Save our city! (But from what?)

A recent e-mail distributed by the Las Cruces TEA Party raised the call to “Save Our City,” as though Las Cruces teeters on the brink of moral and financial collapse.

My personal experience directly contradicts this. In the last few weeks, I’ve hiked the Pine Tree trail on the backside of the Organs; eaten breakfast with my wife on the lovely patio at La Iguana’s as friends walked by, stopping to chat as they enjoyed the farmer’s market; pushed our new blue recycling bin, full of recyclables, out to the curb; and won (and lost) several tennis matches — despite the blustery spring winds — at the well-maintained tennis courts at Lyon’s park.

This is the short list of good things. So, I wonder what the TEA party thinks we need to save our city from?

What they say

This Las Cruces TEA party group (there are two in town since, rumor has it, they couldn’t get along) has formed a Save Our City coalition because “the Las Cruces City Council is completely controlled by a group of Progressive Democrats that are owned and operated by an organization called the Progressive Voter Alliance.” The Save Our City coalition’s stated goal is “removing the Progressives and their toxic doctrines.”

But I still am not sure what exactly the problem is. As a matter of fact, it’s not just me who thinks things are going good here in Las Cruces. According to both local and national experts, Las Cruces is doing quite well.

Our economy is strong

In an economy like this, many people suffer, and that’s been true in Las Cruces as well. Still, most of us have fared better than other people in neighboring cities and states. For example — for the second year in a row — the Milken Institute, a national, nonpartisan economic think tank, named Las Cruces one of the top 10 performing small cities in the nation, based on job growth, wages and salaries, GDP growth, and other measures.

And local economist Chris Erickson agrees. In a recent Las Cruces Bulletin article, Erickson, citing a report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, points out that Las Cruces has outperformed both Albuquerque and Santa Fe over the last decade. As he says in the article, “However you slice it, the gains are impressive.” You can get more information — including cool powerpoint graphs — that quanitifes how Las Cruces has weathered the recession by watching this Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce forum.

Crime is down

A March 5 Las Cruces Sun-News article by Ashley Meeks outlines how crime has dropped significantly in the last two years:

“Between 2009 and 2010, violent crime went down11 percent in Las Cruces and 68 percent of those crimes were solved, compared with a nationwide reduction of 5 percent with 47 percent of such crimes solved. A second classification of crime – which includes assaults, credit card fraud, bad checks, vandalism, drunken driving, runaways and trespassing – went down 6 percent, with 23 percent of such crimes solved, compared with a nationwide reduction of 4 percent with only 18 percent solved.”

Traditionally, people get upset when the economy is bad or crime is bad. But the Las Cruces economy is holding steady in tough times and crime rates are dropping, so that’s not what is upsetting the Las Cruces TEA Party.

Planning, sustainability and social justice

If their beef isn’t about the economy or crime, it must be something else.

A former city council candidate, Jim Harbison, in a video on the Las Cruces TEA party homepage, says his primary complaint is that the city’s advocacy for better planning and more efficient delivery of city services, an emphasis on sustainable best practices, and valuing social justice, by increasing access to opportunity, choices, and freedom for all city residents, rather than just the special interests, is all part of a global plot to destroy private property. Here’s how he puts it:

“Sustainablists have imposed ‘green’ positions in their business policies and government officials at all levels are merging the power of the economy with the force of government in public/private partnerships at the local, state and federal levels. Its real objective is to redistribute American manufacturing, wealth, and jobs out of our borders and to lock away American natural resources.”

He claims that the people who believe in sustainability, public/private partnerships, and social justice are part of a global conspiracy to ruin America.

But I hold these values and am not a part of that conspiracy, so it’s hard for me to take that claim very seriously.

For those of us who don’t have an ideological opposition to all government, Mr. Harbison’s global conspiracy theory is baffling. It’s worth listening to how some of the Las Cruces city councilors — especially Councilor Thomas — responded to Mr. Harbison’s concerns when he expressed them at the April 4 City Council meeting, during public participation (the discussion begins at about 49 minutes in this video).

Why I’m a progressive

Finally, the Las Cruces TEA Party’s stated mission in their “Save Our City” e-mail is to remove the “progressives and their toxic doctrines.” I certainly don’t speak for all progressives, but here are some of the things that I stand for:

• America’s success is built on (and depends on) our ability to work together to solve our problems. See here for more details.
• All humans — regardless of race, creed, sex, gender, sexual orientation — are entitled to, as the Declaration of Independence states, the protection of their basic human rights, which at least include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• We the people have formed together and, as the Preamble to the Constitution states, empowered our government “to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

I’m not sure what is so toxic about these beliefs. They are rooted in our founding documents and our shared experience. They are inclusive and intended to maximize freedom and opportunity.

In their “Save Our City” e-mail, the Las Cruces TEA Party claims to stand for patriotism and civic responsibility. Those are my values also. As a patriot, I believe in fulfilling my duties to my country and my children by working hard, volunteering in my community, paying my fair share of taxes, and investing in the future.

Furthermore, as a part of my civic responsibility, I am duty-bound to do what I can to ensure that every American, no matter their race, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation or creed, has the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of this country. That is the promise of America.

I have little confidence that this will be especially convincing to the Las Cruces TEA Party members. But I hope they will modulate their tone and think about what they are saying a little bit more. Wild accusations get us nowhere and only further the distance between the people who disagree. Although Las Cruces has done well, we have big problems as a state and country. We might all be better served if we quit with the name-calling and hyperbole, and started working together respectfully.

In the meantime, I’ll be waiting for the spring winds to subside, and enjoying breakfast at La Iguana’s with my family and friends. You should too. Make sure to say “Hello” if you see me.

Nick Voges is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net’s Zeitgeist. E-mail him at nick@nmpolitics.net.