essay/op-ed at this link (subscription required).