Posted on 07/08/2006 3:55:16 PM PDT by jennivinson
A Casa Divided By Jenni Vinson Trejo July 8, 2006
The 2006 Presidential election in Mexico has come and gone. In March of this year, I wrote an editorial entitled, “The Why Of It All”, about how this election in Mexico was affecting America. We had a vested interest in watching out for who would be our neighbor’s next leader since one of the candidates, Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a staunch Communist.
I asserted then that Lopez-Obrador is allied and supported by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba. Having Lopez-Obrador win the Presidency in Mexico could well usher in a Communist Union of Latin American states much like what the USSR used to be, except this Union would be right next door to us.
In March, Lopez-Obrador had a very comfortable lead, being 10 points in the polls above the candidate, Felipe Calderón, who was backed by outgoing President Vicente Fox’s Party. A lot changed between March and the elections held on July 2nd. It was rumored among the politicos in America that Vicente Fox had called in a serious hired gun to run the faltering campaign for his party.
The PRI political party had monopolized Mexico’s government for more than 80 years. The PRI had solidified in power through coercive and corrupt activities. Vicente Fox was the able to break through the stronghold of the PRI with the help of the man who ushered Bill Clinton into the national limelight, Dick Morris.
Morris was able to make (a sort of) silk purse out of a sow’s ear in getting the Clinton’s elected to two Presidential terms. He’s a miracle worker! He trumps Karl Rove’s political expertise because Morris is ruthless and capable of seeing a campaign through to victory at all costs.
Although it is a rumor, it makes sense that Vicente Fox would have called in Morris to help his party turn the tide of the Mexico campaign. Mexico was saturated with ads and inuendos about how ruthless, Communist and detached from the rule of law, Lopez-Obrador really was. It’s this run for the fear factor that makes me think that Morris has a hand in this campaign.
Lopez-Obrador had been the mayor of Mexico City, so he did have political and leadership experience and he was well known to a large population of Mexicans. While he claimed he was inspired by Ghandi and Franklin D. Roosevelt, when it came to formulating a plan for his bid for Mexico’s Presidency, he molded himself after Fidel Castro, riling the poor and disenfranchised.
Lopez-Obrador reached out to the masses and promised them power. He gave the masses a voice and a promise and a hope that they would finally be noticed by their government and that they would finally be fed, clothed and educated. They had suffered for almost a century under the corrupt rule of the PRI and Vicente Fox’s six-year administration had been able to make things much better for them. Dire poverty and substandard living conditions are exactly why they leave their country in groves to commute in to America for work.
Lopez-Obrador told Mexico’s masses that Mexico would be their country again; a country that would seek to elevate everyone and not simply encourage them to risk their lives to immigrate illegally into America to support a corrupt government by providing them with government printed comic books that feature the illegal immigrant as a hero or by issuing illegal immigrants maps and instructions for how to break into America.
Lopez-Obrador lost the election. It was close and he is screaming for a re-count, but the government of Mexico does not allow for that. Felipe Calderon is the new President of Mexico and all seems to have ended well, but I contend that Mexico’s problems have just begun and our fate is as always, closely tied to this neighbor. The poor will not go quietly into the good night after having come so close to emancipation.
From here on in, Mexico will be a Casa or a house divided. Lopez-Obrador will continue to be the leader of the masses and perhaps we will see the revolution that overturned Cuba play out in Mexico. I sure hope the masses in Mexico remember how the poor masses in Cuba faired. After decades of Castro’s government, the only Cuban who got rich was Castro who has over 9 billion dollars stashed away in Swiss accounts. The rest of the Cubans have their entire lives on a strict rationing.
But for Mexico, the questions remaining are what role will the “revolutionist” masses who are illegally in America play in this new divided Mexico and what will come of any resolve our government musters in sending the majority of them back to Mexico. The stage has been set, but the play to be acted out is not quite clear yet.
I’m Jenni Vinson Trejo. A Casa Divided is my opinion. Thank you for listening
Well done, Jenni. However Calderon turns out, at least he does not give Chavez a beach head in Mexico. If Obrador really spoils for a fight, I hope Calderon has what it takes to prosecute him and crush his movement.
Don't forget that a lot of cooling off goes on over a six-year period.
Hopefully, Karl Rove can help the PAN develop a more sophisticated get-out-the-vote strategy next time, and win over some of those old PRI votes.
Karl Rove's main talent is taking an election that should be a walk off home run and turn it into a screaming roller coaster ride on greased tracks with the safeties off and the breaks removed.
Bush should have lost in 2004 after his first debate performance. I think it's amazing that he won.
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