Is the Latin Left Losing?

Mexico’s elections saw the centrist Felipe Calderon elected to the Presidency, in a move that shows the Mexican middle and lower classes are looking ahead to the future. Leftist candidate Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador looked like he would win to me; he was promising too much to a people weary with poverty. Among the goodies promised were a doubling of old-age pensions, elimination of utility costs for the poor, and an across the board 20% raise.

Calderon countered with a frank appraisal that such actions would plunge Mexico into a debt crisis like that seen just a scant 10 years ago, when the peso collapsed due to excesses in the two decades earlier.

Dick Morris and Eileen Mc Gann provide a good analysis at Real Clear Politics HERE! I’m not comfortable enough to say that the Hugo Chavez Effect is gone completely as Morris and Mc Gann alllude, but it is heartening to see the numbers regarding the growth of the middle class in Mexico (up to 40% of the population now).

I haven’t been impressed with Vicente Fox’s progress as reported in the media, and I thought his PAN party had missed its opportunity. But the statistics tell a different story: a growing middle class is the best antidote to Marxism, even if it requires a slide toward a social support system that is more socialistic than free market. And its good to see healthy competition in an election in Mexico. They have come a long way since Fox’s revolutionary win after virtual single party rule in Mexico.

Bueno, muy bueno.