He is a castoff, passed over and recycled. The toughest part is yet to come. Governing is more difficult than protesting. How the next few years play out in Mexico will be of immense importance to the U.S., since this neighbor is one of our largest trading partners. We can best help by supporting Mexico's own efforts toward economic, social and political reform and by rejecting the attempts of some of our politicians and media to cast this largely admirable and complex country in one-dimensional terms.
Free trade is behind the worst aspects of Mexico's current crisis.
I hope for the sake of all the regular folks in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. that the Cardenas victory will at least begin a period of questioning the idolatry of the international free market. I do not blame the entrenched P.R.I. or any other political party for Mexico's economic and political struggle. I blame myself and all the other Mexican people who gave up constitutional rights when we began to believe that corruption and favoritism were stronger than our individual voices and the power of the ballot. I wish I had been able to ask Cardenas some questions during his campaign. I hope the July elections cause Mexicans to move toward a new democratic era.