How Government and the Democratic Political Institution Works

Too often now I am hearing that unless you are a member of the extreme party that will not speak to the other side or work with them that you should not be elected to office of any kind. No compromise! It is either my way or the highway even if the wording of a bill or resolution could inadvertently do harm to voters. They point out in war that collateral damage is the price we pay for getting what they want. They don’t care about what is good for the voters but only what they value as good for their own group.

Our younger voters and yes even some older ones don’t want to listen. They in fact refuse to listen. They don’t want to work with people they consider the enemy. They don’t want to learn political history. They don’t care about the past because they simply don’t care if they repeat past mistakes. They will use the current rules to their own advantage but howl to high heaven if they don’t get their way even if those same rules apply to them. I don’t think they have even bothered to read the current rules. Rules that have been argued over, refined time and time again. Where the different between shall and may was debated for months if not years.

The Democratic Party as a whole has a long drawn out process for creating a party platform which states common core values for the party. It addresses the voter’s views on current issues and hopes for the future.  The process starts at the Ward level where people put forward their ideas in a legal format called a resolution. Then it is reviewed by a committee so as to fix any flaws in wording and to combine it with the past platform and other Wards resolutions that address the same subject. It is then voted on at the county level. Then it moves to the state level where again it is combined with resolutions from all over the state and the state level platform. At this point it is moved to the national level where resolutions are combined with the national platform and resolutions from other states to develop a living document that puts forth the values and desires from people all over our country. An idea at the local level can see many changes before it reaches the national level. This angers the new Democrats. But it is how government and organizations that are representative of a large number of individuals works.

In government people are elected at local, state, and federal levels. Our government is divided into three independent branches that balance each other out. This does not give complete control to any one individual. Each of those three branches are answerable to the voting public. Two of the branches are directly elected by the voters and the third is appointed and approved by elected individuals. In short “we the people” control our government as a majority. No one person or group may take control without a majority of the people handing it to them.

Our government is designed to force people of different viewpoints to work together in order to enact change in the current incarnation of our government.  The reason that not much change has occurred as of late is because the different branches of government are refusing to work together for the betterment of the people they represent. My way or the highway does not work in our form of government. We must allow our elected officials to work with each other if anything good is to come from it. Now that does not mean giving one side everything they want but it does require that they listen and explain in a reasonable clear fashion their views and why they hold those views. It does require not alternate facts but real provable facts that can be studied, deliberated on and debated so as to enact actions and laws that will result in the best overall outcome for this country.  At no time in this country’s history has every voter agreed with any one law or action taken by the government nor should that be the case today. 

Bernie or Bust-Political Stunt By State Party Delegates

Well last weekend was going fine at the State Convention for the Democratic Party of New Mexico until the last few minutes. Then the Bernie or Bust people had to make a scene when it came to the State Platform. They pulled out two resolutions. One opened up all party primaries to anyone who wanted to vote no matter how they were registered. The second would do away with Super-Delegates in our state.

Now the facts:

1. All the Hillary Clinton Delegates which represent a majority of the party left after casting their votes for National Delegates. It was a long day for them. Because of this they can remove those resolutions the next time they meet at the next state meeting.
   
2. The Bernie or Bust people made it clear that they do not want to be members of the Democratic Party because that would require them to work for candidates. Support party views that are not going to get them their fifteen minutes of fame. In other words they threw their little temper tantrum and then went home like most children do.
   
3. Finally the Bernie or Bust delegates don’t understand that the platform is not binding on candidates in anyway. We have been fighting for years to get candidates to take it more serious but after this stunt all our hard work in down the tubes. The candidates can now point to this issue and say that the platform does not represent the majority of voters. I would not blame them one little bit.

Most of the Bernie or Bust Delegates but not all were attending their first statewide convention. Some were members for less than a year. The party should make it a requirement for delegates to get training for how to behave as delegates to either country or state conventions. They should teach the younger people how the system works so that this does not happen again. The party should make it mandatory to get the training before they can attend conventions as a delegate. They should be taught to show some respect for party leaders at least in public at the convention. Then any delegates that is rude or disrespectful can be removed for the floor during the convention.