This is yet another example that "populism" is bad. Whether on the right (Trump, Bolsonaro) or the left (AMLO), disdain for "experts" is unsustainable in the modern world. Andrew Jackson's populism was "bad" but it was rarely lethal. His disdain for experts rarely extended to what passed for medical and scientific knowledge. Jackson simply assumed that any reasonably smart person could do government work. Even that is no longer true. Would you want some dude designing your highways?
AMLO spent decades trying to become president. At least rhetorically he offered what Mexicans wanted: as assault on corruption and resources directed at rural and indigenous populations. Instead, Mexico is in the running for worst Covid response in the world.
Technocracy is boring. Cool edgelord shit on Twitter is boss; making the mail show up on time is boring. In the US, we've seen the difference between Trump's radical incompetence and Biden's basic functionality on vaccine distribution. Trump's "Operation Warp Speed" did work well in backstopping drug companies to help smooth the way for vaccine development (done in labs by scientists). But distribution was left up to a patchwork, incompetent system of dog-eat-dog.
Today, I'm getting my Dos Dose of the Pfizer vaccine, at least in part because boring old Connecticut has done really well in distributing vaccines. That boring competence is critical to a functioning modern state. Populism can't clear the bar.
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