Antonio Navalón
Seeing how the big names in national politics run and act; those who are part of the government, the Senate, the Party currently in power, or who are close to the President of the Republic, is something a bit endearing. Between performances and fights, these public servants and officials are putting on a show that – in the best of cases and being kind – could be equated to a war of lies but that – in the worst scenario and being a little more objective – actually resembles more a kind of video game warfare. They all ask for the same thing: a level playing field. And they do so by looking up to the clouds hoping that someone – which we all know who it is – will establish a dynamic of identical conditions and in which everyone has the same possibilities. However, despite the resignations of 2000 and 2006, despite the appointment of Claudia Sheinbaum as head of Mexico City, and despite all that we have lived through, we are still waiting for – somewhere someplace – an entity to appear that will determine what will happen. Someone who, acting democratically, will establish who is the ideal candidate to replace – if he could be replaced – President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
In the first place, it strikes me that everyone wants to play a game in which – being optimistic – they will only have the opportunity to participate under the rules and interests that suit the President at the time. Secondly, I like it very much, and I find it tender that they all raise their eyes to the heavens, to the gods, and ask for democracy. However, they forget that democracy is a set of measures, laws, rules, and situations in which specific rules of the game are agreed upon to compete and – under similar conditions – seek the best to win.
In Morena, the word “poll” is a cursed term. First, because polls – as we all know by now – are only the product of an emotional moment. Second, because in any case, it is easier to control a poll than a primary. Third, because at the end of the day, we do not want to, nor can we, agree to -if it were possible- come up with a program or an alternative plan to the one developed by the Mexican President during his attempt to consolidate the Fourth Transformation.
Nobody talks about programs because it is forbidden and because there is no other program than the one established by the 4T. To say otherwise would be like saying that God is not the same as Allah or that Mohammed was not a prophet. No one can raise anything indefinitely. Everything has to be referred to the first element of the process, which consists of how they will choose us to compete and aspire to be candidates to the Presidency of Mexico. But about the contents, about what we offer, about self-criticism, about the sense of improving what exists and rectifying what has gone wrong, it is not possible to issue any word or action about that. To do so would not only be an act of political irreverence, but it would be committing a political sacrilege.
It’s sweet to think and see how men and women in their fifties and sixties still behave as if they were eight-year-olds. At the end of the day it seems that, besides waiting for the rules of the game to be determined and for everyone to start from the same place, they are defining what their true capabilities are and what they really have to offer to the country and their Party. Listening to the statements of Ricardo Monreal, Marcelo Ebrard, and even the non-declarations of Claudia Sheinbaum and seeing them all going from one place to another, it is difficult for me not to imagine that all this is a kind of simulation and dress rehearsal in which they have to be extremely attentive since, if they commit sacrilege or irreverence, they may be eliminated by the same selection process. However, if there is one thing the country is not ready for and will not be able to bear any longer, it is yet another internal struggle that will only fragment a deeply divided society.
This time we are really facing an unprecedented situation since it is not only that it is not enough to reinvent history or destroy the parties that forged history. It is also a matter of demonstrating that three years before the election, it is possible to put everyone on the tightrope without anyone complaining. This is where we find ourselves. It is clear who the contenders are. It is clear what they are asking for and what the Supreme Leader is asking of them. What is not clear is whether what they have to offer will be enough to get the ultimate honor. But at the end of the day, it’s all a game. And in every game, there is always the possibility of winning it all or, on the contrary, being left in the race to oblivion. At the end of the day, humankind always remembers the victors; the rest are just characters forgotten in the trunk of memories.
In Morena – if it really exists as anything more than an ideal – silence reigns. The survey continues to be the great guillotine of national selection. In a campaign to determine who will be the presidential candidate, which seems to last a century and begins three years before the contest, I wonder to what, or rather, why do the candidates participate? Perhaps because they have no other solution? Or probably it is because we have reached such a point of a monopoly of power that either you show yourself and truly show that you still exist, or you will simply be crushed by the rules that day after day and morning after morning are dictated according to the wishes of the Supreme Chief.
Having thirty million votes to support you gives you a kind of unlimited power. Never before has a Mexican politician been able to experience something equal or similar. The problem is that if that power is not used well, dear reader, you can be sure that it will be many years – perhaps decades – before someone will again obtain that level of trust in the form of votes.
I am a believer, and I confess that I will do everything to continue believing. I believed in the historic opportunity that was supposed to begin on July 1, 2018. I thought that, after the Regeneration Movement and the moral updating of the country, there would be a solid Party with a future. I was one of those who believed that we would live in a world where the President would understand that the only way to exercise the office effectively is to let a government exist. I believed that history would be different, with that strength, resolve, and moral authority – which candidate López Obrador undoubtedly had. I even assumed that there would be a more promising vision for 2024. I don’t want to wonder aloud – nor do I want you to – where is the Party, the government, or the rules. I don’t want to do that because the only clear thing is that tomorrow morning when the Sun rises, there will be a mañanera* that will replace everyone and everything
*Early morning presidential press conference.