Mexico may become more like US: Totalitarian Theocracy

[panzerfaust]

Worth a read:

"Presidential elections: Bringing Mexico closer to God

... return to the political structure of the old days. When ... the president controlled the legislature, judiciary, natural resources, state-run businesses, electoral system, monetary policy and budget and could limit freedom of expression..."

Republicain style democracy just keeps spreading.

[Bridget Burke]

1. Worth a read so it can be debunked....

It's a slam piece against Lopez Obrador--painting him as a dangerous Leftist.

Should Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the front-runner in Mexico's presidential race, emerge victorious on Sunday, it could usher in a form of Latin American leftism as yet unseen: messianic populism. Mexico's fragile democracy could become its first casualty.

Outside of Mexico, people ask which Latin American leader López Obrador most resembles: Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia or Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The truth is that he's not like any of them. He does not have the military stamp of Chávez or the indigenist roots of Morales. Nor is he a born compromiser like Lula who, as some Brazilians say, seems to "know the value of 10 percent." López Obrador always strives for 100 percent. And he has higher models to emulate.

Earlier this year an interviewer asked him what religion he followed. "I'm Catholic, fundamentally Christian," López Obrador responded. "The life and work of Jesus fill me with passion. He, too, was persecuted in his time, spied on by the powerful of his era, and he was crucified."

The Mexican political system has been anti-clerical for a long time. Ever heard of the Cristero Rebellion? (Probably not.) Lopez Obrador said a kind word about Jesus. In fact, Fox was friendlier to the Church than any recent President. But NEITHER of these guys ever indicated any wish for a "theocracy."

Most of this essay deals with all the other accusations against Lopez Obrador. If anyone's got "Republicain style"--it's the writer.

Nothing like a bowl of reheated menudo to start the day!

[havocmom]

2. US becoming more like Mexico - an oligarchy

[raccoon]

3. With a very small middle class, extremes of rich and poor,

and no way out for the poor unless they are the 1 in umpteen million who wins the lottery.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Ah, the "swiftboating" begins: Amlo the "Messiah"!

It's interesting to track these corporate phrase campaigns. I finally tracked the Hugo Chavez as "increasingly authoritarian" or "increasingly dictatorial" phrase back to a corrupt fascist Catholic Cardinal who had to be fired by the Vatican (which never fires anybody) during the Vatican/Italian banks financial scandals of the '80s. Always described as "critics" ("Chavez's critics claim that..."). One Cardinal.

I first picked up on this one--Amlo/"Messiah"--two days ago in the UK Telegraph. It originates with a Wm & Mary professor who wrote a book called "Mexican Messiah." So they trot him out for the salient quote by an "authority" that contradicts 60 million Mexicans, and "balance" this quote, by a well-heeled North American professor in Virginia, with two Amlo supporters who are described as "hero worshipers." See it for yourself:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/28/wmex28.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/28/ixnews.html

Discussion at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2360132

This current item apparently originated in the NYT (that crap rag--really, I hope Herr Bush sends them all to Guantanamo Bay and throws away the key!)--thence to the International Herald Tribune, which actually surprises me. I wonder who bought them out lately. (They were pretty good during the leadup to the Iraq war.)

International Herald Tribune: "Presidential elections: Bringing Mexico closer to God," Enrique Krauze **The New York Times**, Published: June 28, 2006..."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/28/opinion/edkrauze.php

Enrique's been talking to Opus Dei again?

-------------------

Notice the three-fer punch: UK Telegraph, NYT, IHT, all on the "Mexican Messiah" meme, all on the same day, June 28. You gotta laugh.

-------------------

Panzerfaust: Request--please name the source or sources (the news organization), and don't just link. Some of us like to meditate before reading the morning's toilet paper.

------------------

I think it's hilarious how the Latin American politicians are hoisting the Bushites on their own 'christian' petard.