Why Milei Won & is Winning
Policy + Leadership!!!
I was on a podcast yesterday with my friend Mark Moss. He asked me if Milei somehow proved democracy to be functional for once on the basis that the majority voted for who clearly had the best policies for Argentina.
My answer was no, and here’s why.
Democracy will always be broken because it’s rule of the retarded majority. People don’t know how to interpret policies so therefore, while important, they mean very little in the beginning.
To win, what matters is energy, magnetism and leadership.
To keep winning, you need policy and execution (plus a little time & grace.)
Milei = Ron Paul + Trump
He has the sense of one and the charisma of the other.
He is a lightning rod, and a power grid.
He knows how to channel energy, and put it to use.
He has the ability to capture attention, and the capacity to keep it because his content is valuable. His message has both wow-factor. It makes you feel something, and it has the substance + knowledge to back it up.
“Leftards are ugly and this is why [insert Rothbardian dissertation, spoken in eloquent, sophisticated and emotive Spanish]”
He is both a leader, and has the policies to back it up.
Milei is a true anomaly
You need Alexander the Great or Napoleonic energy if you’re going to lead and inspire people. That's Milei’s secret but obvious ingredient. It’s what he has that no other politician of his kind, and of his thinking has.
His largest cohort of supporters were young people. You think they understand Misesean economics or Rothbardian ethics? No.
But what they can intuitively feel is Paternal Passion. Young people can sense authentic authority. It’s like the teacher from school, who was at times strict, but he was cool, he was radical, he said what he believed, he was super smart, he could guide you and so you respected the fuck out of him.
That’s the energy Milei has, and that’s a big part of why he won.
** Note the accuracy of my theory is evident by who represents the maximum end of the opposite quadrant.
Move the Mind and Spirit
In sales you have what’s called the emotional close and the logical close
The emotional close drives the sale. It closes the deal. It MOVES the customer across the finish line. They BELIEVE.
The logical simply exists to minimise buyers remorse - because at some point, everyone gets that.
It’s the same in politics - and this is where Milei has the chance to win big. If he can (a) educate people on his approach and these principles, and (b) execute on them, Argentina will do very very well.
The former will buy him the necessary time and patience. He will establish a relationship with his people that is one of a teacher.
The latter will deliver him credibility because there is nothing as indisputable as facts and results.
As you can see from the above video (thanks to @TremendaCarucha), he is already doing an incredible job with this. Further, the hilarious video below courtesy of
- who is documenting the best of Milei’s work. Red light = protest, Green light, gtf-off the street 😂 . His policies are literally rewiring people’s minds and thus their behaviour.We in the west have been tricked. We’ve been told that Power is bad, that “all politics is evil”, that “we need no rulers” or “leaders”, and wonder why there’s been a power vacuum filled by the ugliest, vilest or parasites known to man.
When strong men, and energetic leaders shrug their responsibility, when they abdicate their position, who will fill that place? This is what Libertarians have gotten wrong for the longest time.
You need strength and power in leadership, coupled with a functional plan. You need both.
Caveats
1. Y-Axis Tricky
I recognise the Y-axis is a tricky one, so I called it “energy / charisma.” I don’t believe people like Newsome are great leaders, but you could argue he comes off or carries himself as one. Same with Obama. He is well spoken, etc. So in this dimension I am talking about some ineffable blend of BOTH the capacity for leadership and the perception of said leadership by others.
How magnetic is a person, and more importantly, a leader? This is why Trump and DeSantis for example, score differently - both on this chart and IRL.
2. Ron & Trump
Yes. Ron Paul was and is right about everything. And he really was in many ways the genesis of Milei. In fact, if it wasn’t for Ron himself, we’d have needed another one of him to rise up. He changed the course of history.
Likewise with Trump. He came out of nowhere. He was different. He did what nobody else ever had, and he fundamentally changed the game. His energy inspired a new movement. And now the best way to define who’s who in each country’s politics is whether they are like or unlike Trump.
“Germany’s Trump”,
“Holland’s Trump”,
“Australia’s Trump”.
Trump also paved the way, and Milei will have a similar, and perhaps greater legacy.
3. Argentina is Unique
Argentina is an interesting place because it is the most culturally sophisticated place, certainly in Latin America, and perhaps even all of the Americas. It has the highest saturation of European descent, and has on multiple occasions been one of the wealthiest countries on Earth. That doesn’t happen by accident. It has also been through multiple collapses, which also doesn’t happen by accident.
These facts have embedded themselves in the psyche of Argentines and they make for fertile ground for a shepherd like Milei to come along. For such a lightning rod to rise up and channel all the latent energy into a direction.
This is why it’s not just “policy” but “energy” and “presence”. His character won him the presidency, and his policies will keep it.
4. Zeitgeist
Milei tapped into the right energy, at the right time, in the right way, and matched it with his energy, charisma and knowledge. This is a special moment because he was the right person, and Argentina in many ways, is the right country.
This approach may not work everywhere, but it’s for damn sure showing incredible promise in Argentina.
Here’s to Millie’s continued success!!
Libertad, Carajo !
Svetski
Finishing this with one my favourite clips…to make you FEEL something.
h/t to Chris Winig for his fucking incredible ability to extract that feeling.
_______________
By the way..
I’d like people to get this through their heads, so if you agree and liked this, please restack it, and more importantly, go over to Twitter and give it a boost, by re-poasting:
https://x.com/SvetskiWrites/status/1738250414871474521?s=20
Also - if this kind of thinking is interesting to you, by all means check out the last essay I wrote, which talks to this essence / energy in man:
Really hope Milei and those like him, libertarian/nationalists with passion, charisma and dedication to their people win out. It is men such as they whom embody chivalry, and the core traditional values that must make a return in our world, to throw off the trappings and the chains of post-modernism and modernity which have destroyed our nations.
Milei offers me much hope for the future, and it is men such as he whom inspire to write history and chivalry essays on my part. Because with the return of nationalism, hopefully we'll see a return of goodness, courage, honour and love back to the West, back to our individual countries.
Excellent analysis. Thanks for writing and publishing it.
All I would add is the inevitable pearl clutching from the media, theirs and ours. Milei is a hard-right libertarian, an Argentinian Hitler, Pol Pot and Darth Vader rolled into one. An economic Genghis Khan.
It is a minor point, but the Mileis and the Trumps also show up the constrained, tired and echo chambered mainstream for what they are. Absolutely unable to process anything outside their mental reservation and completely cut off from normal people.
Those who voted for Milei and Trump do not see themselves as extremists. They respond to the charisma and the hope they exude, however much cynics wish to dismiss this. As they say about Trump, people who meet him feel they've just had a conversation with a truck driver despite him being part of the billionaire class. That is quite a talent.