In the Mexican Labyrinth

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In the Mexican Labyrinth: The Elections, the Left, and the Fight for the Mexican Soul

Quite a long article, so here's just the introduction:

On the night of July 2, 2006, millions of Mexicans listened to the calm, slow-paced voice of Luis Carlos Ugalde, president of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), announcing what many had feared: that the election to designate a new president of México was too close to call. As with the 2000 presidential election in the United States, both candidates claimed they had won and hired lawyers and political advisers to defend their victory claims. Weeks afterward, on September 15, countless citizens gathered at the Zocalo square in México City to witness the traditional ceremony of El Grito, or the cry of independence. This rite, which celebrates the beginning of the fight for Mexican independence from Spain in 1810, has normally been performed by the president himself. This year it was performed by the mayor of México City; Alejandro Encinas, one of the top aides to the former mayor of México City; and the presidential candidate of México’s left-wing Democratic Revolutionary party (PRD), Andres Manuel López Obrador. Shortly afterward, a multitude of López Obrador’s partisans raised their hands to “elect” him the legitimate president of México. This was small consolation to his supporters, because ten days before, the Federal Electoral Court had declared the right-of-center liberal candidate Felipe Calderón the winner of the cliff-hanger election. Who was this man who, after having lost what was one of the cleanest elections in México’s history, had himself proclaimed the real president?

At the beginning of 2006, López Obrador’s campaign seemed to be unbeatable. The polls gave his party an average lead of 8 percent. People from across the social spectrum were visiting his campaign headquarters in México City to greet the man they believed would be the next president. The candidate boasted that not even a coalition made up of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and the right-of-center National Action Party (PAN)—the other two big Mexican parties—would prevent him from winning the election. The talk of the town was the imminent, first-time-in-history victory of the Mexican left. How did López Obrador manage to lose such a clear advantage? What are the reasons for his defeat?

At least three reasons have been offered. First, some argue that the election was marred by fraud: the IFE and Vicente Fox’s administration maneuvered successfully to deprive the PRD of the victory it actually earned. Second, there are those who contend that even if there was no fraud in the election proper, the IFE permitted a radically unfair electoral process. According to this view, a long series of inequities vitiated the political campaign from start to finish, beginning with Fox’s and private corporations’ illegal backing of Calderón, the PAN candidate. Third, there is the view that López Obrador’s overconfidence and hubris led him to an unexpected defeat.

In what follows I will suggest that the first two reasons were never proved to be true and that the third does not sufficiently account for López Obrador’s defeat. I will propose an alternative interpretation—that the authoritarian and populist left he represents was rejected by a modern and complex citizenry rising in México today.

[ag]

Not bad. I could neatpick on a a few facts and conjectures, but overall pretty close to truth.

[Cubby]

Also, some people were afraid that Obrador would turn into another Hugo Chavez.

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

PRI and PRD are at least economically left, even if not always socially left wing. PRD is the best party in Mexico.

But Obrador's post-election behavior was too much, even for me. He made that idiot Calderon seem normal by comparison.

[Bono]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

[ag]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

They promise to expand public health insurance (including everyone born from now on) and are big on subsidizing home-ownership for the working class.  It's actually part of their Catholic "social consciousness". And, until just recently (this changed with liberalization in Mexico City), Mexico's least restrictive abortion legislation was in PAN-governed Yucatan.

Though, on personal level, there is a very strong very clerical segment in the party, this can't be denied. Deep in the panista heartland, there are quite some dinosaurs both in the ranks and in the lead.

[Cubby]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

No, its more of a general impression I have of them. Also, Ag said last year that if the Catholic Church was allowed to campaign, they would strongly support PAN. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't like the conservative religious element that the party has.

[Verily]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

They promise to expand public health insurance (including everyone born from now on) and are big on subsidizing home-ownership for the working class.  It's actually part of their Catholic "social consciousness". And, until just recently (this changed with liberalization in Mexico City), Mexico's least restrictive abortion legislation was in PAN-governed Yucatan.

Though, on personal level, there is a very strong very clerical segment in the party, this can't be denied. Deep in the panista heartland, there are quite some dinosaurs both in the ranks and in the lead.

PAN is the party of "liberation theology" - leftist theocracy.

[Cubby]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

They promise to expand public health insurance (including everyone born from now on) and are big on subsidizing home-ownership for the working class.  It's actually part of their Catholic "social consciousness". And, until just recently (this changed with liberalization in Mexico City), Mexico's least restrictive abortion legislation was in PAN-governed Yucatan.

Though, on personal level, there is a very strong very clerical segment in the party, this can't be denied. Deep in the panista heartland, there are quite some dinosaurs both in the ranks and in the lead.

PAN is the party of "liberation theology" - leftist theocracy.

Are they really? Well thats news to me. PAN seems like Mexico's version of the GOP or the Tories, very old fashioned and conservative. I like liberation theology though.

I like PRD because they seem socially liberal (although Ag said this isn't always true), and because they aren't as strict capitalists as PAN, but have concerns for people's well-being, not just money and investors.

[Verily]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

They promise to expand public health insurance (including everyone born from now on) and are big on subsidizing home-ownership for the working class.  It's actually part of their Catholic "social consciousness". And, until just recently (this changed with liberalization in Mexico City), Mexico's least restrictive abortion legislation was in PAN-governed Yucatan.

Though, on personal level, there is a very strong very clerical segment in the party, this can't be denied. Deep in the panista heartland, there are quite some dinosaurs both in the ranks and in the lead.

PAN is the party of "liberation theology" - leftist theocracy.

Are they really? Well thats news to me. PAN seems like Mexico's version of the GOP or the Tories, very old fashioned and conservative. I like liberation theology though.

Not exclusively, of course. PAN has the closest ties to the Catholic church, and none of the Mexican parties could be rightfully characterized as anything but left-wing. I would argue that economically, PRI is more to the right than PAN, but this is more because PRI is full of corrupt officials in service to various corporations than because PRI's ideology is more left-wing.

PAN is also less leftist-theocratic than it was a few years ago because, while John Paul II was a strong advocate of liberation theology, Benedict XVI is an opponent of it.

[Bono]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

They promise to expand public health insurance (including everyone born from now on) and are big on subsidizing home-ownership for the working class.  It's actually part of their Catholic "social consciousness". And, until just recently (this changed with liberalization in Mexico City), Mexico's least restrictive abortion legislation was in PAN-governed Yucatan.

Though, on personal level, there is a very strong very clerical segment in the party, this can't be denied. Deep in the panista heartland, there are quite some dinosaurs both in the ranks and in the lead.

PAN is the party of "liberation theology" - leftist theocracy.

Are they really? Well thats news to me. PAN seems like Mexico's version of the GOP or the Tories, very old fashioned and conservative. I like liberation theology though.

Not exclusively, of course. PAN has the closest ties to the Catholic church, and none of the Mexican parties could be rightfully characterized as anything but left-wing. I would argue that economically, PRI is more to the right than PAN, but this is more because PRI is full of corrupt officials in service to various corporations than because PRI's ideology is more left-wing.

PAN is also less leftist-theocratic than it was a few years ago because, while John Paul II was a strong advocate of liberation theology, Benedict XVI is an opponent of it.

John Paul II an advocate of liberation theology? Are you kidding? JPII actually had the balls to go into SOuth America and tell those communists they were wrong.

[Verily]

PAN=Religious Right Theocrats.

Can you name their "theocratic" policies?

They promise to expand public health insurance (including everyone born from now on) and are big on subsidizing home-ownership for the working class.  It's actually part of their Catholic "social consciousness". And, until just recently (this changed with liberalization in Mexico City), Mexico's least restrictive abortion legislation was in PAN-governed Yucatan.

Though, on personal level, there is a very strong very clerical segment in the party, this can't be denied. Deep in the panista heartland, there are quite some dinosaurs both in the ranks and in the lead.

PAN is the party of "liberation theology" - leftist theocracy.

Are they really? Well thats news to me. PAN seems like Mexico's version of the GOP or the Tories, very old fashioned and conservative. I like liberation theology though.

Not exclusively, of course. PAN has the closest ties to the Catholic church, and none of the Mexican parties could be rightfully characterized as anything but left-wing. I would argue that economically, PRI is more to the right than PAN, but this is more because PRI is full of corrupt officials in service to various corporations than because PRI's ideology is more left-wing.

PAN is also less leftist-theocratic than it was a few years ago because, while John Paul II was a strong advocate of liberation theology, Benedict XVI is an opponent of it.

John Paul II an advocate of liberation theology? Are you kidding? JPII actually had the balls to go into SOuth America and tell those communists they were wrong.

Oy. Well, I guess I have a broader definition of liberation theology than you do.