OUR PRESIDENT in Mexico has a problem with the Kung Flu. At the outset, he basically said don’t fret about it, and he continued trekking around the nation, hugging and kissing everyone within reach. He loves to connect with his people.
And, sadly, his people love it too.
At times he seems to take Kung Flu seriously, other times, no. Just a couple of days ago, he announced the problem was resolved. So go about your business.
While his medical appointees have advocated the usual recommendations of social distancing and staying at home, as do most governors and mayors, our president says the people are wise and know what is best. Stay at home if you wish. Or don’t.
Make up your own mind. You are wise.
Meanwhile, his medical spokesman, Dr. Hugo López-Gatell, holds obligated (by the president) daily news briefings, and the president later contradicts him.
The president also stages daily press briefings, something he’s done every weekday at 7 a.m. since he was inaugurated in December 2018. Every freaking weekday. He loves to talk, and he loves to be on camera. He often rambles, and he compares himself with Benito Juárez, the indigenous president (1861-72) and national hero.
Reporters during his morning news conferences at times ask him difficult questions. If he doesn’t like where the issue is going, his standard response is that he has “other information,” and that’s the end of that.
He inherited a presidential plane, which he’s never used, preferring to fly commercial with “the people.” This creates issues for other passengers who sometimes just get off the flight entirely because they worry about security issues.
While many Mexicans love him, others decidedly do not.
Like Bernie Sanders, he’s fond of “free stuff,” and the people who get his “free stuff” just love him all the more. His party controls the legislative branch, and I fully expect him to have the constitution changed to make reelection possible.
Currently, Mexican presidents are limited to one six-year term.
President for Life? Sounds good, and the people are dumb enough to do it. He’s always speaking of “the poor,” “the poor,” “the poor,” which is well known as the cock-a-doodle-do of that fowl called the Common Demagogue.
Our president has been bad news for Mexico. Here are just two examples. One, he canceled a new and much-needed Mexico City airport that was almost completed. It would have been a financial boon to the entire nation.
Another is that he canceled the education reform that was under way. The public education system here is bad and corrupt. Teachers, on retiring, can hand their jobs over to friends and family, no qualifications required.
Our president caved to teacher unions that are famed for corruption and violence.
Both the new airport and the education reform were initiated under the previous administration, and our president hates with a blue passion all things done by previous presidents. He absolutely loathes them, something he often makes clear during his rambling morning news conferences.
And then there is Pemex, the national oil company. International rating agencies have reduced Pemex bonds to junk status.
It brings to mind the quote of H.L. Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Megalomania: A symptom of mental illness marked by delusions of greatness.