A Better Democrat

The Democratic Party has core values of supporting low income individuals, working class Americans and those that cannot defend themselves such as the elderly and children.

Now we must decide will we vote for just anyone who calls themselves a democrat or do we want candidates that support core party values. Do we want candidates that like the Udall family make us proud to call ourselves democrats everyday of the week?

We must remember that we are the party of inclusion and that to outcast anyone is to close our minds and our hearts to people who can bring value to our party and that who need our support but at the same time our elected officials need to fight for the values of our party.

We see elected officials like Congressman Harry Teague vote against healthcare reform and State Senator Tim Jennings and John A. Smith vote against education and yet we still vote for these individuals every time they run for reelection because they call themselves democrats.

So the question becomes do we continue to vote for them or do we demand better democrats in those offices and that does not mean that we stay home or allow a republican who is far worse to take their places. In this election year democrats must hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two evils in the southern part of our state.

What we need is to find and develop candidates that act more like Congressman Martin Heinrich, Congressman Ben R. Lujan and State Senator Tim Keller because they know how to work with all voters and still make us proud everyday with what they are achieving for our state and our nation.

In the mean time we must push these democrats to act and vote in the best interest of our state and our nation. We must remind them that they represent New Mexico and its residents no matter what part of the state they live in or vote in.