Political Active Newcomers to the Democratic Party of New Mexico

I have seen a lot of anger toward the party and the people who have been in the party for a long time. The younger generation is angry and they are demanding change now. They do not want to hear from people who have been working for years to get our current list of government officials elected. They want free everything and a sudden redistribution of wealth in our country that would benefit them without caring about who might get harmed in the process.

The party is a large organization with rules and a platform which reflexes the views of those who have been voting for years and who have worked hard to build the current organization. No institution is perfect and there is always room for beneficial change.  For the most part the vast majority of both groups agree on issues but in some cases disagree on how to best achieve those goals. The idea that the younger generation could come into the party with no training and simply take over and make huge changes instills fear and anger in the older generation. Sudden change is equated with change that has not been well thought out and will result in unintended consequences and harm to others. Change that has not be well thought out can often do more harm than good. The older generation understands this through trial and error. What may look good on the surface can often lead to devastation to those who do not have a strong voice within the current government.

The older generation has failed to provide the newcomers with an institutional history and a clear understanding of how organizational processes work. The younger generation has not attend monthly party meetings and have been unwilling to study long often difficult to understand documents that are necessary to understand how to enact change in a successful manner. Both groups would achieve good results from newcomer classes that cover many of the current party documents and processes that would reduce stress levels for all involved in the current struggles to come to grips with the mass influx of newcomers.  Training that helps to explain the documentation could help newcomers to develop policies and changes that would be accepted by all and reduce the level of anger by all concerned.

I for one was very offended with how some younger people attacked my views and made assumptions about me based solely on my appearance every though that is exactly what they were accusing me of doing. Their lack of knowledge of how the system worked was on full display for all to see. This type of behavior is a result of a huge lack of communication between the two groups.  To add to the problems was the fact that individuals who in the past have been serious trouble makers within the organization were aggravating the situation in order to take advantage of the younger newcomers in order to achieve their own rejected past goals.  

Now is not the time to pick fights and try to destroy each other. Now is not the time to follow individuals that have private agendas that would harm all involved and that are loaded with harmful unintended consequences. Now is the time to work together to better our current government and to protect the things we value about our country.

A party divided is one that has lost even before it starts. 

Making Changes Within the Party

Let’s be honest the current system of government is just not working for too many Americans. When you can attend a four year University, successfully attain a degree, and still not get a good paying job then something is seriously wrong. When American Corporations are raking in record profits but not sharing the success with corporate employees then something is wrong. When University Presidents are getting six figure salaries while teachers are depending on the social safety net to just get by then something is wrong.

These issues have made young people very angry at government, at the political parties and at the political process in general. Now part of the problem is that we as a nation have not educated our children on how our form of government works. Republicans were so angry that they turned to an outsider during the last election to seek relief from this broken system. Their outsider candidate who won the election promised to “Make America Great Again.”   Well he has been in office for 100 days this Saturday. He has succeeded in removing a lot of orders given by President Obama that would protect; women’s rights, gay rights, the environment, and the working classes in general. He has the lowest approval rating of any President as of date.  Why? Because he could not deliver on his promises instantly.  You see our government is not designed that way.

Now the young people of the Democratic Party and many independents are looking to an independent outsider to give them a lot of the changes that they want to see in order to make the government work. Bernie Sanders made big promises during the primary just the same as now President Donald Trump did during his campaign. Sanders promised free education for all. He promised Healthcare for all. He promised huge reforms when it comes to government. Would he be able to deliver those changes? No. He is already a U.S. Senator and has not passed bills that would enact those changes. Not that he has not tried but he just does not have the control or support to make those kinds of changes in our national government from representatives on either side. Would becoming president change that? No.

The government is not a dictatorship or a monarchy which means that no one person alone can make changes. There are a large number of people involved in any lasting changes made to government. They are all answerable to the people they represent. In America there are many schools of thought on what would make the government work. Even within the Republican Party which now has the majority of the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Oval office these people cannot agree on one path of reform.

This is how it has always been. It is called the democratic process. The idea is to work with both parties and make compromises that work for the country as a whole. If environmental changes does away with jobs then you must find a way to help those people effected in order to make that change work. If a single payer healthcare system is what you want then you had better find a way to allow the people who work in the insurance industry to make a living. And also the stockholders who have invested in those companies. In a democracy nothing is as simple as young people would like to believe it is. Change is hard and takes a long time. Even if Bernie Sanders was elected President tomorrow he could not deliver instantly on his promises. He might never be able to make the changes young people so lowly demand.

The end result is that these young people don’t understand how our government works. They don’t even understand how the parties work. And in trying to make changes they could end up unbalancing the whole system to the point that the Republican Party could take advantage of this and do what we consider to be harm to our country.

Now could the Democratic Party use some updates and some changes? Yes Will taking over a system that you don’t even begin to understand be the way to achieve those goals? No So when the election for party leadership comes around this time think before you vote to destroy the only system that stands in the way of President Trump’s dreams and desires. 

We must understand that working together is the only way to make lasting changes that will help our country to grow!

War within the Democratic Party of New Mexico

I received this in an email from Rusty Lee Pearce:

“The background is this: At our 2016 Post-Primary State Convention, a member of the Convention attempted to subvert democracy by claiming that a quorum no longer existed. He chose to do this just at the moment when two resolutions were up for votes - one in favor of opening New Mexico’s primaries and one encouraging super-delegates to vote proportionally to the state popular vote – both items that appeal to our base. Fortunately, a vocal member of the committee pointed out that Rule 20 allowed a quorum to be established only at the beginning of a meeting, and the votes took place. Unfortunately, the very next meeting of the SCC revised Rule 20 to allow exactly what had been attempted at the Convention ­- for a quorum to be called into question at any point.”

Mr. Pearce would have you to believe that it was some man working for corporate interest that raised the question of quorum. It was not at all true. You ask how I know. Because it was me, a middle class handicapped widow with a 21 year old daughter to support, that raised that question. You see I have been attending those platform and rules portions of the State Central Committee for some time. I know the rules. When I saw that the Berniecrats wanted to use undue influence as a result of keeping their people after the vote while the Clinton delegates had already go home to past rule changes that could harm the future of the Democratic Party and were not supported by the vast majority of the party; I fought to stop it.

The first rule that they wanted to change was to open the party so that they were not required to be a democrat to vote in our primary. At first this may appear to help bring more people into the voting process. Which would be a good result. The problem is that those voters do not have to share our values and can vote in candidates under our party name that also do not share our core values. It would also allow republicans to vote in our primary. Yes they would sink that low and they would vote in a candidate that has not got the support from our party to win. This would ensure that no democrat ever held a seat in this state again.

Next they would remove super-delegates from our party or bind them to the majority vote. The republicans don’t have super-delegates and because of that we got President Trump. This result was not good for our country or our state. The super-delegates is an attempt by our party to stop a crazy outsider from being able to use our party to do the exact same thing that President Trump did to the Republican Party. Some like this protection and others who support Trump and people like him don’t support the concept of super-delegates.

Lastly it was not one vocal member but all of the Berniecrats present at that point that stomped their feet and screamed “We have a quorum!” that forced these items to be voted on. The message was clear. Either they voted or they would riot. They went on to verbally attack the values and hard work that the Democrat Party had done up until that moment. They accessed them of being evil and corrupt and dishonest. They accused them of being own by Corporate America. 

The insults were thick and full of hate toward the Clinton Delegates that had stayed. It was only about thirty people out of all the Clinton Delegates. Now the Berniecrats are a small group that was outnumbered by the full count of Clinton Delegates that pulled this stunt. They do not represent the voters in general or the SCC at that point in time. 

At the ward meetings this year they showed up in force yet again to take seats from long standing democrats. They made it clear that they want the Clinton Delegates to leave the party. We had not made the effort to get out our base to vote in ward and precinct leaders. Was it our fault that this happened? Yes. We should have been expecting this type of tactic but the election was over and everyone wanted things to go back to normal as they have after past elections. We wanted the party to unite and make peace and work together to make small changes that would encourage more young people to vote.

It is not that we don’t want young people to vote or to be active in our party. It is simply that we want them to understand that they are adults now and that there is no such thing as a "free lunch" in this country. It would be wonderful to pay entry level employees huge salaries from the start so that they could have the same standard of living as their parents who have spent 20 or 30 years in the business world. And it would be wonderful to provide them all with a free college education and free healthcare. The reality is that at some point they will have to stand on their own two feet and make a living without their parents paying their bills for the rest of their lives in the form of free government programs paid for by the taxpayers of this country.  They say that they want the top 1% to pay for all of these government benefits. The truth is that we don’t have control of the government at this point. Those changes will have to wait and for now things are not moving in that direction in part thanks to the Berniecrats that did not vote in the general election in the Northeast part of this country.

Even if we take back the house and senate in 2018 raising taxes on the top one percent is not a simple process. These individuals have lobbyists that work hard to stop these types of increases. Even if we could make those changes it would drive the top one percent out of our country. Rich people have homes all over the world and would not be forced to pay taxes because they would move their businesses out of country. They would hold us hostage to high prices if we taxed incoming goods. In the end the answer is to work with the rich and pressure them to make changes to help grow the middle class. We need to point out to them that this would be good for business and would not harm but help them in the long run. A healthy middle class is good for business. And yes taxes on the top one percent will have to go up in the future in order to re-balance our democracy.