"Change will not come from above, it will come from below, from the small and medium size businesspeople. They do dare to show their faces. They applaud us and help us financially"
About this Quote
Power, Fox implies, is a dead end. If you keep waiting for "above" to fix a country, you are volunteering for disappointment. The line lands because it flips the usual democratic fairy tale: the state isn’t the engine of reform, it’s the obstacle, and the real lever sits in the hands of people who sign paychecks.
The intent is strategic as much as inspirational. Fox is naming a coalition and courting it at the same time: small and medium-size business owners, framed as the brave middle layer between an insulated elite and a frustrated public. That “they do dare to show their faces” is doing quiet, loaded work. It suggests a climate where economic actors fear retaliation for political openness, a soft indictment of entrenched power: corruption, patronage, and the unspoken consequences of backing the wrong side.
Then comes the reveal that makes the quote feel less like a hymn to grassroots democracy and more like campaign realism: “They applaud us and help us financially.” Fox isn’t just celebrating civic courage; he’s legitimizing a funding pipeline. The subtext reads: we have momentum, we have respectable supporters, we have money - and unlike the shadowy networks of the old order, our backers are visible.
In Mexico’s late-PRI context, this is also a bid to rebrand change as “safe.” By anchoring reform in SMEs rather than unions, students, or radicals, Fox signals stability, modernization, and market-friendly pragmatism. “Below” isn’t the poorest of the poor here; it’s the productive middle demanding a state that stops extracting and starts serving.
The intent is strategic as much as inspirational. Fox is naming a coalition and courting it at the same time: small and medium-size business owners, framed as the brave middle layer between an insulated elite and a frustrated public. That “they do dare to show their faces” is doing quiet, loaded work. It suggests a climate where economic actors fear retaliation for political openness, a soft indictment of entrenched power: corruption, patronage, and the unspoken consequences of backing the wrong side.
Then comes the reveal that makes the quote feel less like a hymn to grassroots democracy and more like campaign realism: “They applaud us and help us financially.” Fox isn’t just celebrating civic courage; he’s legitimizing a funding pipeline. The subtext reads: we have momentum, we have respectable supporters, we have money - and unlike the shadowy networks of the old order, our backers are visible.
In Mexico’s late-PRI context, this is also a bid to rebrand change as “safe.” By anchoring reform in SMEs rather than unions, students, or radicals, Fox signals stability, modernization, and market-friendly pragmatism. “Below” isn’t the poorest of the poor here; it’s the productive middle demanding a state that stops extracting and starts serving.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
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