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Monday, June 28, 2010
Stephen Jones: What’s at Stake in November for New Mexico Democrats
This is a post by contributing writer, Stephen Jones, who is a progressive political activist and a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The oft repeated cliché, “I belong to no organized political party, I’m a Democrat,” attributed to social critic Will Rodgers, seems to be a condition that hasn’t changed an awful lot in the intervening years. I wish the same could be said of the Republican Party. Their various factions always manage to sing from the same songbook, and what a strange choir it is.
Our wayward “lone star” neighbors to the east, dominated by Republicans, are more interested in elevating the lost confederate heritage of Jefferson Davis and stripping references in the textbooks of people who actually stood for something. People like Dr. Martin Luther King, Caesar Chavez, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, or even Thomas Jefferson. In their place Texas schoolchildren will be mandated to learn about Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly.
Texas can’t even afford these new right-wing textbooks. They have an $800 million dollar debt. Yet Republican Governor Rick Perry has placed a priority on changing the school curriculum over fixing a broken infrastructure, addressing the nation's worst health care system, or lowering astronomical dropout rates and raising education outcomes in math and science, along with anything resembling “social studies.” Perry made big news when he took a “principled” stance against taking Federal stimulus dollars for his state. Then he turned around and grabbed every Federal dollar he could get and put the money to work rebuilding the Governor’s mansion in Austin.
It’s nice to know Republicans in Texas have their priorities straight.
To the west of New Mexico is the Republican regime of Governor Jan Brewer and her Republican legislature. The Arizona Republicans are fixated on passing racial profiling laws against Hispanic people in the Grand Canyon state; taking ethnic studies out of schools that might result in Hispanic, or African-American students learning something about the contributions of their ancestors to American or Arizona history, life and culture, and of course, whitening the faces children painted onto a mural in Prescott, Arizona. How admirable of them!
New Mexico Democrats of every philosophical stripe, or every ethnic or economic background, of every gender, race, religion or sexual orientation, ought to consider these nearby examples of governing, then glue ourselves together in time for November, lest we find ourselves down the same rabbit hole as the citizens of Texas and Arizona. In case you were wondering, Susana Martinez is from Texas, and has hailed the recent actions of Arizona.
Enough said about her.
New Mexico Democrats far outnumber Republicans. We have no excuse for losing any contest, up and down the ticket, except that we didn’t bother to get our lazy butts out to vote. We may not belong to any organized political party, but we do share one thing in common. That is our fundamental values of decency, and decency is something the Republican Party knows absolutely nothing about.
To read more posts by Stephen Jones, visit our archive.
June 28, 2010 at 09:59 AM in 2010 General Election, By Stephen Jones, Contributing Writer, Democratic Party, Education, Immigration, Minority Issues, Progressivism, Republican Party, Right Wing | Permalink
Comments
Oh those darn southern Republicans. Who can trust them? Like Banjamin Turner, Robert De Large, Josiah Walls, Jefferson Long, Joseph Hayne Rainey, Hiram Rhodes Revels or Robert Brownh Elliott.
Are these the Southern
Republicans that you want to keep out of the history books? I'm sure it is. Because how dare they teach history.
And I can't beleive that in Arizona people from other countries that break our laws are all another race. Even though I'm not sure what the right race is. Because I think that is what you are saying. Is it not. That everyone who breaks our immigration laws are of some other race than whatever the officer that will be stopping them is?
Maybe we should look at our hero's like Woodrow Wilson. A president I think? A racist and a democrat. The great progressive thinker of the century. Yup. That's the ticket.
Distort the truth all you want but us ignant fools are starting to pick up dem tings called books.
Posted by: Sid | Jun 28, 2010 7:56:28 PM
You forget that I have a history background, Sid. I recall that the Republicans were once an honorable group founded on free soil, free labor and free men. Progressivism is the philosophy LaFollette and Theodore Roosevelt. If you've ever bothered to pay attention before today, you'd notice how fond I am of Thaddeus Stevens, a founder of the Republican Party, before it went another way.
Just imagine if Texas were teaching anyone about LaFollette, instead of those former Democrats Strom Thurmond and Trent Lott that switched parties and took the reigns of the once Grand Old Party and steered it off into a swamp.
I even recall the words of that one-time Republican Jackie Robinson, who was on hand for the great shift away from honor and turn toward darkness of the once-great Republican Party. Robinson wrote, "A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Germany. The same high-handed methods had been there. The same belief in the superiority of one religious or racial group over another was here. Liberals who fought so hard and so vainly were afraid not only of what would happen to the GOP but of what would happen to America."
In 1965 Jackie Robinson switched his registration from Republican to Democratic... I wonder why?
Posted by: Stephen Jones | Jun 29, 2010 4:27:37 AM
That still doesn't explain why you would encourage the distortion of history. When the new text books are bringing in lost history that has been misplaced since the rise of the progressive movement. If more kids can be introduced to those truths then maybe we can have a better understanding of where we came from and try to escape repeating the mistakes all over again. It seems to be the liberal democrats that are always bringing race into every aspect of policy to keep the divide. I don't get it. There are plenty of racist in every group and political party but we seem to be getting it more from the democrats these days and it's disturbing.
Posted by: Sid | Jun 29, 2010 7:08:58 AM
Sid, you mean like these wonderful changes that introduce "truths"?
"Currently, Texan students are expected to learn about “the impact of muckrakers and reform leaders” such as Upton Sinclair and W.E.B. DuBois. McLeroy instead wants students to “contrast the tone” of such people “versus the optimism of immigrants including Jean Pierre Godet as told in Thomas Kinkade’s The Spirit of America.” Kinkade is the schlocky, sentimental painter popular in malls everywhere."
" ... McLeroy also wants to clear the name of Joseph McCarthy."
https://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/21/texas-cooks-the-textbooks.html
"The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”
"Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state."
"The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”
"The Dallas Morning News noted that "high school students will learn about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s – but not about liberal or minority rights groups."
"Members voted to polish up references to the American 'free enterprise' economic system and removed most mentions of 'capitalism,' a word that board member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, said has a negative connotation."
"Board members also rejected requiring history teachers and textbooks to provide coverage on the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, while the late President Ronald Reagan was elevated to more prominent coverage."
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html
"The slave trade would be renamed the “Atlantic triangular trade,” American “imperialism” changed to “expansionism,” and all references to “capitalism” have been replaced with “free enterprise."
The fact that distortions and omissions are required by the so-called "conservative" movement to whitewash history shows that it's rotten at its core. It depends on dishonesty and bigotry to try to program people to agree with the dumbest among us. The US is already falling into the backwaters of learning, research, science and technology, among other things. This "movement" will keep us moving in that direction. What century is it?
Posted by: Prof | Jun 29, 2010 9:32:15 AM
Stephen, I respectfully disagree with you. You did not provide a single reason why we should vote for Democrats in New Mexico except to say Republicans in neighboring states are bad and Martinez is from Texas...
Should we elect Democrats in NM because they repealed the food tax and then reinstated it? Should we elect them because they presided over the largest tax break in NM history in 2005? The main source of our revenue problems. Or maybe we should elect them because Martinez apparently distorted her record about prosecuting cartel members? I suppose the same reasoning does not apply to all the things D accomplished while being Lt. Gov. to Richardson but somehow having no connection to him or his policies (at least the negative ones)?
Point is, you are right that Dems have the numbers to win but if they lose it will because their leaders have no solutions to offer that inspire people to vote.
One last thing, I find it amazingly simplistic and borderline ignorant to imply that all Republicans lack decency.
Posted by: William Nie | Jun 29, 2010 10:35:10 AM
Great article Stephen ... unfortunately, many white Democrats in New Mexico don't like seeing "change". Knowing that minorities will be the majority in the USA, I think scares many REPS and DEMS.
I think they will pass whatever laws they feel they need to pass to cling on to the majority for at least an extra minute if need be.
Many DEMS may not say this outloud, then again, some local DEM candidates here Alamogordo have started to bang the drum of racism all in the name of national and economic security.
Frankly, this turn me and my partner off to voting for a Democrat, when many times DEMS appear to act just like Republicans.
Posted by: LeoCuevas | Jun 29, 2010 10:55:35 AM
William Nie doesn't seem to get it that we have a handful of bad Dems and many good Dems in the legislature. The bad Dems hook up with the bad Republicans to make sure good things don't pass and compromises have to be made that good Dems don't like. This is similar to what happens in the US Senate.
Don't hold true Democrats responsible for the obstructionism of the fake Dems and the right wingers in the legislature and the Senate. If you have a good idea how to get around them other than electing more and better Dems, let us know.
One thing that won't help is to stay home and allow more teabag appeasers to gain power. That helps how? It does help to understand politics and government before making blanket statements about THEY.
Posted by: Socorro Dem | Jun 29, 2010 11:15:50 AM
Socorro Dem, I'm glad you have an absolute standard for bad and good politicians. I would like to here it.
In the meantime, I am still waiting to hear what reasons there are for supporting Dems in general(not individual candidates) beyond, "...decency is something the Republican Party knows absolutely nothing about." And, your statement, "One thing that won't help is to stay home and allow more teabag appeasers to gain power." Is simply another example of support me because my opponent is evil...
@Leo, according to the latest census projections, minorities will be the majority around 2050. I think it ridiculous to say that has anything at all to do with this election.
The change we are facing in NM is much simpler. NM is the single most reliant state in the country on federal money. We receive more per capita than any state in the nation. The combination of the 2005 tax cuts, budget cuts in DOE and DOD, declining tourism, and permanent spending based on temporary escalation of petroleum subsidies are the reason for our current state of affairs.
You can blame it on "bad Dems", apathetic voters, corrupt corporations, Tea Parties, Republicans, or nose aunt Maybel. But the fact remains, as a country and as individuals, we spend vastly more than we take in and that is mathematically unsustainable no matter how you choose to spin it.
Posted by: William Nie | Jun 29, 2010 11:46:30 AM
William Nie: You know as well as I do why we need to vote for good Democrats so stop pretending you don't. Good Democrats in NM support the platform of the Democratic Party of NM. Go read it. Bad Democrats don't support the platform and instead collude extensively with monied interests, just like most Republicans do. They're for the status quo.
It is idiotic to ask why we should support THE Democrats in general, as if they're all in a pile. I do know why we shouldn't support THE Republicans though. They ARE in a pile, all of them sheep and beholden to teabaggers, bigots, oil companies and the wealthy.
Tell me the name of one Republican in NM who has a plan for addressing our problems, respects diversity, is for equal rights for all and thinks taxation should be fair and progressive.
I guess you don't see how right wing economic and deregulation policies have bankrupted our nation and many others. We don't have money for what we need because they stole it.
Posted by: Socorro Dem | Jun 29, 2010 12:49:28 PM
I think William needs to read a little Paul Krugman-
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html
Posted by: Econ guy | Jun 29, 2010 1:03:51 PM
Do you really believe this nonsense you have written here, Stephen. If you do, you are as insane as the people who watch Glenn Beck...and you didn't even need a T.V.Got there all on your own.
Posted by: al vincent | Jun 30, 2010 11:16:37 PM
Soccorro Dem, all politicians are bad politicians. That is why they are politicians. All they want is power, power over YOU. They are willing to spend millions of their own money for a job that pays a few hundred thousand, because it is power they want, power to tell you what to do. Do you like that idea? If you do, then you must be a sheep. But there are some of us out here who do not want to be sheep, and we are fed up with politicians and the people who make them possible.
Posted by: al vincent | Jun 30, 2010 11:20:21 PM
Thanks Al, well said.
@Socorro Dem, Doug Turner...
@Econ guy, Paul Krugman? Are you serious? I prefer the Financial Times, Simon Johnson, and Joseph Stiglitz over endless government Krugman.
What are my marching orders? Oh that's right, Susana Martinez should fire people because they emailed a racist joke. Definitely a pertinent issue to our day. Never mind that she is unqualified and lacks a single cogent idea. Thank you DPNM!
Posted by: William Nie | Jul 1, 2010 12:30:04 PM
William Nie agrees with "al vincent"? I thought Nie had some integrity even if he's full of wacko libertarian views but now I see he's just another garden variety naysaying kook. All people who serve the public in politics are power hungry monsters? Sounds like something straight out of a teabagger's mouth. In fact I think Nie and al should head on over to teabagger land, strap on their six shooters and pretend they're a Western version of Ayn Rand.
As for Doug Turner having any workable solutions, he's off in teabagger lala land. He wants to dismantle the government. Maybe he wants 100 more BP oil gushers as corporations rule the world.
Posted by: Reader Not Rand | Jul 1, 2010 12:49:16 PM
What are your solutions reader? Or do you always resort to Ad Hominem attacks, like the tea party, rather than offering any?
I find it amusing that spending less than one earns has gone from being common sense to radical libertarian wackiness in my life time.
Posted by: William Nie | Jul 1, 2010 8:55:52 PM
