(Thanks, v. :)

Reader v. writes:

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Remembering Mexico to understand the USA

When I was a young man back in the 1960’s I decided to specialize and become a businessman in Latin America. Seemed exciting. Which it was. So I began to read up on my new home.

I quickly learned that the most important and powerful country (at that time) was Mexico. The other countries seemed to emulate Mexico in everything. So I studied up on Mexico.

This huge and diverse country was run by a democratic government. There was no middle class, just the working class and the wealthy. They had a stable government. They has political stability. They had a two party electoral system. But the working class fared poorly, while the wealthy class seemed protected. Yet everybody seemed content.

It all seemed to be too good to be true. With a little more poking on my part, I found out why.

The wealthy class was quite separate from everybody else, and was referred to as the oligarchy. The system operated quite simply; the oligarchy controlled the two political parties; they picked the two candidates (who were always from the oligarchy, naturally), and then the general public got to fight it out in a general election to see who won.

But the oligarchy, having selected both candidates, never really cared. They had won before the election ever started. And their agenda of protecting their wealth and power never got threatened.

So what is my point?

This Donald Trump thing has flung in our face the uncomfortable fact that the USA is now operating the same way as did Mexico. Trump-the-outsider has stripped away the myth of our democratic system. Now OUR OLIGARCHY chooses our candidates.

If we permit this, we will be giving away our freedoms, slowly but surely.

Hmmmm, I wonder what the American public will do?

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