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Progressive Takeover of New Mexico Democratic Party. Grant County is but another Example.

09/07/2016

Earlier this spring we discussed the growing divide between the traditional Democratic Party of New Mexico and the growing and aggressive newcomers who call themselves "progressives."

The more traditional wing has been a happy fusion of both Anglo and Hispanic New Mexicans, but in many ways more or less dominated largely by native Hispanics from families who have been in New Mexico for many generations. This Democratic Party, in turn, tended to dominate if not command the political heights from the 1930s up until the last decade.

Over the last few years a much more militant alternative party has emerged, largely dominated by more recent arrivals. It is a predominantly Anglo phenomenon with leaders who have brought both East Coast and West Coast ideology and tactics into the process. Their goal has been to takeover the Democratic Party of New Mexico and make it a vehicle for vastly more radical economic and social ideas.

In May and June we discussed Bernalillo County and the traditional v. Progressive battle for its county commission as well as the infusion of George Soros money into the process. But the battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party reaches into every county in New Mexico. Today we examine a traditional stronghold of the party in the southwestern part of the state, Grant County.

Grant County Progressives Win the Democratic Primaries

Grant County recently opted to change its county government from a three-member Board of Commissioners to a five-member board. This resulted in redistricting the commission and of course then necessitated elections in three districts this year, the 3rd, and the new 4th and 5th Districts.

This in turn led to spirited Democratic primaries for all three seats, involving a total of nine candidates. Progressives won them all. (Republicans, as is often the case in New Mexico, settled on one candidate for each district and had no contested primaries.)

The three "progressive" Democrat nominees are all Bernie Sanders Democrats, and as such have very little in common with much of the traditional base of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. 

They are not the Kennedy, or LBJ, or even Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton Democrats, who coalesced around the kinds of ideas supported by Hispanic ranchers and farmers of northern New Mexico together with their Anglo counterparts in other parts of the state.

Rather these are what might be called "MSNBC" Democrats, with little sympathy for the role (let alone the needs or contributions) of agriculture, mining, or other traditional mainstays of the Grant County economy.

The three progressives have appeared together, running as a team, at various venues in Silver City and other Grant County locations.

Clearly, they are very comfortable with themselves and their fellow progressive, House District 38 nominee Mary Hotvedt, as well as all who believe the most pressing issues for Grant County are things like global warming and environmental damage caused by agriculture, and other ideologically-driven themes.

But Will the Progressives sit well with Grant County Voters?

Since this spring, a video has been circulating from a forum in April where the three progressive candidates appeared together. At the forum they discussed such things as their unique views on water rights, ranching, and their enthusiasm for a $15 minimum wage.

It is possible they may be out of touch with the relatively small Grant County population that tends to share a set of values that transcends today's political party structures—and may well reject the fairly new-fangled "progressive" Democrat ideology that is likely to get a much more enthusiastic reception in places like Santa Fe than Silver City.

There also appears to be a disconnect with the progressives, with locals observing that the progressives are fairly open in expressing their view that farmers and ranchers are "hayseeds," who don't quite measure up to the intellectual level of the progressives.

 

"Scintillating."  A Term the Progressives Used as a Putdown of the Farm Bureau.

Will it Go over big in Grant County?

Underscoring the feeling that the progressives have little respect for traditional Democrats is a point in the aforementioned video that still has quite a few Grant County voters annoyed.

The progressive nominees were fairly transparent in making fun of the Farm Bureau.

They mockingly referred to the organization and its meeting as "scintillating," followed by uproarious laughter, clearly meant to convey that the progressives don't think much of the Farm Bureau members' ideas or thought processes.

See the video here:  http://goo.gl/BMEpYu

In this video Mary Hotvedt (Democrat candidate for House District 38) asks a question at a "progressive" County Commissioner candidate forum (Left to Right: Harry Browne, District 5, Alicia Edwards, District 3, and Marilyn Alcorn, District 4) at the Grant County Bernie Sanders Headquarters this spring.

"A more serious question: We were all with the Farm and Livestock Bureau a couple weeks ago for two scintillating evenings...[loud laughter]"

The second part of the video shows Hotvedt, who—four months later—has thought better of the putdown remark and the raucous laughter that followed. She had decided she wants to "clean up" the incident and "explain" it.

The video shows her saying:

 "I am Mary Hotvedt and I made that remark, and the remark was made to clarify that in no way was that a statement about ranchers."

Hmmm. Maybe so. Or maybe she's just responding to anger that has been expressed in Grant County and is trying to do damage control. 

Progressive Alicia Edwards faces Republican Henry Torres in District 3.

In District 4, Progressive Marilyn Alcorn faces Republican Gerald Wayne Billings, Jr.

And in District 5, Progressive Harry Browne is pitted against not only the Republican nominee, Harry A. Pecotte, but also against DeAnn Bencomo, a Democrat running as a write-in candidate.

In addition to the Bencomo candidacy, another Democrat Jeremiah Garcia, who ran in the primary for the District 4 seat, has endorsed Republican Billings over Alcorn.

So, while the redistricting does appear to favor the Democrats, at least in Districts 3 and 5, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Democrats have nominated the wrong people. Have they nominated folks who are bent on offending too many moderate Democrats and independents alike? We won't know the answer to that till November.


Email us with your feedback, comments, questions and ideas.

Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

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National Issues

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2016 Presidential Campaign - Democrats

Republicans

2016 Presidential Campaign - Republicans

Jeb Bush gets religion.

"They said he got religion at the end, and I'm glad that he did."  — Tom T. Hall. The Year Clayton Delaney died.

Well, it's official.  Jeb Bush has changed quite of few of his positions on illegal immigration.  The single most significant is that he no longer endorses the "path to citizenship" for those who came here illegally. 

This is, after all, the key portion of any proposal aimed at "reforming" our existing illegal immigration situation.

No sensible citizen can see any point in trying to deport between 12 and 16 million people currently living in America illegally.  And no candidate for any office that we know of supports that.  What the average American wants is for the country to "get a handle on it."  They want it stopped, our borders secured and future illegal immigration prevented.  It is a national security issue.

The Path to Legal Status

The only way to accomplish the above goals, is to identify current illegal immigrants, get them accounted for, have them documented, and placed on a path to legal status.  Neither they nor their children or spouses should live in a state of fear or anxiety.

But a path to "citizenship" is not the right course.  It is not morally or legally correct.  A merciful and compassionate nation can provide the safeguards of legal status without sending the message to the rest of the world that all you have to do is cross our border and you will eventually get to become a citizen, thus circumventing the legal framework scores of millions of Americans have followed, honored and respected.

If someone who is granted legal status eventually wants to become a citizen, that person should have to return to his or her country of origin and wait in line like 20 million people around the world are doing at any given time.  Failing that, America will forever send the signal that anyone in the world can "jump the line," and that there is no reason at all to obey our immigration and naturalization laws.

We Like Jeb Bush

We are glad Jeb Bush has learned this lesson.  He is a fine speaker, and can eloquently explain his positions on complex issue.  If he were not named "Bush" he would be an actual top tier candidate—in all that that title would entail, including likelihood of acceptance and support of and from the American people in the primaries, and in any theoretical general election.  

We also recognize that he already is a de facto top-tier candidate because of his fame and his fundraising.

If he were to be the nominee of the Republican Party we would heartily support him and endorse him.  We hope, however, that he is not, as he does not give the center-right coalition the best chance of winning.

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Movies, Television, Pop Culture

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    Selma   ????? We have now seen the Oscar-nominated movie Selma.   Our earlier allusion to criticism that sounded as though it was in an Oliver Stone category for historical fabrication is some...

Sports

Sports

The Major League Baseball Playoffs are not realistic, and destroy the actual meaning of the sport. 

Major League Baseball is unique in this respect—its postseason is markedly different from the way the game is played normally.  No other major league sport suffers from this flaw.

Not that much is wrong with baseball. In some respects it's the most well thought-out sport there is.  The "perfect game" many aficionados say.

But the Major League Baseball postseason experience is unique in the world of professional sports, and not in a good way. 

In fact the playoffs are flawed in such a way as to detract from the sport itself and diminish the game and what it means to be the world champion of the sport. 

Among the Big Four team sports of North America: football, hockey, basketball and baseball—and all the 122 professional major league teams competing in the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB respectively—it is in baseball alone that the postseason turns the sport itself on its head and makes it reflect something that it is not.  This article will explain why that happens and why it is wrong-headed.

 

Background on the The Frequency of Play

The 30 teams in both the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association teams play a very similar schedule.  On average, each team has a day off between games, sometimes two days off.  Though there are back-to-back games, they are relatively infrequent.  NBA teams play between 14 and 22 back-to-back games a season, and for the NHL it usually ranges between 9 and 19. The NFL has a full week between games, the exception being the new Thursday games that each team plays once, leaving them only four days' rest once a year.

But baseball players play every single day.  Ten days straight, then a day off, then seven more games, then a day off, then ten more games.  Typically a baseball team plays 27 games every 30 days.  For the NHL and NBA it would be 14 per month, and for the NFL the number would be 4.

 

Getting to the Playoffs:  It's a grind

In all four sports, getting to the postseason requires a total team effort—in fact an all-out total organizational effort.  Teams must be deep, have bench strength and the capability of moving players in and out of the lineup, and on and off the roster, who can take the place of key players who go down for an injury, or who have to miss games for whatever reason.  While this is true of the other three major sports as well, it is most certainly even more of a concern for baseball teams because of the sheer volume of games in which a team must field a competitive lineup.

Each league's regular season* is a marathon, not a sprint.  NFL teams play for 17 weeks, 16 games.  The NHL has an 82-game season over six months, paralleled by an NBA season of 84 games over the same timeframe. Baseball is the biggest marathon of all—a true test of resilience and endurance—162 games usually starting around the beginning of April and finishing about the end of September.

NHL teams carry 23-man rosters, of which 20 can be active for any particular game.  The NBA is similar, with 15-man rosters of which 13 can be on the bench for a given game. In the NFL, the teams have 53 players on a roster, but only 46 can suit up on game day.  In Major League Baseball, teams have a 25-man active roster, and all 25 are at the park every day.

 

The Postseason Playoffs:  Sport by Sport

The National Football League:

Of the 32 teams, 12 qualify for the playoffs.  The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season.  Each team plays once a week, the exception being that the four top teams get the first week off.  For a typical qualifier to reach the Super Bowl, the team must play three consecutive weeks.  At that point both remaining teams have two weeks off before the Super Bowl.

In short, the playoffs, with a game each week, reflects the same means of advancement as is present in regular season grind.

The National Hockey League: 

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason.  The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on.  Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off.  But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

 

The National Basketball Association

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason.  The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on.  Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off.  But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

Major League Baseball

10 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason.  (Although four of those teams qualify only for a one-game do-or-die play-in game.)

Here is where all similarity to baseball ends. 

Unlike the other three sports whose playoffs mirror the test of the regular season, and whose conditions are the same as the regular season, Major League Baseball playoffs in no way resemble the sport itself.  In hockey, basketball and football, the teams win playoff games and reach the pinacle of the sport in exactly the same way that they qualify to try to do so. 

Not so in baseball.  They are two entirely different concepts.  Teams make the playoffs only because they have depth, five-man pitching rotations and can play day-in and day-out at a high level.  But the baseball playoffs suddenly become a kind of "all-star" game within each team's roster.  MLB playoffs are conducted in a way that more closely follows the NBA and the NHL.  Teams have enormous numbers of days off. 

Here's the key point:  No Major League Baseball team could even qualify for the postseason if they played the same way during the regular season that they do in the playoffs.  None.

In the regular season Major League Baseball teams have to use a 5-man starting rotation, with pitchers pitching every 5th day.  There are not enough days off to have even a four-man rotation, let alone a team with three pitchers.  Even the best team in baseball using only a 4-man rotation, would wear them out, and most likely end up with a record of something like 66-96, or 70-92—and that would be if they were otherwise teh best team in the sport.

 

The 2014 Baseball Postseason is Typical

As examples, last year's World Series teams the Kansas City Royals played only 15 games in 30 days, and the San Francisco Giants played only 17 games in 30 days.  The 12 to 15 days off in the non-baseball fantasy world of the MLB postseason, means that teams can turn to three pitchers and give all of them plenty of rest.  But it isn't the way baseball really works.

At one point, the Royals had 5 consecutive days off, and the Giants had 4.  This never happens in the regular season.  Even the All-Star break is only three days.  Very rarely is there anything beyond a one-day break, and even that happens only a couple of times a month. 

What this means is that neither team used the team that got them to the playoffs.  (The NFL, NBA and NHL teams ALL used the very same teams that got them to the playoffs.) 

Baseball teams use a three-man pitching rotation in the playoffs.  Sometimes, they essentially opt for two pitchers only—conceding the likelihood that some of their games are going to be lost—when their third-, or rarely fourth-best pitcher has to face one of their opponents' two-man or three-man rotation members. 

Imagine an NFL team using only one running back and three wide receivers, instead of rotating through their roster in the course of a playoff game—or using only 4 defensive backs and 4 linebackers, instead of rotating 8 or 9 DBs and 6 or 7 linebackers?  In hockey, would a team use only two or three of their forward lines?  Would an NBA team use only the starting five?  They would never make the post season if they tried to present that product to their fans during the regular season.

Those are the equivalents of what Major League Baseball sets up every fall.  No other sport drags its playoffs out in such a way as to completely change the playing field—completely change the dynamics of its game.

Why Does Baseball Do This?

MLB does this because the TV networks want to drag out the games so that they can try to have one game each day  This requires an unnecessary staggering of games, and creates the phenomenon of 15 off-days in a month.

What about travel days?

What about them?  Baseball has travel days constantly.  A team may play in Chicago one day and in Miami the next, or in New York one day and Phoenix the very next day.  Travel days as a routine part of the game are again, a phenomenon of television, and stretching out the playoffs.

In years past, travel days were employed only when necessary. The famous "subway series" games were played on seven consecutive days.  Why?  Because there was no "travel day" required to go from Brooklyn to the Bronx.  Today, they would put in artificial travel days.

Even fairly long train trips didn't necessarily matter.  The 1948 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves was played in six consecutive days, October 6 & 7 in Boston, October 8, 9 & 10 in Cleveland, and October 11 back in Boston.

This reflects actual baseball, the way the teams play day-in and day-out, and the kind of unique test that baseball presents to its athletes, its managers and management, and to its fans.

In the modern world of charter planes, teams fly from coast to coast to play games on consecutive days.  The artificial "travel day" should be eliminated so that teams can play in the playoffs in the same way that got them there in the first place.


*All these leagues also have pre-seasons and training camps, which add an additional 6-8 weeks to each player's year.


Email us with your feedback, comments, questions and ideas. 

Religious Issues

Religious Issues

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