From a Mexican let me attempt to explain in simple terms how we do things here in Mexico City. YOU people in the North elect officials, and when that person gets to Washington DC, you send a fax, write an email, plan a visit, send a lobbyist, or maybe you pay for a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal, or open a Blog Site on the Internet. Talk Radio Show hosts battle fiercely all of the pros and cons of every law. When something becomes LAW, it is what RULES the country.
Here in Mexioc, we elect officials, but we don't have free talk shows, our radios play lots of music and do soccer ball interviews, open lines are radio talk about local problems with law, social services trash removal etc.
Most Mexicans don't know how to blog, seldom READ...much less anything that is politically or makes people think about the issues, like TAXATION burdens reduce growth and prosperity.
So, in Mexico we take to the streets. We scream, holler, parade. We do this for religious and political reasons. So for every person that is Mexican in the street, it is like an email, our way of lobbying. Thus instead of being a nation ruled by LAW, it sometimes becomes the nations that has the biggest MOB. Remember the student strikes in Mexico City, they wanted to raise Tuition from $4.00 US per year, to $16 per year, and they offered to do student loans. Riots disrupted activities at the UNAM for more than one year.
BEWARE. At least that's the way it appears to me. Mob rule, what is this called? Che Guerrava is the most visible icon in the Southern States of Mexico, and when asking local indigent Mexicans WHAT he stood for, the only response MOST people can give is that he was adamantly and totally ANTI-American. Uhmnnnn
Thanks for sharing from your perspective.