Pushback Against Trump's View of Mexico

We're at the point where conservatives feel the need to explain to other conservatives Mexico is not our enemy. From Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal:

Mexico is a functioning democracy whose voters tend to favor pro-business conservatives, not a North American version of Libya, exporting jihad and boat people to its neighbors. Somebody ought to explain this to Republican voters, whose brains, like pickles in brine, have marinated too long in anti-Mexican nonsense.

That people need to be reminded of this is sad, but you can't blame people when they read that sort of thing, but then are also bombarded by negative images from the Republican candidate for president.

There is plenty to debate in the article (such as seeing NAFTA as the savior of everything) but it's interesting to see pushback about Mexico from within conservative circles.

Meanwhile, let’s state clearly what shouldn’t need saying but does: Americans are blessed to have Mexico as our neighbor and Hispanics as our citizens. On this point, disagreement is indecency.

That's definitely not the sort of thing we've been hearing in recent years. Unfortunate that it required Trump to prompt it.