Let me just deviate a moment from American politics and talk about important Mexican politics. For those of you who don't know very much about Mexican Politics, then this will help increase your knowledge and awareness about what is happening politically to the south of us.
First of all, the Political System of Mexico is very similar to the U.S. with a few exceptions. They have their own constitution called, Constitucion Politica de los Estado Unidos Mexicanos or the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. They, like the U.S., also believe in the separation of power and have three branches in which that power is divided:
Executive Branch: headed by the Mexican President
Legislative Branch:The Mexican Congress divided into two houses: Cámara de Disputados [House of Deputies] and Senado de la República [Senate of the Republic]
House of Deputies (Mexican Congress)They have three viable political parties National Action Party (PAN), Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
ANYWAY, that is enough about the structure, let's move on to the good stuff...
Mexico, for a while, was an example of how a democratic country can be very authoritarian. Although they do have 3 viable parties all striving to control the government, for over 70 years the Instituional Revolutianry Party or El PRI (as is locally called) ruled Mexico. Anything the party wanted they would do because they controlled government. Imagine living in the U.S. while the Republican or Democratic Party holds the majority of seats in the Senate, House of Reps., Supreme Court and the Presidency. Mexico was a democratic government ruled by a single party since 1920. I would call it a hybrid between Democratic-Authoritarin government.
It wasn't until Vicente Fox became president in 2000. Fox became president as member of the PAN party. El PRI's domination had finally ended.Fox was President of Mexico until 2006.
The current President of Mexico is Felipe Calderón.
Calderon is a well educated man that graduated from Harvard University in the U.S.Some of the values in which Calderon believes in, from one of his Political Ads when he was running for President:
Translation(I did the translation so mind you if it isn't correct word for word):
"Freinds, we have at play here the future of our children and on July 2nd you decided if you want them to live in country with employment or debt, economic stability or economic crisis, in government transparency and clean hands or corruption. I will be the president of employment and economic stability. With a firm hand and a strong economy we will take Mexico to the future so we can live better."
The manner in which Calderon became president was so controversial that it almost led to the start of a parallel government. Imagine the 2000 U.S. election between Bush and Gore being even closer. Felipe Calderon beat Andres Obrador by a margin of .58%! That is amazing beating someone with margin so small that it is almost useless. Obrador was infuriated that he lost to Calderon by such a small margin and demanded for a vote recount. The Federal Election Institue of Mexico said they would not do a recount because there was no time (pretty much the same reason Justice Scalia demanded the end of the vote recount int Florida during the 2000 U.S. presidential election). Obrador threatened to start a parallel government. Obrador even swore himself as the legitimate Mexican president a few days after Calderon was sworn in a Mexico's legal president.
Click here to read more on Obrador's Parallel Mexican Government
Throughout this crazy controversy and accusations, Felipe Calderon kept his composure and went on with his business as Mexican President. The anger which Obrador had seems to have cooled down, we haven't heard (ar at least the media hasn't written/published/broadcasted about) Andres Obrador lately.
The Arizona Republic Newspaper has recently written an article saying that Calderon is Mexico's revolutionary and "courageous leader." The newspaper states that Mexico is facing problems that the U.S. faced when they were progressing socially and economically. The AZ Republic states that Calderon has the personality to lead Mexico through the problems it faces.
In Calderon's term in office, so far, he has attacked the drug cartels and the corruption of the Mexican police. Calderon is taking huge steps to raise the legitimacy of the Mexican government and to make people believe in the laws. Calderon is asking for U.S. aid in helping with drug cartels near the border. The problem, however, is that Calderon knows that the U.S tends to get too involved in the government of other countries and he does not want the U.S. to intervene in Mexican affairs except those dealing with the end of drug trafficking. Calderon has also sent military official to Tijuana and border cities to try and enforce laws and end police corruption.
I honestly like Felipe Calderon, although he may have some very conservative beliefs (such as opposing abortion, euthanasia, contraception and gay marriage) he does, however, have very liberal views when it comes to economy. This is common in members of the PAN party.
I have decided to make Felipe Calderon my favorite conservative, because (as I stated above) he took on Mexico's biggest problems. Hopefully the country will see development during his years in office. His Presidential term ends in 2012.
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