It seems that some readers of the blog are wondering if I am going to go back to writing about El Paso politics. My interest has always been about border politics, of which El Paso plays a major role. I started commenting about border politics because of the general notion that México is corrupt and the United States is holier-than-thou. As a Mexican it has always and continues to bother me that U.S. citizens criticize others while ignoring their own back yard. México is corrupt and I have acknowledged that many times before. But we recognize it. The U.S. is also corrupt, but it pretends that it isn’t.

El Paso is the epicenter of the geopolitics between México and the United States, although El Paso seems to ignore that fact. El Paso pretends to be the safest-whatever city in the nation ignoring the fact that it is the major gateway for drugs into the U.S. The drugs get to Chicago, Dallas and all other points of distribution because El Paso officials have a tacit agreement with the drug cartels to look the other way.

The blog started out El Paso-centric because it is the microcosm to corruption in the U.S., to drug trafficking and to global trade. To counter the generalized notion that México is to blame for high taxes, high crime and corruption it was important to focus on the micro examples to build the macro narrative. Along the way, the corruption nexus was poignantly displayed in the number of El Paso officials that were shown to be corrupt. Even with this body of evidence, the general narrative remains that El Paso is safe and that the problems of the country are because of México. It is an endless battle that this blog tries to dispel.

Donald Trump magnified that narrative and has taken it to the next level. That is why Donald Trump plays a significant part of the blog. Anyone that does not believe that El Paso plays a significant role in the faulty national narrative about México, NAFTA, corruption and global trade need only to look at the recent challenge by Robert “Beto” O’Rourke against Ted Cruz. Look carefully at the crafted narrative of Beto as the “punk rocker” challenger to Cruz. Look at the carefully created narrative of safest city and global trade that is being built around the persona of O’Rourke.

Now compare that to the actual politics of O’Rourke over the years.

That is why El Paso remains a vital part of dispelling the faulty narrative about México. Because of that El Paso will continue to play a predominant part of my blog.

There are municipal elections for El Paso coming up next month. The blog will cover those as it has traditionally done over the years. But the election is weeks away and the politicos are the same.

Nothing has changed.

That is why the focus has remained Trump. There is nothing new that can be added to Emma Acosta, Dee Margo, Jim Tolbert or any of the challengers that hasn’t already been covered. Just use the search bar on the blog to look up all the information on them, including Beto O’Rourke that any reader wants to know.

To write about any of the previous issues is rehashing old stuff that brings nothing new to the table.

The fact remains that nothing has changed in El Paso politics. It remains corrupt to the core. The perfect example is Jim Tolbert who orchestrated the removal of the individual he took the place of, on the premise that his predecessor was corrupt, only to win the seat and demonstrate serious corrupt practices in his short reign in office.

How much more clear can that be?

The challengers remain the same. They are mounting an unwinnable fight because they still do not understand that the underlining problem is that corruption is ingrained in the psyche of the city and the electorate isn’t ready for change. I will address this in tomorrow’s edition.

For now, understand that there will be features on the political contenders for the May elections in time for the election. Unless something seriously untoward were to be demonstrated now by any of the contenders then anything written about them weeks before the election will be what many of the readers already know.

But the national politics are increasingly important for El Paso and the primary topic of this blog – border politics. NAFTA, U.S.-México relations, cross border trade, public corruption and the drug trade are important topics for the country. El Paso is the perfect micro-example of the complex issues they each entail.