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It rarely ends well for populist autocrats. Too often, these “men of the people” are revealed to be malignant frauds. It shouldn’t take much for any thoughtful adult to see through them right from the start, of course. As P.T. Barnum put it, however, a sucker is indeed born every minute.
So it is today with Bolivia’s Evo Morales. He’s been justifiably run out of the presidency by street protesters who were joined over the weekend by military and police supporters.
The leftist leader buoyed by his fiery rhetoric and Indigenous roots became president in 2006. His brand of populism promised many things and, to be fair, he delivered some of them in the early years of his presidency. He drove economic growth and fought hard to address pervasive income inequality. Then, of course, everything turned inward. Intoxicated by power, he predictably became focused on himself and not his people.
Morales seems like an insecure man, a trait he shares with all populist autocrats who believe that they, and they alone, have all the answers. As such, he rationalized breaking laws and norms in efforts to run for re-election at the end of his constitutionally mandated, two-term limit and then he rigged last month’s election.
Morales and other populist autocrats are not quite in the league of despots found in China, Egypt, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey, though one imagines they salivate at the thought of such pure dictatorial rule.
Whether on the left or right, populist autocrats elected to lead in Bulgaria, Hungary, Philippines, Poland, and the United States today are just as predictable in their nationalism, empty promises, and corruption as they are in their eventual demise.
The real question is how much damage they do to their countries in the process. It’s usually quite considerable. In Morales' case, he's fled to Mexico and left a real mess behind.
Image courtesy of The Print.