{"id":730123,"date":"2019-11-20T07:37:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T14:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=730123"},"modified":"2019-11-25T09:32:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T16:32:17","slug":"we-can-still-build-the-bridges-that-make-america-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2019\/11\/we-can-still-build-the-bridges-that-make-america-great\/","title":{"rendered":"We can still build the bridges that make America great"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My girlfriend Sarah’s grandfather, Ram\u00f3n Jim\u00e9nez, a Mexican immigrant and pecan farmer and a dear man who makes America great. (Heath Haussamen\/NMPolitics.net)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COMMENTARY: <\/strong>I came across a truck parked on the side of a dirt road while I was hunting last week with a red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d cap displayed on the dashboard. The plate on the front read, \u201cYou can\u2019t fix stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about it ever since. The sort of othering promoted by President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda is sweeping the globe as populist movements grow in response to economic pressures. That, coupled with our long history of colonization and racism, is feeding anti-immigrant movements. Divides between the ideological left and right are widening. Those who would hold the middle are being marginalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With younger generations consistently moving America in a more progressive direction, the Republican Party is increasingly abandoning democracy in an attempt to hold power. Some still believe in working to bring people of color, women and young people into the GOP, but the party as a whole has embraced nationalism and anti-democratic policies like reducing polling places and canceling presidential primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand the urge. Too many people whose families built wealth over generations lost it in the 2008 recession, then lost health care when Barack Obama was president. Trump provides a boogeyman \u2014 immigrants \u2014 and promises to protect a life people fear is slipping away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But America, in all its imperfect glory, is at its best when we act with the hope of a shared purpose instead fear of others. The white nationalist MAGA agenda, not immigrants, is the greatest threat to our way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research by Harvard political scientist Daniel Ziblatt<\/a> suggests that democracies need strong center-right parties to survive the creep of fascism. So Trump\u2019s success in bullying out of Congress<\/a> those conservatives who would stand up to his agenda is especially troubling. To stop this threat, we need democracy-loving Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican Party of New Mexico should be a bastion of moderate conservatism. Republicans can\u2019t win most offices in this state any other way. Republicans here should know better than to embrace the kidnapping and traumatizing of migrant children<\/a> and wasting public money on an ineffective border wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who now heads the state GOP, has wholeheartedly embraced the Trump agenda. Where are the independent Republicans? Some have landed in our neighbor city of El Paso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Barela, a former N.M. economic development secretary who once ran for Congress in Albuquerque, is working to build the border economy across three states in two nations as CEO of the Borderplex, and he often speaks out against the president\u2019s rhetoric<\/a>. Heather Wilson, a former congresswoman from Albuquerque who was Trump\u2019s first Air Force secretary, is the president of the University of Texas-El Paso. While in Washington she fought against Trump\u2019s efforts to create a Space Force<\/a> as a separate branch of the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic, pro-immigration stronghold in far southwest Texas seems to be a spot not only for refugees from Latin America, but also for some important conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sad that Rep. Will Hurd, a black, moderate Republican who represents the House district east of El Paso, isn\u2019t seeking re-election. He is instead focusing on building a more ethnically diverse GOP<\/a>. While the cynic in me thinks it\u2019s too late for that, his stubborn hope, to be honest, helped sparked this column. We need more of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are others. I give Utah\u2019s Mitt Romney credit for running into the burning building by seeking election to the U.S. Senate while so many others were fleeing to save themselves. I wish Arizona\u2019s Jeff Flake and others had stayed to fight alongside him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s difficult when your party turns to white nationalism and the other party beats you up endlessly. The left has aided Trump in bullying Republicans who value democracy over party out of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was excited last year when the Koch-funded LIBRE Initiative hosted a panel discussion on immigration reform in Las Cruces<\/a>. My girlfriend Sarah Silva joined Barela and other conservatives on that panel who understand that immigration is instrumental to America\u2019s greatness, and who still value common ground and compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah faced some backlash from the left for having a conversation with Barela and others at a Koch-funded event. Othering isn\u2019t unique to the right, though it\u2019s much worse in that corner of the ideological spectrum at this moment in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the ideological purity the left trends toward isn\u2019t helping hold the line against fascism any more than the blind party loyalty that has consumed the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The removal of the most fascist-leaning president in modern history is a critical step to preserving what makes America great. We need people like Barela, Wilson, Hurd and Flake to stay active. We need Romney to be more vocal. We need more influential white Republicans to join Barela and Hurd in the fray, like state Sen. John McCollister in Nebraska has done<\/a>, and not leave it to the few prominent GOP people of color to lead efforts to stop the party\u2019s descent into white nationalism. Is there a GOP state senator in New Mexico with McCollister\u2019s courage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also need the left to work with the Republicans who stand up for what\u2019s right. Such alliances are quintessentially American. They\u2019re necessary if we\u2019re to successfully defend everything about America that is wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah\u2019s grandfather, Ram\u00f3n Jim\u00e9nez, came to the United States from Mexico decades ago under the bracero program. He was eventually able to bring his family with him. He still speaks primarily Spanish. The land where he farms pecans has three homes on it. Two of his children live there with him and their families. His farm is a testament to the greatness immigrants bring to the United States. Life there is a mix of English and Spanish and always a celebration of family and freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I photographed Sarah\u2019s grandfather standing on that patch of land three years ago with pecan trees and an American flag behind him. In the photo, this entrepreneur looks proud and content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s America, when we choose to be our best. America at its best is also Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testifying Tuesday in the House<\/a> about Trump\u2019s inappropriate demands of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt. Col. Vindman shared that in the Soviet Union, which his father left four decades ago to bring his family to the United States, his acts of raising concerns about the president and testifying publicly \u201cwould surely cost me my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America is different, he said, addressing his dad: \u201cDo not worry. I will be fine for telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt. Col. Vindman\u2019s faith in America makes America great. The GOP attacks on his immigrant heritage do the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has often met waves of immigration with fear that\u2019s always been proven wrong. We must refuse to give in to that fear now. We must interrupt our own senseless othering and find ways to bridge our differences<\/a>. Our task is to dig deep to find hope, understanding and courage, and then to act, together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can start by standing up for what\u2019s right, like Lt. Col. Vindman. And we can start, as Las Cruces<\/a>, Deming<\/a> and El Paso<\/a> have done with diverse ideological support, by creating welcoming spaces for the migrants Trump mistreats. That\u2019s a model the rest of the nation should emulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can build from there, regardless of whether Trump is removed from office by the Senate or defeated in the next election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fear-based MAGA agenda promotes othering that is tearing us apart, but there are reasons to stay hopeful all around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":730134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[140,3679,3307,116],"class_list":["post-730123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-borderlands","tag-donald-trump","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730123"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732307,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730123\/revisions\/732307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}