El Paso is the perfect example of this phenomena. The city’s municipal elections are nonpartisan but the party-affiliation of each candidate is clear to those who follow the city’s politics. The county, federal and state elections are party-based. Yet, many of the so-called Democrats are nothing more than Democrats in label only. It is an open secret that some of the current elected officials are Republican-influenced but only using the Democrat label for elective purposes.
At the national level, Donald Trump is clearly not Democrat but he is also not a Republican, except in label only. You only need to see the chaos of the Republican primary and the ongoing give-and-take between Trump and the Republican establishment to understand this.
As you can see by this example, El Paso is the perfect laboratory for analyzing national and geo-political issues at the micro-level. El Paso allows us to understand the macro issues easier by taking the various complex puzzles and simplifying them.
Understanding that the two-party system is nothing more than labels for electing officials then the corruption is easily understood. Party politics is supposed to be about ideals. But the ideals have been usurped by career politicos looking to keep their election paychecks coming. Wrapping oneself in the cloak of a party ideal that they do not believe is corrupt. Once that corruption is accepted, the rest of the corruption becomes a simple matter of using it for personal benefits.
I realize that many of you reading this are not yet ready to accept this reality. It will take time to convince you. But consider the following two examples.
The first is the notion that Donald Trump is fulfilling one of his core promises by bringing jobs back to the country. Trump’s supporters point to Chevrolet and Ford as the two most recent examples of his bringing jobs back to the country. For El Paso Republicans, there is an unintended consequence that they have likely not acknowledged yet. El Paso Republicans generally are anti-tax and anti-excessive spending. They decry the local governments’ reliance on taxation to float the El Paso economy.
To offset taxation, El Paso must make up the difference through a vibrant economy. Like it or not, El Paso’s economy is very dependent on Mexico’s economy. When the Mexican economy tanks, the El Paso economy will crash as well. Since El Paso is debt-ridden by the many bonds and tax-based schemes the electorate has voted themselves, it must offset the losses in revenues by rising taxes. Although the local Republicans may be celebrating the jobs coming back to the country, their pocket books will be paying for those jobs in higher taxes.
If you ask if El Paso is immigrant friendly, most anyone in El Paso or somewhere else about El Paso, the answer is likely going to be yes. As a matter of fact, for most of last year there was the ongoing debate about the city, or the county issuing municipal identification cards. This is example number two.
The City of El Paso released an extensive report about the municipal identification cards and both governments took official actions on the issue. Municipal id cards were debated across the city and the issue is still simmering in the background.
Veronica Escobar and other elected officials at all levels have voiced their support of the muni-ids. Most anyone will argue that municipal identification cards are designed to help undocumented immigrants in El Paso. That is the notion that has been created, but it is a lie.
The reality is that Municipal identification cards in El Paso have nothing to do with helping the undocumented population in El Paso and everything to do with helping the currently political elite to keep getting elected. The municipal identification cards are about building a grassroots population that can be leveraged on election day to elect the politicos that are professional politicians.
The fact is that El Paso is not immigrant friendly at all. For the El Paso politics, immigrants are just a step-stool for their political futures.
Both examples require much more details for some of you to see the connections. I will be delving more into them in upcoming posts. For now, accept them as an example of why the two-party system is dead. The Democrats and Republican labels are just a way for the professional politicians to hoodwink the electorate into voting for them repeatedly.
Mr. Paredes
Your theory is so flawed! Our progressivesite are “true believers”. As I have pointed out, Vero, Beto, Susie and the rest of the motley crew are liberals to the core!
El Paso is not a microcosm. Proof of that is that Beto won’t be elected to the Senate though he is popular here.
The Hunts can be tied to Democrats here while perhaps supporting Republicans elsewhere because they have interests across the state and country.
They don’t care if they help democrats locally because they can own a baseball team without owning the real estate, so who cares about local property taxes?! Hell, they don’t even own their office building. They RENT! With as much real estate as they develop, why don’t they own their office building?!
They can buy local Democrats while supporting Republicans at the state and national level because it doesn’t matter. They OWN the local democrats!