For decades the City Council like the State government has been in the hands of the Democrats. Local progressive-socialists love to claim that the City Council elections are non-partisan and your political party affiliation doesn’t matter. Using a term from an old western novel I’d simply say “horse pucky”. If you believe that party doesn’t matter I have some ocean front property in New Mexico I’d love to sell you. Ask any candidate who ran for office about their experience of knocking on doors and they will tell you one of the first questions asked is “what is your political party?” When they tried to tell them it didn’t matter because it was a non-partisan election the response they most often heard was “well it matters to me”. Unpopular or unsuccessful policies in the City are not the result of actions by some Republican cabal in the City Council but are the consequences of decades of Democrat leadership. The policies that lead to the mismanagement of development in Las Cruces were not the actions of evil greedy developers or republicans but rather extensions of decades of failed democrat leadership and cumbersome bureaucratic processes. This has been compounded by the subversion and control of the democrat platform by the environmental extremists that comprise the progressive-socialist wing of the modern Democrat Party.
It may come as a surprise to hear me say that there are plenty of really good democrats throughout Las Cruces and the nation who understand that government cannot fund all social and environmental programs. They also understand that there is a limit to the amount of taxes that can be imposed in a free society. They also believe in the Constitution and the freedoms and liberty it guarantees. Our differences are in our opinions about what extent or degree social programs should be provided and the true role of government.
Unfortunately, there so many people who have no clue about how the economy or the government operate, do not understand that government possesses no money of its own and that every social program requires taking money from someone else - from some productive member of society. Today, we have generations of Americans who think our government should be guaranteeing equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity. The reality is that those who are the wealth producers of society increasingly begin to withdraw from that role as the government increasingly confiscates more of their wealth to redistribute to the less productive members of society.
Progressives, following the example of President Obama, continually stress that the public doesn’t understand the complexities of modern society, that non-producers are somehow unable to take care of themselves, and that government must take responsibility for support of the “uneducated, uninformed, or unfortunate”. Personal responsibility is not a concept progressives can endorse because it reduces their strangle hold on those who have become dependent upon them.
As the progressive elements in the democrat party continue to attempt to create a Socialist America the number of moderate democrats leaving the democrat party nationwide will continue. This will lead to Mr. Hayes’ greatest fear, Republicans on the City Council.
