The new hotness among leftists is a variation of the old Democrat line from after the Civil War: "Without the slaves, who will pick our cotton?"

This go-around is similar: "Without Brown people, who will grow our crops, manicure our lawns, and clean our toilets?"

But I have to admit that I didn't predict it would go this far...

Hi, I’m Sarah McLachlan.

Will you be an angel for a helpless criminals?

Everyday innocent drug cartels are abused, beaten, and neglected by Donald Trump.

And they’re crying out for help. pic.twitter.com/EJuJNuEv6t

— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) January 22, 2025

Before you get TOO outraged at The New York Times, the paper is not the only one making the case that America needs to go easy on the Drug Cartels: many companies who are proud to be members of the Chamber of Commerce are as well. As is so often the case, the paper is just parroting the Narrative™ of the transnational elite. 

🚨 #BREAKING: President Trump has just signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations

They can now be targeted with LETHAL FORCE by the U.S. military.

This is HUGE. pic.twitter.com/WAf7HhKVAY

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 21, 2025

The argument is that American businesses need to work with the cartels at some level or another because they have massive business interests in the country, and Mexico is overrun with cartels who run vast swathes of the country. It could cost big bucks, and if there is anything similar between big corporations and the cartels, it is that they both are dedicated to vacuuming up as many dollars as possible. 

LET'S GO.

CONGRESSMAN CARLOS GIMENEZ: I'm glad Trump designated the cartels as t*rrorist organizations. Now, let's go wipe them off the face of the earth.

VARNEY: You mean attack them inside Mexico?

GIMENEZ: Oh yeah. That's what I'm saying.pic.twitter.com/tUrRqzskiy

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 22, 2025

Don't get me wrong: I don't blame businessmen for wanting to maximize their profits, but a properly functioning society and economy is based on the rule of law, and as importantly, no decent human being should knowingly sacrifice the lives of others simply to make a buck. Hitmen and stockbrokers both do their jobs for the sake of a paycheck, yet if you can't see the difference between those jobs, we label you a sociopath. 

The Drug Cartels have indeed infiltrated every aspect of Mexico's economy and society, but that is a BAD THING and needs to change. And it is also true that fighting the cartels will mean some level of pain on both sides of the border and of the war. But there is a reason we have wars of any kind, and right now, the dollars flowing into the United States from trade with Mexico that involves cartels is paid for with hundreds of thousands of lives lost and destroyed. 

How many avocados is the life of a child killed by fentanyl worth?

President Trump’s executive order designating Mexican cartels and other criminal organizations as foreign terrorists could force some American companies to forgo doing business in Mexico rather than risk U.S. sanctions, according to former government officials and analysts — an outcome that could have a major effect on both countries given their deep economic interdependence.

The executive order, which Mr. Trump signed on Monday, is intended to apply maximum pressure on Mexico to rein in its dangerous drug trade. The designation, more generally, also gives his administration more power to impose economic penalties and travel restrictions, and potentially even to take military action in foreign countries.

Yet, disentangling cartel operations from U.S. interests in Mexico could be immensely complicated. Mexico is the United States’ largest trade partner of goods, and many American companies have manufacturing operations there.

Even more complicated, these criminal networks have extended their operations far beyond drug trafficking and human smuggling. They are now embedded in a wide swath of the legal economy, from avocado farming to the country’s billion-dollar tourism industry, making it hard to be absolutely sure that American companies are isolated from cartel activities.

Many of the fears expressed by businesses in the article are purely notional and likely just a smokescreen. They worry that Mexico is so riddled with cartel influences that they could inadvertently work with cartels without knowing it. 

Pish posh. Nobody is going to get prosecuted for inadvertently sending money to somebody associated with cartels accidentally, and it's vanishingly unlikely that sophisticated corporations don't know who their suppliers are anyway. The whole point of the article is that they do, and they fear the consequences of dealing with the evil bastards. 

“This has come up in previous administrations across the political spectrum and from members of Congress who have wanted to do it,” said Samantha Sultoon, a senior adviser on sanctions policy and threat finance in the Trump and Biden administrations.

“But no one has done it because they have looked at what the implications would be on trade, economic and financial relationships between Mexico and the United States,” she added. “They have all come away thinking that such a designation would actually be super shortsighted and ill-considered, though prior administrations viewed the U.S.-Mexico relationship far differently than the incoming Trump administration appears to.”

The foreign terrorist designation could lead to severe penalties — including substantial fines, asset seizures and criminal charges — on companies and individuals found to be paying ransom or extortion payments. U.S. companies could also be ensnared by standard payments made to Mexican companies that a cartel controls without the American companies’ knowledge.

Some extortion payments, even if made under duress, could be considered “material support” to cartels, said Pablo Zárate, senior managing director at FTI Consulting, an American firm that released a report laying out some of the risks of the terrorist designation.

The argument that going after the cartel isn't worth it because it will cost us money is, of course, insane. It is a great example of focusing only on one set of costs--the price to businesses and consumers that come directly from the actions--without looking at the costs Americans are paying for the flood of drugs coming into our country. The current state of affairs is not exactly "free." Death, destruction, social decay, law enforcement costs, incarcerations...all these have to be included in the balance sheet. 

Corporate America might not have to pay those costs directly, but the American people as a whole do. 

There is a large constituency who are satisfied with the way things are, and their arguments for maintaining the status quo make sense from their point of view. As long as you are personally doing fine and making money under the current circumstances, changes to policy may threaten that. 

That is, however, also sociopathic. If the Trump policy cripples the cartels, the price will be worth it. If not, then doing this might be a mistake. 

On Tuesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico issued a stern warning to Mr. Trump during her daily news conference. “We will always defend our sovereignty,” Ms. Sheinbaum said. “We all want to fight the drug cartels, that is obvious. So what should we do? We have to coordinate efforts; we have to collaborate,” she said.

“May they know that the president of the republic will always defend Mexico above all else,” the Mexican president added.

The problem with the arguments against this change in policy should be obvious to anybody: the status quo is unacceptable. Our streets are filled with people dying every day due to the work of these cartels. Human beings, by the millions, are being trafficked every year. Our cities are decaying because of these evil men. 

Something must be done. Trump is doing something. For once.