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. 

The Yen and Yang of a Modified Democracy

First what is a Modified Democracy and how does it work. The United States of American has a governmental model called a Modified Democracy. This means that we have a capitalist system that is modified with socialist elements. We have a social safety net for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. This safety net has allow the growth of a healthy middle class since they do not have to bear the cost of supporting those individuals. Over hundreds of years we have found that our system works like a pendulum. It will swing to the far right and then to the far left. Presently it has swung to the far right.  We know that the top 1% of individuals are making all the money and that the other 99% are finding it hard to get ahead at present. We had hoped that with a Democrat in the Oval office and control of both the house and the senate that things would begin to swing back toward the left. Over the past eight years that has not been the case because republicans have been blocking change and gaming the system to their own advantage.

Now the far left is being led by a group of Bernie Sanders supporters who express a desire to move the pendulum back to the far left all at once. They are angry and demanding change now with no regard for how the system works. Their view is violent revolution.  They have made it clear that they don’t play by the rules and if you get in their way they will harm you physically. What do they want? They want free health care, free college education, huge increases in wages, jobs, harsh rules to protect the environment that are known to  kill small businesses. How do they want to pay for it? They want to force the rich to give up all of their belongings and hand everything to the poor. The rich are fighting this and will leave the country with their money if pushed too far.

How do I break this to them? The government is controlled by the far right at present. You can scream all you want, stomp your feet, call foul and demand the changes all you want and nothing will change until the Oval office, Senate and the House are controlled by the Democrats. Even then it will be difficult to make changes because the republicans are masters at blocking any change in government. If you threaten them with violence they will use it to gain more control.

Now the far right is being led by President Trump and the republicans. They want a system that is pure capitalism in its most basic form. No government rules to control businesses when it comes to consumer protection or the environment. No minimum wage so that companies can pay slave wages and make employees work past the 40 hour work week without any benefits whatsoever as to result in huge profits for the top 1%. They want the government to protect them for other countries when it comes to trade. They want to be able to refuse healthcare coverage. If anyone gets sick it is god’s will that they be homeless and poor. They want to pay veterans slave wages and if you are too weak to care for yourself after you come home from war well that is your fault.

How do I break this to them? The democrats will block these efforts as much as they can. The democrats are well educated and understand the consequences of long term damage to our environment and veterans of this country. They also understand that if you turn your back on the rest of the world that bad things will come knocking at our front door. If you think terrorism is bad now just imagine what the world will be like if other countries and their people have nowhere to turn. War and torture will only create armies of terrorists.    The democrats also understand that if you turn you back on the poor and working class by destroying the social safety net that you may be able to fool them for a short period but they will turn on the Republican Party for the lie of a great America once more. What made America Great was a healthy middle class. These people are armed and will hurt the republicans once they find out just how much they have been played as fools. 

You cannot bully your way into either the far left or the far rights idea of the perfect world. Balance is when no one is all powerful. Lunch and resources have never been free and someone always has to pay the piper for the cost of anything. The best we can hope for is a balance that harms no one to the extent that they become angry enough to rise up and attack their own fellow Americans.