Thread by @MedinaMora

Seeing a lot of bad takes from US media on Claudia Sheinbaum. A few thoughts:

1. She won fair and square. If your Mexican interlocutors are talking about a recount or question the validity of the result, find new interlocutors.

2. She had help from AMLO: he (illegally) kicked off her campaign 3 years ago, lambasted (illegally) her opponents, conditioned (illegally) the continuity of social benefits now enshrined in the Constitution, etc.

3. None of that, however, can explain the mangitud of Sheinbaum's victory: 30% over her closest rival. She won 5 million votes more than AMLO when he became president.

4. That said, if AMLO hadn't anointed her as his chosen successor, she probably wouldn't have such a mandate.

5. Sheinbaum's grandparents on both sides were Jewish, but she grew up in a secular household and played down her heritage during the campaign. So, yes, we have our first Jewish president, but that's a much smaller deal here that it would be in the US.

6. Sheinbaum has a doctorate in climate science—more specifically energy engineering—but she has declared over and over that she supports and will continue with AMLO's oil-first energy policies, which are downright suicidal given what we know about climate change.

7. Sheinbaum's mayorship of Mexico City was mixed. She presided over a catastrophic response to COVID—at one point her administration mailed ivermectin—and over the decline of the subway—50% of all accidental deaths since the system began operating in 1969 happened on her watch.

8. But as mayor she also implemented a program of universal scholarships for public school students, built cable cars to provide public transportation to remote proletarian parts of the city.

9. Her claim to have reduced homicides and especially femicides in CDMX has been questioned by experts and activists, who have pointed to potential anomalies in her administration's triumphalist data,or else to their own experiences of violence.

10. That said, she implemented a program of universal scholarships (i.e. cash stipends) for public school students, which she has said she intends to expand nationally, which is very good!

11. But she has also promised to support the batshit crazy constitutional reforms AMLO proposed late in his term: popular election of Supreme Court justices (from a list of candidates chosen—de facto—by his party), elimination of the independent election authority...

...and the transparency-and-privacy agency, guaranteeing that the minimum wage will increase to match inflation (which I understand is a bad idea, even if it sounds good), putting the (already militarized) police force under the purview of the head of the army...

...and, to my chagrin, including a constitutional ban on vaping (can you imagine??????).

12. My biggest qualm, however, is that Sheinbaum, like AMLO, has promised never to raise taxes. This means that she doesn't have a redistributive program. At best, she will impose austerity measures and cut state spending in one area to fund and expand on AMLO's social programs.

13. To wrap up: Sheinbaum sounds much better in paper (a Jewish climate-warrior / social democrat!!!) than she does if you actually listen to what she says and review what she did while in office. In my (biased, not-objective) view, I don't think we can call her a leftist.

14. That said, she received a vote of confidence from all sectors of Mexican society. Here's a factoid that I think says it all: the only districts where the opposition candidate got more votes than her are those where most voters belong to the 94 percentile of income.

15. It remains to be seen whether president Sheinbaum will prove more progressive than candidate Sheinbaum. Her landslide victory could give her the political capital she would need to govern differently (and better) than AMLO. I hope she's courageous enough to correct course.