Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
William Shakespeare wrote:
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,… sometimes frequently”.
The opposition in Mexico gives the impression of fulfilling the profile proposed by Shakespeare: it goes on and off stage, sometimes frequently, but does not stop playing. It does not seem to be building a future but pretending to do it, and not doing so.
It is not in vain that it is repeatedly demanded and asked from many areas of society, anguished by the country’s future: “And where is the opposition?”. And “When is it going to unite”? Because while Morena and the President promote the idea of a one-person, one-party country, the opposition oscillates between its confrontation with those authoritarian presidential ideas and the acceptance of the rules of the formally existing “democratic game”, as if Mexico were living a certain normality. This is not the case because it is anything but normal.
Obviously, this is not an easy situation for the opposition. It faces the challenge of maintaining the democratic conviction and the institutionality of the balance of powers while competing against an impostor who plays dirty. It always will, without abiding by the rules, and who is permanently willing to use the State apparatus to destroy its opponents. The confrontation is between uneven parties.
Therefore, the big question for the opposition is how to face the difficulties inherent to its political condition of relative weakness in order to create the best possible conditions that will allow it to level the playing field of the confrontation more in its favor.
It must start from the notion that it will not count on a presidential candidacy forged by almost two decades of political presence in the national theatrical scene, as in López Obrador. López Obrador’s offer was, and still is, López Obrador.
The offer of the opposition must be an idea of strength, supported by a platform fully assumed by political parties and civil society in its great diversity and plurality. The offer is the defense of liberties, tolerance, plurality, and the Constitution. On the negative, AMLO offers authoritarianism, restrictions on rights, less democracy, and a lack of respect for the rule of law.
A platform of such scope and democratic spirit will be the unifying axis of all the opposition. The presidential candidacy will be the leading voice to expose that agenda.
The opposition will be able to designate at the beginning of the campaign and without delay the extended cabinet that will accompany the presidential candidate on his tours, and also, they will make their own tours to expose in more detail the political proposal of the coalition government that it intends to build. In other words, it is possible to have diverse voices talking about a new way of governing, more plural and democratic, making the Cabinet members into political agents in their own right. This will allow voters to distinguish between their two options: the one-person government and on the other hand, a coalition cabinet with coordinated members with their own voices.
The value of this is the contrast, considering that López Obrador is warning whoever is left as his candidate that they will have to stick to his agenda: oil, Mayan train, national guard to the Army, and the abolition of all autonomous bodies, without distinction.
A presidential candidacy accompanied by his cabinet will have an enormous space to influence the national mood in favor of the “democratic transition”.
On the other hand, what the mid-term elections allowed to popularize is the idea that winning Congress is a fundamental task. López Obrador also learned that lesson. That is why from now on, he is calling on his supporters to provoke an avalanche of votes to conquer back ⅔ parts of Congress to push through his constitutional reforms. He understands that the other power-Congress-is critical to advancing presidential agendas. The opposition has to assimilate and learn from this lesson as well. It is not enough to win the Executive Branch. The Legislative Branch is essential to the successes or failures of a Presidency under whomever’s mandate.
For all these reasons, the opposition must agree to run common candidates in the 300 electoral districts aspiring to obtain a majority in Congress. Since the parties keep control over their plurinominal lists, they can attend to issues related to internal balances, leaving the majority districts to a democratic game among candidates of diverse origins.
In the case of the 300 electoral districts, it is possible to define the candidates best positioned to win, working in combination with surveys, primaries, or “natural” candidates, depending on the particularities of each district, to finally appoint a single candidate who will represent the opposition as a whole. Citizen, social and partisan organizations will be able to propose candidates to participate in selecting the final representative of the whole.
To achieve this purpose, several processes will be necessary. First, it will be required to convince all parties, other than Morena and allies, to accept the agreement. Then it will be essential to promote the inclusion of the country’s universities as guarantors of the selection process. Civil society will have to join and participate by proposing candidates and collaborating in organizing citizen elections by district.
Unlike Morena and allies, this opposition process will be open, profoundly democratic, and capable of channeling and capturing many social expressions within the same electoral district.
Personalities and public figures will be able to promote in their social networks and spaces of expression the participation in the citizen elections to define the candidacies of the entire opposition. It will be a unique exercise, new and open to citizen participation and collaboration.
Finally, unity is the recipe for a successful advance of the opposition and for it to win the Presidency of the Republic and the majority of the Congress. Only together can Mexico be saved. Let’s unite as one!
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@rpascoep
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