There’s a question I’ve been hearing more often lately, first it was from students but lately it has been from the adults in Cibola:
“Why even vote if they can just do whatever they want?”
It’s a simple question, easy to disregard, but in actuality it strikes at the very heart of our Democracy. Because when people stop believing their vote matters, Democracy doesn’t work.
From Washington to Cibola County, there is a disease spreading, the disregard of The People’s Representation.
At the national level, the chaos of the Trump administration’s “peace plan” for Ukraine has been an embarrassment for American diplomacy. Competing statements, confused leadership, and a willingness to barter away Freedom sets a terrible example.
How can the United States claim to defend Freedom abroad when we cannot model integrity at home? How can we lecture the world on Representation and expect better from Russia and China if we mock it in our own elections?
If the American President is willing to treat a nation’s territorial integrity as a bargaining chip, then what stops our local officials from treating district boundaries the same way?
Representation, whether in Kyiv or in Grants, is not and must not be a game of convenience or politics.
Representation is a sacred trust between the governed and those who claim to govern on their behalf.
Do the elected officials forget they run for office seeking permission of The People? More than a job it’s an American Right and Privilege to representation hundreds, sometimes thousands of your neighbors.
Right here at home, Cibola County is again facing a crisis of representation.
In the District 1 Grants City Council race, the recount continues, and questions remain about residency. The Grants City Charter says councilors must live in the districts they represent – not sometimes, not partially, but fully.
This isn’t a technicality; it’s the foundation of the city’s Representation – don’t forget the voters approved that charter, and they specifically approved the section demanding councilor’s live in their districts.
The people of each district deserve a Representative who lives among them, who knows their roads, their neighbors, their daily lives. Don’t forget The People are being taxed by the government and are paying the salaries of the elected officials.
It is troubling that we’re having this conversation again, especially on the eve of the 10th anniversary of Grants’ first Charter violation. It’s hard to preach accountability to Washington when we can’t do it in our own community.
What frustrates me most is the moral fatigue of it all.
That’s why my mantra since the election of Trump has been simple: If I won’t accept it in Washington, I will not accept it at home.
If corruption is wrong in D.C., it’s wrong in Grants. If backroom politics are unacceptable in the Capitol, they’re unacceptable in Cibola.
We mock nations like China and North Korea for staging “elections” while silencing their people. But what moral authority do we have if our own citizens feel unheard, if the rules designed to protect their voice are treated as bendable?
This is not political, it’s philosophical. What does representation mean anymore? Is it an ideal we still hold dear as Americans, or just a box to check?
The Founders of this nation — the men and women who risked their lives for freedom — did not dump tea into Boston Harbor because of taxes. They did it because they had no voice. They did it because their government acted without their consent and was taxing them without their voice.
And that is exactly the danger we face again today.
I believe the greatest threat to democracy is not foreign aggression, but domestic apathy.
When we stop caring who represents us, or whether they represent us at all, we invite the collapse of self-government.
There has never been a nation as good as the United States. We are not perfect; our history proves that. But our greatness lies in our willingness to correct our flaws, to bend the curve of history toward Justice.
The Founders fought tyranny with muskets. Today, we must fight it with integrity. That means demanding better — from Washington, from Santa Fe, and from right here in Cibola County.
America deserves better.
New Mexico deserves better.
Cibola County deserves better.
At the birth of this nation, Benjamin Franklin was asked, “What do we have? A monarchy or a republic?” He responded,
A republic, if you can keep it.