In his work The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, the American historian Christopher Lasch warned about an alarming phenomenon, the emergence of a meritocratic elite class that, in its eagerness for upward mobility and global cosmopolitanism, detaches itself from national roots and betrays democratic principles.
These elites, Lasch described, act as «tourists in their own countries,» prioritizing their personal interests over the common good, eroding social cohesion and marginalizing the working classes. In Mexico, this critique resonates with particular crudeness. Here, the political elites have not only replicated this disconnection, but have exacerbated it through endemic corruption and a dangerous symbiosis with organized crime, accelerating the decomposition of our political system to unsustainable limits.
Mexican elites, forged in a presidentialist-caudillist system that Lasch would qualify as aristocratic disguised as populist, have turned public power into a personal fiefdom. Each administration erects its own «aristocracy» of beneficiaries, as noted in a recent analysis on corruption and political elites. In the first year of Claudia Sheinbaum’s government, for example, 51 relevant cases of corruption and impunity were documented, ranging from embezzlement of funds to conflicts of interest in public contracts.
It is no coincidence that the ruling party, Morena, is embroiled in scandals over luxurious spending by its politicians, a problem that outrages society in a country where corruption is a chronic evil. These elites, like those described by Lasch, enclose themselves in «voluntary ghettos» of privileges—businesses sheltered by immunity, seats, or parliamentary positions, vacations they could never have imagined if they had been in opposition, armored mansions in exclusive American residential areas, private schools, and international trips «to save the world from genocide»—while ignoring the tremendous national decomposition and decline. Their indecent «cosmopolitanism» is nothing more than an excuse to evade responsibilities: they prioritize alliances and questionable capital flows that benefit a few, leaving millions behind in poverty and insecurity. For others, austerity; for them, living like pashas.
This betrayal is aggravated by political decomposition, a process that has turned Mexico into a fragile State and, in entire regions, into a failed state due to the infiltration of organized crime. Lasch argued that elites, by controlling the public debate, marginalize the real concerns of citizens, such as unemployment or urban decay. In our context, this translates into a «narcopolitics» that has evolved into a true mafia, where drug trafficking expands its influence through increasingly close relationships with power.
Organized crime is not only a public security problem, but a national security one, with cartels influencing elections and local policies. During the 2024 electoral process, political violence crossed alarming thresholds: assassinations of candidates and officials revealed the thin line between ballots and graves, with organized crime appropriating state institutions. In states like Guerrero, Michoacán, or Sinaloa, the association between politicians and narcos is evident: pacts for campaign financing in exchange for impunity, or territorial control that undermines the State’s sovereignty. Despite this evidence, they persist, they do not fall, they live untouchable, under their own law and backed by their own media.
The institutional fragility, aggravated by this symbiosis, has generated a collapse where impunity is the norm. Scandals like the one in Tabasco, where former officials fled accused of leading criminal groups, illustrate how political elites not only tolerate, but integrate crime into their network of power. This decomposition is not accidental: it is the result of an ineffective criminal policy that, instead of preventing, reacts with selective repression, allowing organized crime to infiltrate the political, economic, and military system. In Lasch’s words, these elites lack «aristocratic virtues» such as reciprocal obligation; instead, they exhibit vices that erode democracy, turning the State into an instrument of illicit enrichment and mafia control.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), it warns of the gravity of the above, which not only harms or degrades this life, but is also a direct pass to eternal damnation and describes according to Scripture: “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten; your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” (CCC. No 2445)
Indeed, in these days where massacres in Mexico have become normalized, a radical change of things is urgently needed; otherwise, political decomposition, that revolt of the elites, will drag us into an abyss where democracy is nothing more than an illusion for the people, but a gain for the powerful, and where betrayal and corruption embrace to consent to that evil that keeps us subjugated, organized (political) crime.