Riccardo Pascoe Pierce
Donald Trump was categorical: he threatened to provoke a bloodbath in the United States if he loses the next presidential election. And he defined his object of hatred: immigrants who, he said, “are not even human”. AMLO, on the other hand, is illegally intervening in the electoral process and is preparing to decree a State of Exception that will annul the electoral results if his party loses. He defines his object of hatred as everything that opposes the continuity of “my political project.”
Both Trump and AMLO are warning us well in advance: if they lose, the constitutional order in both countries will rupture. If they lose the election, it will be because of electoral fraud. But if they win, it will be because their people are wise and courageous.
The parallels between Trump and AMLO never cease to amaze. Apart from deliberately promoting social polarization as an instrument of political control, they also define their objects of hate as the archetypes that society should fear. Those archetypes are the classic monsters of the mythology of each of their societies: they perversely seek to destroy and spoil the social fabric. Thus, these two politicians want to place themselves in the collective imagination as the superheroes who came to fight that “evil” that dwells in the dark corners of society. They present themselves as agents of ethnic, ethical, and political cleansing of modern society to return to the past purity of an imaginary perfect life.
All this mythological construction deceives sectors of society and counts on the reinforcement of a certain intelligentsia that gives it historiographic, philosophical, and religious support. Why is there an intellectual layer willing to play the role of reinforcers of political projects of power and corruption but disguised as pure ethical and ethnic movements? It points to specific subjects willing to assume the role of advisor who, from the obscure, influence the decision-making of the powerful. To be that advisor is an indirect aspiration to power and, sometimes, wealth. Machiavelli perfectly described the role of the advisor, the one who speaks in the ear of the powerful, the Prince.
Trump and AMLO receive advice from their advisors. But both place themselves above any character or recommendation because they consider themselves superior and more gifted subjects than any pretentious advisor. Their strength, if it can be so estimated, derives from a magical investiture that allows them to understand and express the archetypes that most terrify the daily beings of society. Both promote with great agility and ease the deepest fears of society. For that reason, they despise precisely those people who most express their adoration for them. They receive that genuflection as a tribute to their genius.
Those whom these leaders use the most and despise the most are those intellectuals who strive to explain and exalt their supposed virtues. They despise them even more because they understand the self-sacrificing subordination of the people, but how do they explain that of the supposedly intelligent?
Trump and AMLO have intellectual, financial, and armed supporters accompanying them on their way to reach the last gates of the constitutional order with the intention of overthrowing it. Both have actively acted against the constitutional order of their countries. Both are dangerous to the nations because they are walking steadily towards their destruction. And both are declared admirers of Vladimir Putin, the ruler who has just won his fifth re-election.
It is impossible to know if there is direct communication between Trump and AMLO to coordinate their actions and future steps. But what is certain is that both have sounded, at the same time, the clarion call ordering the attack of their troops against the constitutional order.
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