Night mares of the paranoid fear of "North American Union"

John Hawkins:

"I love (the North American Union theory) because if you ever doubt your own sanity, all you have to do is read this stuff and realize that you're okay." -- Charles Krauthammer

"You lay out a conspiracy and then force some people to try to prove it doesn't exist. That's just the way some people operate." -- George Bush on the North American Union

"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." -- Michael Medved

Other than the 9/11 conspiracy theory, the most popular conspiracy theory these days seems to be the North American Union. Go to Google and you'll find more than a million hits on the words "North American Union." Prominent conservative online magazines regularly run columns by people who believe in this conspiracy theory. Getting emails that reference it? It's almost an every day thing...even though the odds of the NAU coming to pass are slightly less likely than a Dennis Kucinich/Rosie O'Donnell ticket winning every state in 2008.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to logically prove to people who buy into the NAU (Try to stifle a giggle here) that George Bush isn't going to merge the United States, Canada, and Mexico together to form one giant nation -- because there's no logic, consistency, or reasoning behind the theory. It's nothing more than the worst sort of black helicopter paranoia combined with naked ignorance about how our government works -- promoted by con men, nuts, and ignoramuses who think they'll increase traffic to their websites, raise money, or sell more books by convincing people that the North American Union is actually going to happen.

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He goes on to diagnose what has to believe to buy into this nuttiness. What the proponents of the theory overlook is why Canada and Mexico would never buy into it to begin with, even if the US did. Any such union would be dominated by the US from top to bottom. Economically and population wise the US would overwhelm both countries. Mexico has been worried about this since it lost Texas after some Gringos came in and settled.

Canada would have to give up its free riding on US health care and pharmaceuticals as well as its free ride on national defense. Both countries now benefit from the US dependency on them for most of our oil supplies. If they were part of the US they would have to put up with the environmental wackos who want to stop the production of fossil fuels and lose significant income in the process.

All three countries like the status quo. While there is cooperation on trade, it is mutually beneficial despite what the unions and the Democrats say.