WE all know that Political Parties are groups or factions aligned for the same purpose but what too many voters fail to realize is that “a party is only as good as the People who run it”, a pragmatic lesson we are getting first hand from our Governor & Donald Trump and the Torresians & Trumpiums (LOYAL followers & supporter). Both of these Republican leaders actually promote the same ideology of “Party Loyalty & Business” when it should be “People & Planet.” The Democrat Party is not called the “People’s Party” as a political mantra for nothing because they EARNED that title the old-fashion American Way by their deeds of working FOR the People! The Minimum Wage and increases, Affirmative Action for Equality in the Workforce, Social & Health Programs and more FOR the People were Democrat driven efforts.
Your name really means everything, especially in the CNMI and “making your name bad” is a popular local tactic for getting back at people and it’s the same tactic that has been the prime directive of our Republican politics given we can’t educate everyone but gossip will spread through all three islands like wildfire — for TRUE. In fact, I think that gossip is weighing-in more on our elections than the actual facts. It should also be noted that there are only two recognized Parties in America that can apply for Federal, State and Local Pre-approval of Candidates in elections and for Assistance which means we have a two-Party system ONLY! For me and in most of America, “your name means a great deal” and for years the names of CNMI Democrats were being made bad behind the scenes and in our face like the Republicans just tried to do in our face by trying to make Rep. Ed Propst name bad. It didn’t matter that the statute of limitations had expired 17 yrs. ago it was all about making the Democrats Name Bad because Rep. Propst is clearly the NEW Leader of a resurrected Party and the best possibly choice for Speaker — for TRUE!
Independents and factions like the Covenant and Independent Republicans were never recognized as a real Party because they merged into the Republicans and having opposing factions does not come close to having “organized parties with real political power” which is how the CNMI got so messed-up with our politics. Factions ARE NOT Parties especially when all the factions we have experienced were powerless. It’s a difference between and Independent who “announces” whom they will caucus with but we have some Independents who “change horses in mid-stream” running as an Independent but the moment the Legislature convenes, they join the Republicans. So, for me, the factions we have experienced don’t come close to the abilities and definition of a Party and they are really running an ugly Political PLAY of deception on voters just to get elected.
I can also remember writing about how our elections in the CNMI are more often than not “a Popularity Contest” because there is NO WAY all the voters in the CNMI are fully educated on all the candidates. We have newspapers that only reach about 15 to 17% of the voters, we don’t even have a 24-hour TV station with the news only three times a week, no Public Polls and virtually, no “Watch-dog Groups,” no Public Debates keeping the People in the dark so they vote more on “gossip points & popularity” than facts and it’s not their fault. The CNMI is still very archaic with our politics and the People have been at a disadvantage for decades when it comes to educating the People about the candidates. Heck, we couldn’t even have a simple “debate for Governor” in one election which tells me the “ruling party” (Republicans) wanted to keep the People in the dark AGAIN but this time it was about the candidate for Governor. Now we all know why there wasn’t a debate because the winner should have been in the hospital and NEVER even thinking about running for Governor and I even warned him and the people to no-avail.
Ever since the first CNMI Governor, a Democrat, the Republicans have been all about “making the Democrat Name Bad” as it was a Republican Senate who literally gave our first Governor Hell on PURPOSE using a handful of bad & illegal behavior to destroy the Democrat name. Bipartisanship has always been a very big challenge for the CNMI because it has been Republicans who chose to throw it out the window with our first Governor and it has continued even until this VERY Day! Our Republicans only give in to bipartisanship when it’s obvious and their “necks are at stake in a noose” like they did when Sen. Paul Manglona authored the “Open Government Act.” But it took a “petition and a vote by the People” initiated by Tina Sablan and truly concerned citizens to give the OGA “teeth to apply to the Legislature” and now we know why.
So what’s in the name of a party which is really about the Character of the People leading the Party and we have some great examples to draw from when it comes to our ruling Party. WE always hear talk about individuals’ criminal record but just think about the Republican Party’s Criminal Record(S) that is going to get even longer when the FBI finish their RICO Investigations — for TRUE!
We would have to go back 20 years to find an elected Democrat convicted of a crime. This year’s newly elected Democrats have a clean record with good names. I bet the entire CNMI can make a list of Republicans and the Covenant Faction members being convicted and going to jail. We are also looking at a SECOND Republican Legislature protecting a SECOND Governor being investigated for Crimes and from all indications he will be convicted too — a second lesson for voters about this group of Republicans. So I’m sure most readers with common sense and knowledge of the past KNOW which Party in the CNMI really has the “BAD NAME.”
Yes, there will always be “one-in and the other out” and the losing factions in the CNMI, not party, has been losing for over 20 years in the elections and on the Floor of the Legislature that has been completely controlled by Republicans. WE the People need real Parties not factions or groups of opposition, because to assert that the different factions We have been experiencing as being equivalent to a healthy two-party system in our American Democracy is literally teetering on being a complete fictional story — its Tweedledum for TRUE. In fact, the main reason I keep saying “get rid of THIS GROUP of Republicans is because the problem is not the Party but the People running it” who have given the Party a Bad Name. The most compelling point of difference for me is that I have always preferred the Democrat Ideology & Methodologies of “the People FIRST before Businesses” which is diametrically opposite of Republicans who believe in “Business First and the People will eventually benefit,” “Regan’s Trickle-down Economics” that is still the Republicans’ Basic Economic ideology on the mainland and in the CNMI. But I will be the first to vote against a Democrat if they are corrupt and not working for ME & YOU because we do need both Parties to “hold each other accountable.”
I’m sure an overwhelming number of voters want to see the CNMI with a “well-rounded and healthy Democracy with two healthy & uncorrupted parties” and not this Republican Autocracy (absolutism) that meets no real accountability from the opposing factions we have been experiencing for the past two decades. Yes, we have continued to experience two opposing groups but that doesn’t mean we had a healthy Democracy with two healthy parties when only ONE Group has been able to manipulate the politics. The CNMI’s problem is not the Republican Party but the Republican People who are running it which is why this group MUST GO if they are not going to speak-up & out about the IPI mess and the Governor’s corruption and start working FOR the People and for what is RIGHT instead of working for the Governor & IPI!
On a final note, readers need to know it is a matter of basic Political Science that “parties are required to make systemic legal changes in America,” as factions and special interest groups must ask Parties to do their bidding. In fact, WE the People have witnessed factions facing off against our Republicans for over twenty years with virtually no major Legislation and no systemic changes. Voters need to take note of the fact that when the Independents joined the Democrat Party, they went from being a powerless faction to being leaders of a Party that is now legitimately vying for the Speakership so don’t tell me “factions are the same kind of opposition as a Party” because they are not. Professionals on the mainland would laugh and ask “what’s wrong in the CNMI” when I told them the CNMI had only one active Party. In fact, no-one can deny and I’m sure Political Scientist will agree the CNMI had a “virtually Dead Democracy” with only one party for over two decades and I’m so glad to note that our Democracy has been resurrected by voters. I’m also sure Political Scientists will have to agree that the Independents who joined the Democrat Party were not Tweedledum but indeed Tweedled-Smart — for TRUE!!! To be continued: One People One Direction.
The writer is a retired teacher, former CNMI Board of Education Member, James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar) and a Fulbright-Hays Foreign Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
