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Mexico's elections weren't about Trump, but it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on

SAN DIEGO -- Ay, Chihuahua!

A lot of U.S. columnists, TV commentators and radio hosts haven't let a little thing like the fact that they know nothing about our neighbor to the south stop them from trying to explain the significance of Mexico's presidential election.

This bitter cocktail of ignorance mixed with arrogance must be what some folks consider "American privilege."

There is no disputing that, by electing Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexicans took a sharp left turn. AMLO, as he is commonly known, is a self-declared socialist who ran as a left-leaning populist who put Mexico first.

The victory was not unexpected. For several months leading up to the election, polls showed strong support for Lopez Obrador and the party he created: El Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional (The National Regeneration Movement), or Morena.

The 64-year-old former mayor of Mexico City won about 53 percent of the vote -- 30 percentage points more than the second-place candidate, Ricardo Anaya.

 

Yet, not long ago, this outcome was unthinkable. After all, Lopez Obrador lost two previous bids for the presidency, in 2006 and 2012. After his first loss, he was ridiculed by the Mexican media for trying to set up a shadow government.

So what changed in such a short time? Some observers will cite the arrival -- on the political stage -- of a cynical carnival barker with a yuuuge knack for treating Mexico like a pinata.

Too many Americans hooked on opioids? Blame Mexico. Trade suffering from an "uneven playing field"? Blame Mexico. Too many immigrants eager to do the chores of everyday Americans? Blame Mexico.

Truth is, from what I've read and heard on Mexican media in recent months, AMLO's win had little to do with Donald Trump. You can see how some people in both countries might have thought otherwise. Not long ago, AMLO compared Trump's way of talking about Mexicans to how Nazis talked about Jews. He has also helped organize protests against hard-line U.S. immigration policies. And he vowed that -- if he were elected -- he would not allow Mexico to do Uncle Sam's dirty work of keeping Mexican immigrants or Central American refugees from crossing north into the United States. But all Mexican politicians talk that way.

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