I just purchased a Jeep Wrangler. It is my first “American” car. You may have noticed the quotation marks around American. I purposely added them for two reasons. The first is that “American” designates the American continent. Although many U.S. citizens consider themselves American, they are, in fact U.S. citizens. There are still individuals that argue with me that México is not in North America. They argue that México is in Central America with some even arguing that anything south of the Rio Bravo, or the Rio Grande for U.S. citizens is South America. The second reason is that my Jeep is American after-all.
The fact is that Canada, México and the U.S. comprise North America. That is why NAFTA stands for the North American Free Trade Agreement that Donald Trump much maligns. Although Trump negotiated NAFTA into the USMCA, it remains NAFTA version 2. More importantly, NAFTA remains the trade agreement governing trade between México and the United States today. That is because the USMCA has only been adopted by México.
The U.S. Congress has yet to take up the USMCA.
But what got me to write this post today is the legal documents that all cars must carry under federal law. Most people today believe that the Jeep is an all-American car, especially the Jeep Wrangler. The reality is much different.
The Monroney sticker – that is required on all new cars sold in the U.S. – tells me that my Jeep is not as “American” as many believe, and yet it is American. Let me explain.
The Monroney document details all the official information about my Jeep. My new Jeep was assembled in Toledo Ohio.
But here is the thing that would likely blow the minds of many Donald Trump supporters.
My new Jeep’s engine comes from an Italian manufacturing plant. And it gets worse for the Trump supporters, my Jeep’s content is 22% Mexican. Only 60% of my new Jeep comes from Canadian and U.S. components.
Note how the federally mandated document does not differentiate between Canadian and U.S. parts? It has everything to do with the politics of anti-Mexicanism. You see, for some U.S. citizens, it is perfectly acceptable that Canadian workers take jobs from U.S citizens but it is entirely a different matter if Mexicans do the same.
Regardless of this duplicity, my new Jeep has very little U.S. components and that proves that Donald Trump’s promises of bringing jobs but to the country are at best hogwash and at worst an outright lie he tells his supporters all the time.
My Jeep Wrangler makes this perfectly clear.
Some of you are likely arguing, but, but it has 60% in U.S./Canadian parts according to what I wrote above. In their haste to prove me wrong, they likely neglected to remember that Canada is another country. I could not find any information about how many of the components in my Jeep is Canadian so I can’t provide a definite number. However, even if it is only 10%, which is likely very low, my Jeep at most has only 50% U.S. parts.
But here is what is going to throw many of you into convulsions, my Jeep is an America car.
What!?!
My Jeep is made up of 78% parts sourced from Canada, México and the United States making it an American car.
Those of you still questioning this should refer to the beginning of this post where I explained that “America” is the continent and not the country.
So there you have it, my new Jeep is American!
Back in the day, I used to transmit on CB radio using the handle “Border Bandit”. I did this many times while straddling the U.S.-México border. As such, I’ve nicknamed my new Jeep the “Border Bandit”.
Let the adventures begin.
