Mexicans go to the polls on Sunday, politically united on just one thing: total contempt for Donald Trump. So why do they seem intent on electing their own left-wing version of him?

That’s the larger question hovering over the expected victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, a populist firebrand making his third bid for the presidency. The former Mexico City mayor came within a hair of being elected in 2006, only to be routed at the next ballot in 2012. Now he’s coasting to victory, with Bloomberg’s polling average showing him winning more than 50 percent of the vote in this year’s four-way race.

What’s different this time? Mexicans are mad as hell at a system they see as self-dealing, under-performing and corrupt. That should sound familiar to Americans — not to mention Italians, Britons, and those in every other nation swamped by the populist tide. In Mexico’s case, they’re largely right.

Enrique Peña Nieto, the outgoing incumbent, came to office promising to cut the crime rate in half. Instead, Mexico suffered more than 25,000 murders last year, a modern record. He promised an end to corruption. His administration is suspected of spying on anti-graft investigators, and his wife was caught buying a $7 million mansion from a government contractor. He promised economic growth of 6 percent a year. It hardly ever got above 3 percent. The average wage fell by about $1,000 during the Great Recession and hasn’t recovered since.