It may seem surreal at first glance to suggest there are similarities between the Tea Party and the movement of Mexico’s left-wing political maverick Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). The former supports socially conservative values and rolling back the state in the United States and the latter is a Mexican socialist intent on creating a people’s government.
Nevertheless, the two movements have a common thread: both are anti status quo and rally against the political establishment on their respective side of the border via a grassroots movement.
The rapidly developing Tea Party feeds ravenously off what it perceives as the rotten Washington political corpse and they organize themselves from the bottom up.
Although the end goal is widely different, Lopez Obrador is hoping to feed the flames of political discontent within Mexico and present himself as the man with the alternative agenda to bring hope to the nation. Lest we forget, this is a man who was on the doorstep of the presidential palace in 2006 before the door was slammed in his face. Lopez Obrador lost by less than 250,000 votes. He cried foul, saying the election was corrupt and swore himself in as the “Legitimate President.” He then held mass protests in Mexico City, bringing millions out onto the streets.
In hindsight, that was a bad decision.
“What was he playing after the election? Why didn’t he just let it slide and focus on the next one?” are two common responses when you ask Mexicans about AMLO.
Support for AMLO dropped like a lead balloon as he became increasingly isolated politically.
Since then, AMLO has worked and traveled harder and further than perhaps any other Mexican politician and is fronting a new movement that is hoping to win the presidency in 2012.
In Guadalajara late last year to personally receive an update of how “the movement” is progressing in Jalisco, AMLO seemed to have thrown off the shackles of any constraint he may have felt in representing a broad liberal/left wing coalition in 2006 and now speaks directly to his core supporters. He calls the Mexican elite a mafia, slams neoliberalism, the mainstream media and says the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) are one and the same and govern in the interest of a minority while the majority of Mexican citizens remain poor. AMLO is also highly critical of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) – under whose banner he ran for president – and accuses its leaders of treason for creating political alliances with the PAN in several Mexican states.
The aim of AMLO’s movement in the buildup to 2012 is to create a nationwide network of supporters. He wants one representative for each of the 2,438 municipalities in the country and then a further representative for each neighborhood in the municipality. With that, he believes, other parties won’t be able to steal the 2012 election from him.
To achieve this, Lopez Obrador has toured the country continually since 2006, keeping his core supporters motivated and trying to generate new ones. He arrived in Guadalajara on a Saturday afternoon during his last visit after a similar event in Colima in the morning. Internet savvy, AMLO is also one of the most fervent users of Facebook and Twitter in Mexican politics. A YouTube speech is updated on a weekly basis to inform supporters. In addition, he has set up a free newspaper called “Regeneracion,” which his network of supporters distribute, as he says, to balance the negative image he receives from the mainstream media.
The result of the work has clearly rejuvenated his support. To many, AMLO is like a religious figure. The assembled light up when he enters the room in Guadalajara and spark into chants such as, “It’s an honor to be with Obrador,” and the ever popular “presidente, presidente.”
AMLO keeps his faith close to his chest although he is widely believed to be a Presbyterian. His rhetoric has a subtle religious tone too, not just directed at overturning the status quo. Getting people to “wake up,” give them “hope” and “be honest” is part of AMLO’s appeal.
Take this quote from his speech in Guadalajara: “We are fighting for our moral and cultural values. There are so many Mexicans who wake up and think they having nothing to live for. They live without hope.”
The basis of the hope spelled out in his books is that there is no need for Mexicans to be poor — just look at the wealth of natural resources abundant in the country, he points out.
Many of AMLO’s supporters are clearly living on the bread line and are eager to thank him for his efforts on their behalf. But the news during his recent trip to Guadalajara wasn’t entirely good. Many of his workers around the state reported difficulties in garnering new support.
AMLO asked for a redoubling of efforts and for every one of his supporters to convert five others. He calculates that he has the support of 20 percent of Mexicans at present and that if each one of those converts five others he can win the presidency in 2012.
The problem is that AMLO’s name is, rightly or wrongly, tainted in the eyes of many Mexicans. The PRD has a new darling who is likely to be given a shot at the presidency: Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. If both end up running in 2012, the result is very likely to cause a big split of the left wing, liberal vote in Mexico, which would hand power to either the PRI or the ruling PAN.
In that lies a lesson that the Tea Party might be wise to heed: don’t stray too far away from the Republicans or the consequences may come back to bite.
No comments:
Post a Comment