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I confess that I know little of the intracacies of Mexican politics.

But hasn't Mexico already fallen apart ?

The transfer of such a large part of their population to the US would seem to indicate that it has failed its citizens.

Granted, it could be worse, if a violent reaction comes to pass.

But aren't the so-called Conservative politicians in Mexico only postponing the day of reckoning for this disfunctional nation?

"But hasn't Mexico already fallen apart? . . . aren't the so-called Conservative politicians in Mexico only postponing the day of reckoning for this disfunctional nation?"

Mexico is actually just taking off after a ten year plus period running from the late 1980's to around 2000 when runaway inflation destroyed the purchasing power of so many lower and middle class Mexicans that very stringent national measures had to be taken to bring it under control. This is the underlying explanation as to why something in the neighborhood of ten plus million Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. over the past twenty years or so. Their national economy has been enjoying steady growth for the last five years or so and conditions are improving but they are at a crucial turning point in this election.

AMLO and the Mexican left want to take this new increase in the cash revenues for the Mexican national government -- the rising cost of oil is helping their cash flow as well -- and use it to subsidize consumer electrical and gasoline expenditures. That will only be a band-aid and, frankly, once a process like that starts it never ends. It will also leave Mexico dependent upon American cash inflows and will aggravate the immigration situation here because paying money out of the national treasury to the poor and middle class will stunt Mexican economic growth, which will cause more of them to leave for the U.S. since there will be insufficient opportunities to keep them at home. Calderon wants to take the new national wealth and build infrastructure (roads, communications, municipal improvements like sewerage, water, etc.) as well as underwriting the development of an expanded financial sector to permit Mexico to grow on its own, without the need for foreign capital investment. It's the age-old left vs. right debate, AMLO and the Left want to finance the lifestyle of the poor and lower middle class from the national treasury, while Calderon and the Right want to finance Mexican economic growth by creating an infrastructure such as one would expect for a modern economy.

If AMLO and the Left overturn the results of the recent election, it will be a disaster for both Mexico and the United States. We have a lot riding on this, both in terms of our very advanced economic relationship with Mexico -- they are our #2 supplier of foreign oil and the nation with whom we enjoy our best export surplus -- and with regard to our problematic immigration situation here in this country. Without the development of increased economic opportunity in Mexico, we will never be able to address the problem of illegal immigrants here.