Start with New Mexico

The only way to secure constitutional democracy -- within New Mexico or at the federal level in the United States -- is to develop and protect it at the state and local level.

New Mexico itself is a constitutional democracy in its own right, but only for so long as its elected officials and those they appoint remain committed to popular sovereignty and the guarantees and requirements of both the New Mexico state constitution and the U.S. federal constitution.

The Republican Party has subverted constitutional democracy in states wherever it has gained control of the legislature or, even more grievously, the legislature and the executive or the legislature and the state high court. For example, red state legislatures, often with the support of Republican governors and Republican majority state courts, have restricted ballot access and gerrymandered voting districts so as to disenfranchise large portions of their populations in blatant denigration of democracy. Republican-controlled state legislatures, again often with the support of Republican governors and/or Republican-controlled state courts, have enacted laws restricting bodily self-determination and freedom of expression - rights guaranteed in the relevant state constitutions as well as in the federal constitution. Ignoring Bills of Rights is paradigmatically anti-constitutional.

We must be vigilant and stalwart in ensuring that New Mexico's legislature, executive, and judiciary do not come under the control of Republican officials. The Republican Party, state and national, knows that New Mexico is not deep blue. This invites Republican Party effort to win whatever they can here. To forestall this, progressives should be running for and supporting progressive candidates for local office, including school boards, county commissions, city and town councils, mayors, county sheriffs, county clerks, county treasurers, etc. These local officials implement constitutional democracy at the most basic level.

Likewise, progressives should run for and support progressive candidates for every kind of state office. State legislators, the governor, the attorney general, district attorneys, elected and appointed state court judges -- all are pivotal in securing New Mexico's constitutional democracy, both by explicitly protecting it and by working within the frameworks established by and according to values expressed through the New Mexico Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. By creating a layered edifice of local and state officials dedicated to New Mexican and American constitutional democracy, we can create a rich New Mexican political culture of constitutional democracy. That is our greatest bulwark against an anti-democratic, anti-constitutional federal government.

There is also a practical and affirmative connection between preserving our intra-state constitutional democracy and regaining and securing federal constitutional democracy. New Mexico elects people to the U.S. Congress, where the fight for constitutional democracy at the federal level can and should be explicitly waged. The best way to ensure that New Mexico produces U.S. Representatives and Senators dedicated to this fight is to foster a deep bench of potential candidates who are committed to popular sovereignty and the U.S. Constitution. The vast majority of U.S. Members of Congress start in local and state office. Martin Heinrich started on the Albuquerque City Council. Ben Ray Lujan served on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission when members were elected to that body. When progressives put their preferred candidates in these offices, they create a pipeline to federal office for progressive New Mexicans. Fostering progressive careers early can also yield a talent pool for future federal executive appointments. Before Deb Haaland ever served in the U.S. House, she was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico and a major force in the Democratic Party of New Mexico.

We can protest Donald Trump's and the Republican-controlled Congress's assaults on U.S. Constitutional arrangements and commitments and the U.S. Supreme Court's failure to vindicate these. But only by preserving constitutional democracy at the state level can we directly ensure its benefits and protections for New Mexicans and also make a significant contribution to its survival at the federal level.