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Leadership Quote by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

"If we accept the rule of those who think they are the bosses and lords of Mexico, nothing will change for the people on the bottom"

About this Quote

AMLO’s line doesn’t just argue for political change; it stages a social drama with a clear cast list: self-anointed “bosses and lords” on top, “people on the bottom” below, and a public that must decide whether to keep playing its assigned role. The phrasing “those who think they are” is doing the heavy lifting. It frames elite authority as performance and presumption, not merit or legitimacy. In one stroke, he turns oligarchy from a fact into an attitude - something that can be withdrawn, refused, voted out.

The conditional “If we accept” is an accusation disguised as a warning. AMLO’s populism often hinges on this move: shifting blame away from abstract systems and toward a moral choice made by ordinary citizens and institutions alike. It’s not only that elites dominate; it’s that society has been trained to consent, to normalize deference, to treat hierarchy as common sense. “Nothing will change” becomes less prophecy than indictment of a political culture that confuses stability with justice.

Context matters: Mexico’s long history of centralized power, PRI-era patronage, and the enduring influence of business magnates and entrenched political networks makes “bosses and lords” feel pointed without naming names. He’s also signaling that technocratic reforms and cosmetic anti-corruption measures won’t touch the lived reality of inequality. The punch lands because it offers dignity upward: it implies the bottom is not naturally bottom, just politically managed there.

Quote Details

TopicEquality
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Obrador, Andres Manuel Lopez. (2026, January 16). If we accept the rule of those who think they are the bosses and lords of Mexico, nothing will change for the people on the bottom. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-accept-the-rule-of-those-who-think-they-are-138320/

Chicago Style
Obrador, Andres Manuel Lopez. "If we accept the rule of those who think they are the bosses and lords of Mexico, nothing will change for the people on the bottom." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-accept-the-rule-of-those-who-think-they-are-138320/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If we accept the rule of those who think they are the bosses and lords of Mexico, nothing will change for the people on the bottom." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-accept-the-rule-of-those-who-think-they-are-138320/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (born November 13, 1953) is a Politician from Mexico.

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