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Let my people go (out)? Much ado about nothing?

18 April 2020

In the United States, what resistance there has been to quarantine measures have largely come from the right side of the political dial, or from the far right, while in Mexico, opponents are on the left.  Or so it seems.

A survey, of attitudes towards the quarantine by ideology (broken down as “left”, “right”, and “center”, conducted by El Financiero (chart below) shows much more dissent from the “left” than from the “right” to various measures, from voluntary “stay at home” orders, to closing bars and restaurants,  to closing the borders.

With no idea of how the survey was conducted, nor its margin of error, even assuming it is relatively reliable (as reliable as any polling in Mexico), what this means — if anything– is open to more than the usual speculation.

The poll defined ideology on a numerical value of one to ten, ten being the furthest right… based on what?  Questions elicited by the Bloomberg company publication, or self-identification?

Is the “left” more concerned with human rights (including the right of free transit) than the right, or is it that people on the “left” are less likely to have the resources to be “socially isolated” than those on the “right”?  Or that those on the “right” are more comfortable with authoritarian responses to emergencies than those on the “left”.

Or… depending on how the ideological bias was determined, was it just that those on the right are more likely to be those already agreeing with measures imposed elsewhere.  That is, those identified as being on the “right” are more likely to follow foreign press reports which endlessly have encouraged Mexico to follow the example of other states than those on the “left”?

Not being exactly AMLovers, one wonders if this poll wasn’t meant to prove there is large dissatisfaction among the government’s supporters with its response to the pandemic (or perceived non-response).  If so, so what?

 

 

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