One GOP congressman and even Ron Paul have condemned the building of this as the "NAFTA Superhighway," and they've been joined in this regard by Lou Dobbs, the guy who gets red-faced on his every show about illegal immigration, but you can't say it's because he's racist, because, well, look at him, his wife is Latina. So ha, try again, lefty!
When I first heard of/saw plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, it sounded like a great idea to me. Finally, 18 wheelers would have their own highway parallel to one that us smaller cars would go on! But Buchananite types, and the folks who believe in militia movement notions about US sovereignty being undermined in a "North American Union," are also opposing various highway redevelopment plans in their districts because they say it all feeds into this immigrant-attracting NAFTA Superhighway, which seems like a tangled conflation of ideas.
Chuck mentioned leftists were climbing aboard; he seemed to believe the NAFTA Superhighway threat also. The left concern -- I guess? -- is the TTC will threaten the environment and create strip malls from TX to KS, or something. But the most noise I've seen hails from nativist, reactionary, UN/Federal Reserve-are-ruining-us, Vote-for-Ron-Paul, conspiracy-loving types (which is a depressingly huge number of people). The "North American Union" idea is paranoically tied into the "NAFTA Superhighway" idea. At least the statements from Ron Paul and another GOP congressman all reflect that. Additionally, "Jerome R. Corsi an American author and conservative activist vehemently opposes the Corridor and has written a book called _The_Late_Great_USA:_the_Coming_Merger_with_Mexico_and_Canada_ which outlines many of the Trans-Texas Corridor's more intimate and less public details," according to the Wikipedia entry on "NAFTA Superhighway."
SEE: http://www.charlotteconservative.com/index.php/2007/08/the-nafta-superhighway/
Also, "The Conspiratorial Urban Legend of the Evil NAFTA Superhighway," which bemoans that this notion has taken root right as there is a need for infrastructure development in the US:
http://www.banderasnews.com/0711/edat-naftasuperhighway.htm
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
"While I think a public works program would be just dandy - as would a large energy R&D program - it seems very very ambitious, given the politics of the U.S. It would take either a huge mobilization or an economic crisis - -or some combination of both - for it even to enter the realm of possibility."
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:"The only solution -- concludes Henwood -- for the Democrats would be a grand plan of public works, inasmuch as our infrastructures -- bridges, roads, railroads, electrical grids, airports -- are literally falling apart. This plan would allow job growth, economic recovery, and also plenty of profits for capital. But no Democrat dreams of proposing it because, in order to finance these public works, it would have to introduce a little fiscal progressivity, and this, for the time being, is a taboo, a heresy that can condemn you to be burned at the stake (politically speaking)."