Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on September 11, 2006.
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Monday, September 11, 2006
The endless election
Forgive Mexicans if they feel like they live in a state of permanent campaign. For at least three years, they have lived through official and unofficial campaigns for president that make even the tedious U.S. version look like a blink of the eye.
Not only did the July 2 election not bring an end to the endless campaigning, it ushered in another 10 weeks of even more intense electioneering as the two sides fought to convince voters they had won.
How long can a country, even one filled with news junkies, like Mexico, live on politics alone? Even before the election, many Mexicans sought refuge from the never-ending politicking in the World Cup. (Team Mexico’s quick second-round exit made it a short getaway.) No such collective escape looms on the horizon, except maybe Christmas.
Even this week’s Fiestas Patrias, two days of parties commemorating Mexico’s independence, promises to be soaked in presidential election politics. President Vicente Fox and losing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will give dueling gritos (¡Viva Mexico!), and a military parade will compete with Lopez Obrador’s “national convention� for the public’s attention.
Mexico City columnist Andres Pascoe Rippey probably summed up the feelings of the great middle of Mexican society when he wrote last week: “Many of us are simply fed up with what is happening, which doesn’t mean we are in favor or against anyone in particular. It just means that as a society we are tired of the political spectacle that we are living and living … �