Trump and Sheinbaum use Opposite Approaches to Achieve Similar Results

As in many things, fear in American politics sells. Americans seemingly can’t get enough of it. They love voting for people that remind them of who it is they should be afraid of, and why they should be afraid of them. They also very much appreciate being reminded that it is those same people who are responsible for all the bad things in their lives, and the lives of their loved ones. Typically these people are foreigners, though sometimes other Americans with different political viewpoints fill in as the fear based objects of choice. If you are wondering how it is I know that Americans really love these things, it is simple, because the people that espouse fear based politics get elected over and over again to a variety of government offices, up to and including presidents of the United States. In fact the easiest way to get elected to political office in the United States is to run on an agenda of be afraid, be very afraid. Professional politicians like the newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump understand and appreciate this fact about the American people, and they exploit it to their advantage whenever necessary to achieve their objectives. It is a highly effective strategy, in the short, and even medium term. Unfortunately for everyone, it is generally epically disastrous in the long term, but who thinks about the long term these days? Not Americans that is for damn sure.

Like Donald Trump, Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected President of Mexico, is also a professional politician. Unlike Trump, the electorate in her country does not respond to fear-based politics as readily. My belief is that this is mostly because they already have enough to be afraid of in their daily lives in their own country, so fear of foreigners is simply not a luxury they are afforded. Moreover, there just aren’t that many foreigners in Mexico. In fact, Mexico is one of the most racially and ethnically homogeneous large countries I have ever spent a considerable amount of time in. The poor in Mexico, who represent the vast majority, believe Sheinbaum is in the pocket of big business and the wealthy and only cares about their interests. Meanwhile, the rich think she is a secret communist. Strangely however both groups of voters supported her and her party by large margins in the last election. It is quite a neat trick to be distrusted by both the rich and poor yet still gain the majority of their votes. No one really seems to know what either Trump or Scheinbaum actually believe about almost any topic. Heck, at this point, they may not even know. That said, they will say they believe exactly what their base needs and wants them to believe in order to achieve those things which they actually want to achieve. For Trump that is mostly to stay in power so he can stay out of jail, and for Scheinbaum that is to stay in power so she and her party can stay in power and continue to be in the drivers seat in shaping the future of Mexico.

In my humble opinion, so far new Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has been a rockstar in her response to the moves of the Trump administration. All of her statements on the matter have been fact based, devoid of any heated rhetoric, and carefully constructed to avoid adding any flame to an already heated situation. Most importantly however, they have succeeded in making me feel better about the situation, a thing no one else has been able to accomplish. She points out rightly that Trump said and did almost the identical stuff in 2018 including the declaration of a national emergency and threat to bring in troops. No troops were ever sent. That ploy turned out to be a masterfully designed fake out intended to get funding for the border wall approved, which it succeeded in doing. It is classic Trump. Scare the shit out of everyone, most especially your base, by appealing to the lowest common denominator (fear of the foreign/alien), and use that fear to get what you really want. In this case, that was funding for a very unpopular and stupid wall that that has zero impact on illegal immigration, but is a massive eyesore and major pain in the ass for those of us who have to live in its shadow.