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Why should the man presiding over the single greatest cause of death for people ages eighteen to forty-five in America be reframed as a hero for social traditionalism? We live in strange times. Sohrab Ahmari wrote in defense of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s “irrepressible social conservatism” last week, views which he also promoted to Fox News audiences this weekend.
Ahmari described AMLO as a “man of the old left” who is “not a cultural progressive.” “In Latin America, there is this possibility of this combination of being relatively on the left on economic issues, but culturally conservative,” Ahmari said. “AMLO represents that.”
Sadly, this is an example of hopes outpacing reality and searching for a foreign model that largely doesn’t exist. The authoritarian form of progressive populism AMLO helms has done more to propagate leftist social ideology throughout Mexico than any recent head of state. Via a mandatory national curriculum, to which even private schools must conform, they’ve revamped the entire education system in service of this idea as part of AMLO’s “Fourth Transformation”. What’s inside would be right at home in a progressive American school district, including promotion of transgenderism and LGBT ideology, mandatory participation in “Pride” marches, ordering gender neutral language instruction, framing the teaching of history firmly in class struggle and, of course, Mexico’s own version of CRT, indigenismo.
AMLO is fully committed to the language of indigenismo, including modifying the traditional Grito de Independencia to praise Mexican indigenous cultures and demanding apologies from the Spanish. And while he may not speak the language in support of LGBT issues personally, the Morena coalition he represents has dramatically increased recognition of same-sex marriage, stocked the Cabinet with unprecedented progressive leadership and decks out their government buildings with the same rainbow flags during Pride month that roil social conservatives here in America.
Ahmari also singles out AMLO for praise for criticizing feminism — but he hates feminists, not feminism. It’s an important distinction, with a reason: women who have been hugely affected by Mexican violence for obvious reasons have pointed out how blood-soaked and violent his time in office has been — and AMLO responds to any such criticism by attacking in response. He isn’t actually anti-feminist though! Just look at AMLO’s most probable choice of successor, Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who back in 2019 installed a policy of pro-trans school uniforms, so boys as young as pre-school can choose to wear skirts.
In other words, you can say the same thing about AMLO that you could say about Joe Biden or any number of Catholic Democratic politicians in America: sure, they’re personally pro-life! They’re steeped in a Catholic veneer. But when it comes to policy ramifications, that just doesn’t matter — AMLO knows full well what Sheinbaum and the rest of the Morena coalition apparatus promote, and his rhetoric only serves to mask the actual governance that runs against traditional values. Catholic traditionalists in both countries understand the difference.
You can certainly applaud AMLO’s pro-family rhetoric — while many observers might tell you it’s intended as political cover domestically for the miserable condition of the Mexican welfare state — but surely the effect his regime has had on American families under his “hugs not bullets” position toward the cartels should matter in the equation:
“According to data released by US Customs and Border Protection, in 2022, there were a record 2.5 million border encounters, compared to 550,000 in 2020. That same year, 13,400 pounds of fentanyl were seized by border patrol officers, compared to 7,300 pounds seized in 2020, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Fentanyl is fifty times stronger than heroin and has become the leading cause of death among adults ages eighteen to forty-five, with more than 70,000 people dying from a fentanyl overdose in 2021 and again in 2022.“
The leadership in China is supplying the chemicals, the Mexican cartels are creating the drugs and trafficking them, and American working families and communities are being actively wrecked by the crisis that follows. “Sure, AMLO is in bed with the cartels — but he’s also critical of feminists!” is not an argument anyone serious should accept, even in the important cause of proving the horseshoe theory of political realignment correct.
