I posted a diary last night about a really great progressive Democrat who really deserves not only national recognition for the great work he's been doing, but a lot of support in his election bid to become Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico.
It sank out of sight with only 2 comments, while diaires with titles that contained "Sarah Palin" or "boobs" seemed to be quite popular, just a few lines up or down.
Daily Kos is supposed to be peopled by those who are not gullible and not fooled by the mainstream media approach to politics, which substitutes gloss and superficiality for substance.
Daily Kos is supposed to be a place where progressive candidates that deserve to be known and deserve the support of progressives can gain some.
If Progressives don't support progressives - who will? How is a movement supposed to develop where people don't even bother to pay attention?
WHY SHOULD ANYONE CARE WHO THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO IS?
First of all, it matters if you want to see the progressive movement actually get anywhere.
I have been involved or an observer in progressive politics in Texas, Washington State, Arizona and now New Mexico. I also lived in California for a while.
There is a tendency to depend a bit too much on opinion sources and not enough on our own judgement. We all fall prey to it, if we are honest and self aware, because we are human. We know the opinion sources that are available are mostly tainted one way or another. The effect is largely demobilizing and promoting a kind of culture-wide depression that spreads like the smoke from some huge fire somewhere. We have to be clear: that is being done on purpose to an extent. To some extent, it is echoes of echoes. Not that many people are original thinkers.
You know, at least in some states, the Lt. Gov job is really a kind of Grand Poobah whose job role is generally not real obvious and who may just not be too motivated to promote progressive policies. The out of sight and out of mind nature of this situation can lead to behind the scene dealmaking that may not really serve the best interests of the public. People who get into high office and whose constituents do not pay attention, sometimes decide to focus on feathering their own nests. There are lots of reasons in our collective recent history to consider being more interested.
The precinct conventions at which delegates are selected and that then vote for the Party nominee have already begun. It will be over before most people are aware.
This is the problem progressives face everywhere. One might complain about the process. Indeed, it normally tends to favor insiders and people with money. But five people showing up, out of a possible pool of 2,000 registered Democratic voters in one precinct is usually a lot. 15 people could seem like a revolution. And where are the progressives? Watching TV or blogging about something that has gotten under our skin? One might protest, but where are all these people?
The truth is this: it should be especially obvious after the recent Supreme Court decision that there is not a substitute for human beings standing up for what they believe in. If there is to really be a progressive movement, then the mastery of the process has to be practiced at every opportunity, at every level and every possible race has to be won.
State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino came to politics after a distinguished career as a professional social worker who worked extra hard and accomplished things for the community outside of work hours. He founded a charter school, for example, that is in a jail and whose students are all inmates. This is a model that should get some attention nationally. He is keenly intelligent and hard working and is on target with a whole range of issues. I have seen lots of candidates and I am impressed that I have never seen someone so well prepared or so capable, as someone who could take office and really do some great things with it.
In New Mexico, as in every other state, social workers are on the front lines of economic reality. Most of us hear stories on the TV news or from other sources. Social workers are there in situations of intense stress so they know the impact of budgets in a way that is matched probably by only police officers, or maybe cab drivers and beauticians.
For legislators deliberating on these issues, who do not have experience in dealing directly with the consequences of a deep recession the way they really come home to communities, these can tend to be abstractions. That's why we get the kind of policy decisions we do that we complain about.
As a State Senator, who serves on the state budget committee, Ortiz y Pino is right in the thick of it as the New Mexico legislative process unfolds in the current 30 day term. There is a large shortfall. There are serious proposals in the headlines about cutting teachers' pay. People on the state payroll face job loss. The social fabric is at risk, especially in a state with a lot of poverty whether in urban areas where unemployment is ravaging communities, or out in the rural areas where the economic atmosphere is always thinner.
It is crucial that someone be in this statewide office who is in touch with the legislative budget process and with the on-the-ground realities outside the hothouse environment of the state capitol complex.
A lot of people have political ambition. Getting elected sometimes is a function of the ability to spend money on billboards and TV advertising. A lot of times Name ID generated through advertising is enough.
But in hard economic times, it shouldn't be.
So please, email to people on your lists about this great progressive in New Mexico.
Here are some links:
New Mexico Independent:
Ortiz y Pino says Progressives Need to Assert Themselves
Jerry, despite devoting a lot of time to being a State Senator, also writes a weekly column for a local alternative weekly in Albuquerque, the Alibi.
Here is a recent column:
Dropout Rate - or Pushout Rate? Education Politics
You can search for more columns and letters to the editor reactions to them at www.alibi.com
Here's Where You Can Help Spread the Word As a progressives one thing you can do is to email your lists of friends and spread the word whenever there are progressive candidates like this who deserve attention. As I understand it, since Jerry Ortiz y Pino is a state senator and the legislature is in session, his campaign can't solicit for donations during this period. I think the purpose of that is to ensure that the legislative process be as clean as possible of quid pro quos. I am not part of the campaign, although I did a little volunteer work down at the headquarters and did have the privilege of meeting the candidate.
What I hope is that people will check out a fine progressive candidate in New Mexico.
In this race, as in any other there will be other Democrats who wish progressives would think them to be progressives and the leader of the cause. Seeing the difference requires looking further than the superficial imagery and the words that can be so easily crafted.
The first time I heard a developer claiming the green mantle and using envionmental vocabulary in order to steal the issue or at least cloud it was a very long time ago. This is not only child's play, but is an old page in the play book by now. You have to evaluate people beyond the immediate images and words.
There is no source out there to look to that isn't biased or horribly corrupted in some way or other. It just isn't that easy.
But on the other hand, it isn't that hard either.