#RecallThemAll

New Mexico Representative Delegation, still silent after NM Dem Party vote for pro-Gaza, anti-arms policy, continue to hide from constituents.

Medics transport an injured Palestinian child into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 11, 2023.

As the images of the atrocities at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza continue to flood our streams, timelines, and FYPs, it is once again clear just the values our representatives are bringing to Congress in our names. Following their defunding of UNRWA, the NM Representative Delegation brought home millions in funding for arms manufacturing and development in our State with Heinrich bragging of his more than $1B in funds brought into the state for the national military, this week we saw what those weapons will do to occupied and marginalized Peoples the world over.

It is no coincidence that the spineless Postsecondary Student Success Act was quickly pushed forward by Representative Melanie Stansbury (NM-1) and Senator Martin Heinrich (NM), both Democrats hurriedly hiding their war-hawkery and intent to continue the genocide of Palestinians behind a proposed Bill which does nothing to deal with rising education costs for students at the hands of universities-turned-real estate funds. In fact, the bill does everything but deal with costs for learners, only providing more money to universities and colleges who should be reprimanded and sanctioned for not providing the support proposed in the PSSA in the first place. Notably, there is not a single student organization or representative body endorsement that I could find on the pages of the Stansbury or Heinrich announcements of these bills; almost every single named endorsement comes from think tanks, Board/University Governors committees, and colleges/universities themselves.

It is curious but not unusual, to be certain, that our legislators cannot be bothered to garner support from the populations they are ostensibly trying to aid; students have always been a population in which things are done for rather than done with. The same can be said of the greater NM population in the eyes of these “representatives,” their primary goals being to enrich large businesses who profit off of the exploitation of New Mexico’s disempowered labor sector and to reinforce their own power at the expense of locals.

Today we see the outcomes, all delegates distancing themselves from their own constituencies and pushing forward policy which is in direct contrast to the historical needs of the people who live here; all ducking their heads as the Democratic Party of New Mexico constituency votes a ceasefire in Gaza and a full stop to weapons sales to Israel as central policies during the Primary Convention[1] The Democratic Party of New Mexico, cowards that they are, have gone underground during their primary season, embracing the Joe Biden policy of basement-politicking that allowed him to win his Primary in 2020 and assuming their candidacy is locked simply based on Democratic traditions of noncompetition with incumbents. In so doing, they are once more betraying the fundamental principles of democratic process and Progressive ideology that the Party has been so willing to incorporate into their messaging and not into anything else.

The Primary is a time of referendum for voters, an opportunity to extract concessions from within their own party prior to a larger contest. The way the Democratic Party removes this as an option, preferring to assume consent of the population every couple years rather than actively campaign for it, exposes them for what they are: another political aristocracy governing by mandate rather than consent. The abstention of all Representatives from the recent pre-primary convention and the refusal to openly accept the vote for a Ceasefire in Gaza and an end of weapons sales to Israel as central pillars of the Democratic Party priorities for 2024. Representative Leger Fernandez did ultimately respond although her words were little more than attempted amelioration with her continued pitching of the roundly rejected idea of a two-state solution which had failed resoundingly long before the pressure of Oct. 7th came to bear on Democrats desperate for reelection.

And this is why they assume there will be no consequences to their actions, there have been none yet and the opportunities are virtually zero so long as they maintain dominance within their own limited sphere. I believe this is base arrogance and unacceptable for anyone seeking support and votes from the people. For my representative Stansbury, I must caution that while the Primary may be locked, the general most certainly is not; there is great opportunity for a non-Party candidate to mobilize and outflank her on the Left with little to no way for her to regain her footing. She cannot justify her regressive actions to a Progressive constituency and when placed side-by-side with her GOP counterpart, it is clear where her allegiances ultimately lie.

The same goes for every Representative in the State, all three eligible for reelection and open until June to third-/non-Party candidacy for the General in November. I would recommend anyone interested to begin filing as soon as you can, the effort not needing to be successful, so much as it is a warning to the self-insulated Democrats who need not defend their Progressive bona fides so long as there is no pressure to do so from the Left.

New Mexico does not need more tech jobs; it needs more teachers. Albuquerque does not need more over-priced housing, forcing our residents onto the street or dozens of miles outside the city itself. Students do not need more intrusive advisement or credit standardization; they need colleges and universities to be affordable enough that they don’t need two jobs on top of the domestic labor they are undoubtedly doing as well. Oppressed people do not need bombs; they need food.

[1] https://sourcenm.com/2024/03/26/nm-democratic-party-adopts-gaza-ceasefire-policy/

Photo: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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