Thanks for joining us, Juan David Rojas! For Episode 200 (woohoo!) of KK&F, we’re shifting focus to the Mexican presidency and getting our guest’s takes both on the legacy of AMLO and the nascent leadership of the recently elected Claudia Sheinbaum. We also chat about the Onion takeover of Infowars, with the support of Sandy Hook families, plus a bit more retrospective on the 2024 . Watch below:

Kamala’s policies were more popular with Americans — but Trump’s bombastic, aggressive style boosted him to victory. Yet Democrats (minus Bernie Sanders) aren’t saying that it’s time to get angry. Part of our conversation today is about the lessons Dems won’t learn from this most recent loss — they keep failing to tap into the hurt, anger, and fear Americans are feeling, and to mobilize that toward the general welfare instead of channeling it (as Trump does) into xenophobia, transphobia, and the like. The last figure we can think of on the Democratic side to understand that anger and provide a political outlet for it is Bernie Sanders.

From strategic alliances with billionaires to successful public works programs, AMLO followed what our guest calls a “politics of pragmatism.” By keeping the media at bay and ensuring the rich paid their fair share, he was able to pursue a left-wing political agenda without becoming, as Democratic candidates in the U.S. often are, embattled by media opponents and a dearth of wealthy supporters.

Our guest also makes the interesting observation that there’s a similarity to Trumpism here in the way AMLO was presented in the media — appearances in the news often featured one member of his government surrounded by opponents, answering for AMLO’s agenda (of course, very different from Trump’s). Now, we turn our focus to how this relationship between government and media will evolve with the new President Sheinbaum, and how her version of left-wing governance will be informed by AMLO’s legacy. We get into it plenty more in the rest of the episode! You can listen to this episode as a podcast when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Substack, and more.