Fernando Nunez de la Garza Evia: Mexico in the Center of US Political Regression Fernando Nunez de la Garza Evia - Reforma
go to original November 11, 2016

A Mexican newspaper in disbelief over Trump victory (myjoyonline.com)

As an old Chinese curse holds: "May you live in interesting times," and boy are we about to start living in them. Just as there are unique days in people's lives, just as there are historic days in the lives of nations and the world. Tuesday, November 8, 2016, will be one of them, inaugurating the start of a stage of humanity more uncertain and difficult than what many of us probably imagine.

We tend to believe that the history of mankind is a relentless path of progress, with only small stones along the path that are easily removed. There is nothing more wrong: the fall of the Roman Empire meant the advent of a millennia of obscurantism in the West; the collapse of the Han dynasty in China resulted in 800 years of regression; the First World War broke out unexpectedly on July 28, 1914 to the shock of the world, bringing with it nearly half a century of wars that cost tens of millions of lives. Progressive history is not bought, and of this we have been reminded repeatedly.

A nation's political development is no more likely than its political decline. Since its founding in 1787, the history of the United States has been one of continuous progress, but that does not mean it will always be so. Symptoms of decay seen in Western Europe are the same symptoms seen in the leader of the free world: rejection of the free trade tradition, growing inequality and thinning of the middle class, a deep hatred toward the elite and immigration, resentment toward loss of power and status of the white man.

The problem is paradoxically incubated in the West, the very author of stability and world progress. The United States, which has power to make history like no other country, will be led by a man who will take possession of the Oval Office at a time when the Presidency has focused a tremendous amount of power in the face of constant external challenges and internal political paralysis, something that reminds us of the fall of the great empires.

Mexico is located at the center of this unfortunate story. Due to the asymmetry of power between the two countries, the United States has played a central role in the political history of our country, and Mexico has played a marginal role in the political history of the United States. However, we as Mexicans have placed ourselves in the middle of one of the most polarized and momentous elections in the history of our neighboring country in many ways.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexico and Trump: Facing the Challenge (Mexico Voices)

Translated by Leslie Castillo Navia

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico - on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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