Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Donald J. Trump and Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo are surprisingly similar when it comes to their respective elections. Both react with paranoid fury to the approaching elections, convinced that they are victims of harassment and conspiracies aimed at defeating them at the polls. The more they despise the polls, the more they fear their possible outcomes.
Trump believes there will be voter fraud in the November election due to a surge of “millions and millions” of fake voters—illegal immigrants who entered the United States for the sole purpose of voting against him and his party. He repeats this at every campaign event: if the Democrats win, he will be impeached by Congress and then brought to trial by the country’s judicial system.
Sheinbaum is in the heat of her election campaign—even though the election is still nine months away—claiming that there will be foreign interference in the election to tip the scales in favor of the opposition. She asserts that “They want to decide who governs our country.” She does not say who “they” are. Still, she insinuates that the foreign interference will come from Washington and that the intention is to force Mexico to prosecute the drug-linked politicians tied to Morena—or to hand them over to U.S. authorities.
The similarity between Trump’s and Sheinbaum’s rhetoric cannot go unnoticed. From their respective perspectives, each sees themselves under siege and obligated to respond by building a legal wall to stop potential aggressors. Each has devoted enormous political capital to justifying their defensive actions.
The culmination of his anti-immigrant policy has made it easier for Trump to propose aggressive measures aimed at controlling who can vote in the United States. He has attempted to pass a law that would give the Republican Party control over a single, universal ID card for all Americans. He also proposed restricting—almost to the point of stifling—the mail-in voting system in his country, claiming that many illegal aliens vote and thus skew election results. In fact, he instructed the Postal Service to withhold many mail-in votes. The common denominator in elections is that whoever has the most money will win at the polls. And MAGA is a money-making machine with no accountability.
So far, federal judges have ruled his actions illegal, arguing that each state has the authority to decide on electoral processes. They reject the “electoral federalization” that Trump seeks. As a last resort, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court asking it to declare legal the restrictive measures it has sought to implement in the upcoming elections. His cases before the nation’s highest court are still pending.
In Mexico, Sheinbaum’s MORENA government has acted swiftly to close any democratic loopholes in the upcoming elections that might allow the opposition to gain ground. It has completely co-opted the electoral authorities (INE and TEPJF), whose members now actively support the ruling party. On electoral matters, the federal Congress has passed measures to limit the opposition’s ability to criticize the government. There are legal penalties for referring to Morena as a “narco-party” or speaking of a “narco-government.” The law allows the INE to remove candidates it deems to lack “integrity,” giving it the authority to disqualify opposition candidates considered dangerous because of their proposals.
Furthermore, the possibility exists to cancel candidacies or entire elections if the authority deems that there was “foreign influence,” without defining or clarifying the limits of this concept—such as, for example, an article in a foreign newspaper whose text is considered “interventionist.”
Furthermore, official funding for party support has been significantly cut under the guise of austerity, making it easier for the ruling party to use public funds without adequate accountability and amid a complete and deliberate lack of oversight by the electoral authority. Additionally, there is the still-unresolved issue of the agreement between the Morena party and drug cartels, which also provides cash for Morena’s campaigns.
Both Trump and Sheinbaum amended the laws in their favor to secure a legal and financial advantage even before the vote. Their actions create an indisputable tension between the use of power to influence the electoral process and the institutions tasked with ensuring its fairness and transparency. These preemptive actions cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election results. And that lack of legitimacy will lead to an inevitable political crisis in both societies. Severe post-election crises cannot be ruled out.
@rpascoep
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