Posted on 07/06/2006 4:32:07 PM PDT by SmithL
MEXICO CITY -- Conservative Felipe Calderon's apparent victory could signal that the leftist tide sweeping Latin America has reached its high-water mark, as voters frightened by the radicalism of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez seek refuge in more mainstream ideas across the region.
That trend has emerged with Mexico's presidential vote count Thursday, the setback dealt to Bolivian President Evo Morales in a referendum Sunday, Peruvian moderate Alan Garcia's victory over Chavez ally Ollanta Humala last month and the landslide re-election of Colombian conservative Alvaro Uribe in May.
Intolerance, confrontation, messianic attitudes and stridency — once staples of Latin America's left — are proving less attractive than leaders who can provide stability and strengthen historically weak institutions, like the separation of powers, independent central banks and judiciaries.
Manuel Camacho Solis, an adviser to leftist Mexican candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said a month before the election that avoiding class polarization was the key to the campaign. Indeed, the campaign became polarized, and Lopez Obrador lost.
"More than 50 percent of Mexicans are center, or conservative, so you can't hope to have a very pure leftist government in Mexico," Camacho Solis said. "What society wants is a progressive government, a broad alliance. It doesn't want a class-division thing."
The "leftist tide" idea likely oversimplifies by tossing Indian-rights movements, radicals and moderates into the same boat. The right hasn't exactly gained a mandate, and most of the region's leftist presidents haven't abandoned the market-oriented policies that have improved their economies, even as they assert political independence from Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Now if we could only get the leftist tide to ebb here in the US!
Haven't you noticed? It IS ebbing.
Conservativism is growing. These liberal fanatics have NOT helped the cause of the Democratic Party.
God Bless America!
Calderon won by a fraction of a percent in a three-way race against two other parties. He doesn't have a majority, and he doens't control congress. So I wouldn't get too carried away congratulating ourselves over the defeat of Chavez.
Morales just won, and he won basically by holding the country hostage, and got away with it. Humala didn't do too badly in Peru, and since he's already been involved in one military mutiny, its not beyond him to try again. Ecuador elected a Chavist, overthrew him, but now the replacement government seems to be heading down Chavez' road.
Chavez is backing Ortega in Nicaragua, who has a shot at victory later this year. He has friends in the palaces of Brasil, Argentina, and Uruguay (not to mention the DNC).
I don't expect deep analysis from AP, which is a good thing, because thats not the business they are in.
Not as deeply disappointed as Lopez-Obrador's number #1 supporter, Gold Hat.
"Ballots ? We don't need no stinkin' ballots ! This election is ours !"
(With deepest apologies to the late Señor Alfonso Bedoya)
The communist guy looks like Sen. Hagel!!
"The communist guy looks like Sen. Hagel!!"
You're right they do look somewhat similar, and on some issues they act alike.
However, Obrador, for all his hideous warts, tells it like it is. He's a committed mexican bolshevik. Hagel on the other hand, is a devious, deceitful guy who refuses to come out of the leftwing closet.
Their panties must be too tight....
Be careful. Conservatism means different things in different societies. And, depending on the society and situation, not all conservatives are the good guys.
Example: Wahabbi Islamists are ultra conservatives.
Is it just me, or does the crowd on the left seem muted compared to the one on the right?
Leftist administrations are totally shut out from North America (Canada, US, and Mexico). Leftists are deeply depressed.
"Is it just me, or does the crowd on the left seem muted compared to the one on the right?"
You're right. The crowd on the left looks downright morose, as leftists tend to be by nature. The conservatives on the right have a zest for life, they are animated for their candidate. I'm so happy for the Mexican people. One party rule by socialists for most of the twentieth century and this is where it has brought them...abject poverty for many of their fellow Mexicans. The socialists had their chance, their opportunity and they blew it. Now they have Calderon, who wants to transform Mexico into a bastion of capitalism. The left is not going to be happy, just as they are not happy here where Bush has cut taxes and unleashed the power of the market to lift people out of poverty and into the middle and upper classes. VIVA MEXICO! VIVA CALDERON!!
Exactly... and even self-professed "conservatives" are not always very conservative... (E.g., someone who pushes a Big Nanny-State Government to enforce so-called Conservative issues is not truly conservative in my book.)
Call for rally stirs fears of unrest in Mexico
FinancialTimes.com | 7/6/06 | Adam Thomson
Posted on 07/06/2006 7:12:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661606/posts
The "leftist tide" idea likely oversimplifies by tossing Indian-rights movements, radicals and moderates into the same boat.Uh, no it doesn't. Number one, there are (by definition) no leftist moderates. What ninny wrote this op-ed?
The only thing that the label "conservative" means, when used in a news story, is that the lame stream media doesn't like the person or group to whom it is applied.
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