Love Fest or Highest Level of Ethical Standards

Congressman Martin Heinrich and State Auditor Hector Balderas are refusing to get down into the mud and attack each other on a personal level. Both men have lovely families and are respected by the communities they serve. Both men have very high ethical standards when it comes to their own personal behavior.

So why does some in the political arena expect and even demand lies and mudslinging? The answer could be that republicans who do have questionable ethical standards in this state wasted no time in spreading lies and falsehoods about other republican opponents.

Democrats in this state sent a clear message at the state convention this year that they expect a higher standard of behavior from their representatives and their candidates. Democrats are turn off and stay away from the polls when they feel that their candidates have no real plans or policies in which to put forth to voters. Democrats expect spirited debates on issues, and they don’t want lies about a candidate’s personal life or political stands on issues.

I am sure that democratic voters are looking forward to hearing how each of our lead candidates views the issues that America faces. We will be happy to hear their plans and models for how to handle difficult issues. We will want to know what they view as the most important issues. We will want to know how they plan on listening to and communicating with the voters that will elect them into office.

When the final vote is cast in the general election for New Mexico U.S. Senator the voters will want someone of high ethical and moral standards to represent them in Washington D.C. Lies and mudslinging have no place in a elected body that has so few members to begin with and who the American voting public invest huge amounts of power and control over this country.

The Different Between Compromise and Bipartisanship

Compromise is the task of taking strongly held beliefs from two opposing sides and settling on the ones that neither side finds most distasteful. It does nothing to move the country forward or to improve the lives of those who are affected by these compromises. It makes the voting public all that much more polarized in their beliefs toward politicians, and it polarizes the political issues which in the long run only make the government that much more polarized.

The purpose of bipartisanship is to come to the table with the concept of identifying what issues must be addressed and then using every resource at hand to provide the best results for the voting public. It encourages new ideas and new approaches to old problems. It is all about building a system with the input of the people being affected without overwhelming the current system in usage, and without overwhelming the people who must live within any system used.

Our government has failed to practice real bipartisanship in any successful way over the past few decades. In some cases you have to wonder if people even understand the difference between the two practices. We have some real economic issues that face our state and our country. We need our elected officials to put aside their political beliefs in order to work with the other side to improve the lives of all of their constituencies.

We need leaders that are willing to lead and not have meetings where they only visit with one side at a time. The time has come to bring or force members of both parties together to fight and hash out new ways to approach old issues. They need to reach out to all the voting public to look for new ideas that might help them solve old problems. One of the gifts Americans have is to be able to develop new systems when the need arises as long as they are asked to take part in the process.

We don’t need tea parties; we need think tanks of our best and brightest individuals. We need to find new ways of approaching old issues. Americans need to know that they will be part of the process and not just the recipients of poorly thought out plans brought about by compromise that fixes nothing.