Posted on 07/07/2009 3:20:12 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
The former ruling party appears set to govern the nation again after winning in Congress and leading gubernatorial races in two states deemed to be strongholds of the PAN, President Calderon's party.
Reporting from Mexico City -- It was an old-style landslide for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which used to rule Mexico from top to bottom.
The party's hopes for once again ruling Mexico soared Monday after official tallies confirmed a sweeping nationwide victory in midterm elections a day earlier.
In addition to a win in Congress, the party, known as the PRI, held leads in five of six governorships, including two in states that had seemed securely under the control of the conservative party of Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
"The PRI Crushes the President," blared the daily Milenio newspaper.
The PRI came up short on an outright majority in the lower house of Congress, known as the Chamber of Deputies. But it should be able to command the legislative agenda by joining hands with smaller parties.
The big loser was Calderon's National Action Party, which was hurt by the economic slowdown and a relatively low turnout that favored the PRI's seasoned get-out-the-vote machine.
The outcome will make it harder for Calderon to steer his legislative agenda, which includes proposed tax reforms and crime-fighting laws, during his three remaining years as president. The PAN has the most seats in the Senate, but not a majority.
During the campaign, the PAN sought to keep the spotlight off the country's economic troubles by emphasizing Calderon's 2 1/2 -year-old crackdown on drug traffickers.
But fretful voters sought reassurance in the PRI, which played up its long governing experience while repackaging itself as a modern party that had shed a corrupt and authoritarian past.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Stability.
PAN is the most "nationalist" of Mexico's three parties, which means it's the most anti-American, IMO. Mexicans consider PAN to be a "conservative" party solely because of its historic ties to the Catholic church. In theory that should make them at least socially conservative, but I've never seen any of their "leaders" lift a finger to speak out against abortion, gay marriage, etc., etc.
The so-called "conservative" PAN has failed Mexico, and IMO, deserves to lose. France has had similar experiences with their allegedly "conservative" UMP Party. Their leaders having basically been the foreign version of the RINOs, since they often govern further left than the "left wing" parties they defeat.
When voters have to choose between two candidates with liberal policies, they'll go for the honest liberal and not the phony pretend conservative.
And the PRI is considered a "centrist" party anyway. No big loss.
Mexico had gone into the crapper since the PAN took over and the people know that.
"And the PRI is considered a "centrist" party anyway."
I wouldn't agree with those statements. I'd be shocked if PAN wasn't the least anti-American of the 3 parties.
Perhaps it's more of a what they'd call in Europe a "Christian Democrat" party than what we would call "Conservative". Making Mexico a lot like France and Massachusetts.
PRI is left of center (and way left of the American center) and corrupt to the core. Aka the rat party.
Both parties encourage illegal immigration so in that vein this doesn't matter to us although I'm sure PRI's more leftist economic agenda will only escalate poverty. Any movement to the center by them since losing power is 60% marketing and 40% facing the reality that most people don't want economic reforms reversed.
Unfortunately only the far left PRD party doesn't want half of Mexico to move here. Would we want them to win just on that one issue that happens to be by far the most meaningful to us?
The PAN politicians pretend to be our buddy more (remember when Bush and Fox were both elected back in Fall 2000 and marched around like "best amigos"), but PAN is MUCH more aggressive than the PRI is coming to the U.S. and arrogantly telling us what to do -- and using political pressure to demand it. I don't remember any of the PRI presidents touring to the U.S., buttering up RINOs and Dems behind closed doors, and demanding we repeal the death penalty laws here like Fox and Calderon routinely do. Also, compare Mexico's actions in Gulf War I (pretend they support us and then do absolutely nothing) to Gulf War II (denounce the Iraq War constantly and do everything to undermine our success) During the PRI era, Mexico's leaders generally laid low and kept to themselves, only emerging in the U.S. when they wanted to beg for favors or sign a trade deal. During the PAN era, Mexico's leaders are in-your-face, activists trying make third world Mexico a "leader" in the world stage.
>> Perhaps it's more of a what they'd call in Europe a "Christian Democrat" party than what we would call "Conservative". Making Mexico a lot like France and Massachusetts. <<
From what I've seen, PAN's politicians portray themselves as "devout Catholics", the way Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, and Joe Biden portray themselves as a "devout Catholic". They merely use their religion as a tool to get votes, while rejecting everything the church teaches.
>> PRI is left of center (and way left of the American center) and corrupt to the core. Aka the rat party. <<
PRI has become a lot more centrist over the years since the socialist kook wing left and formed the PRD. They are indeed corrupt to the core (by far the most corrupt of the three parties, and also the best at GOTV efforts) and have no other principle that doing whatever it takes to hold office. Since Mexico was a one party system for many years like the old south and modern day Chicago, PRI politicians span a wide range on the political spectrum. You will find PRI politicians who are strongly pro-life and anti-illegal alien, for example. The one politician who denounced Fox's "export my citizens" policies more loudly than anyone else in Mexico was a PRI member of Congress.
>> Both parties encourage illegal immigration so in that vein this doesn't matter to us although I'm sure PRI's more leftist economic agenda will only escalate poverty. Any movement to the center by them since losing power is 60% marketing and 40% facing the reality that most people don't want economic reforms reversed. <<
Indeed they both do, my point is the PRI are a bunch of power-hungry, greedy crooks who can be dealt with and generally stay out of U.S. affairs.
>> Unfortunately only the far left PRD party doesn't want half of Mexico to move here. Would we want them to win just on that one issue that happens to be by far the most meaningful to us? <<
Depends. The PDR are freakin' commies (though they won't admit it), and we know what commies do to ensure their citizens won't escape communism. From a conservative viewpoint living inside Mexico, the PDR would be a worst case scenario, but from a conservative viewpoint outside Mexico, a PDR regime would force the U.S. border states to wake up and stop playing nice with these third world crooks. I suppose it depends on how long the PDR is in power. 4 years would be a wakeup call. 50 years would create a disastrous Vietnam-style Republic right next door.
In short there are no good options because all three parties in Mexico suck. But having PAN is power is like having Chafee in Rhode Island and the alternatives are either an crooked Democrat slime or a completely unhinged Green Party loon. None of the candidates are acceptable, but at the very least we should root for the marxist on "our" team to lose. Conservatives who do the other side's dirty work for them are the worse.
What was so sickening to me was that in the last Mexican Presidential election, the Communist candidate was the only one who addressed the issue of fleeing illegals to the U.S.A. and wanting to do something to curtail it and keep them in Mexico. How bad is it when the Communist is on the right side and the so-called Conservative on the wrong side ? The illegals in the U.S.A. voting was quite telling, supposely they voted for a solid majority for Calderon. I can’t claim to root for any of the parties in Mexico. But PAN’s solution is clear, they want to solve their social problems by sending the “problem” northward.
Conejo, Do you have a link for that? I seriously doubt that was the case, given that the far-left PRD candidate (Andrés Manuel López Obrador) was not only much closer to Hugo Chavez's views, he was also polling much higher than than the PRI candidate and more likely to win the election. PRI's candidate Roberto Madrazo was pretty much a sacrifical lamb in 2006 and didn't win a single state in Mexico. There would be no reason for Hugo Chavez to fund his candidacy.
>> PRI nationalized the oil industry, the banks, and built a industrial protection system that locked out foreign companies forcing them to create majority Mexican controlled subsidiaries <<
By the same token, I could make a good case that the "leftist" PRI is more socially conservative than the "right-wing" PAN. It was under PAN that the "morning-after" pill was legalized, and the first law establishing civil unions in Mexico. It was under the PRI that abortion was outlawed in Mexico and only traditional marriage was allowed. PAN is also far worst on globalist issues like a shared national currency. Even more bizarre, the political parties are reverse of U.S. parties on law and order issues. PAN not only opposes the death penalty, but even life in prison for dangerous murders. PRI supports tougher crime laws and is willing to consider bringing back the death penalty. The far-left Mexican Green Party is the opposite of its U.S. counterpart, it has pushed for public referendums so the public (who support the death penalty) will force Mexico to bring back capital punishment. There's a similar case with alot of the "right-wing/left-wing" political parties in Europe. The so-called "right-wing" parties there are far more pro-UN/EU than their "left-wing" counterparts.
Fieldmarshaldj is also correct, if you look at the "absentee" vote on Mexicans abroad, PAN overwhemingly won the votes of Mexicans in the U.S., and the areas they won were the parts of the U.S. where the DEMOCRAT party is the strongest. Kinda odd for Mexico's "right wing" party to be so popular there, wouldn't you say?
I was right when I said Mexico was far less active in "world affairs" and intrusive in U.S. policy during the PRI era. They've become extremely cocky since Fox took power:
Before Vicente Fox's arrival, Mexican governments were not as active in advocating for issues that concerned the Mexican community inside the United States. In contrast, Fox has advocated, for example, for the pardon of U.S. death-row inmates of Mexican origin. Nor did previous Mexican administrations make much noise when Mexican nationals were killed on the U.S. side of the border -- they did protest, but not with Fox's volume.
http://www.stratfor.com/u_s_immigration_debates_fallout_mexico
Considering we practically have a "mini-Mexico" within our nation with the amount of Mexicans abroad, I'm very concerned about Mexico imposing their "values" on this country.
Bottom line is that Mexico is screwed no matter what party wins, but for the sake of conservatism I hope Fox's party loses for the same reason I hoped Topinka and Chafee were run out of town. Mexico will never embrace conservatism as long as the current crooks are the face of the movement. They have run that country into the ground.
No. As a mater of fact I'm mistaken. It was the PRD candidate that was accused of being funded by Chavez.
Vicente Fox was called the John McCain of PAN, so I thought Calderon would be better, just as I thought about Sarko in France. Wrong on both counts (despite a certain freeper’s insistence about Sark).
RINO/Chicago Rat/Militant! Green is an apt summary of Mexico’s parties.
That country is in some sorry state. Potentially they could be a first-world country, but they’re going the other way fast. So much for the hope that I remember being propagated by publications like the National Review back when Fox was elected.
And that drug war....
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