Fuck Martin Chavez

The well-thought out, reasoned, and respectable title of this post comes from my reaction to local Albuquerque elections yesterday. Martin Chavez, a Democrat of Lieberman-esque stripes, won re-election yesterday with widespread Republican support. The real Democrats came out for city councilman Eric Griego but it wasn't enough to stop Chavez from getting the 40% he needed to gain reelection without a run-off. Chavez is the worst kind of politician. He has a layer of sleaze on him that is so thick you would need an ice pick to chisel it off. He is vindictive and nasty. He has made it a personal cause of his to end all-age shows in downtown Albuquerque, even though that is the only interesting thing to do downtown at night if you don't like bars that are basically corporate chain-bars and serve as meat markets. Albuquerque should be basing its downtown redevelopment on Austin. Instead, Chavez seems to like the San Diego model better, where we attract yuppies who spend a lot of money but who don't actually contribute to making the place interesting.

Furthermore, Chavez did not support the living wage ordinance, which also went down to defeat yesterday. Quite a Democrat here, a man who does not support raising the minimum wage to a whole $7.50 and $4.50 for tipped employees. No doubt that kind of wage rates would put thousands of small business owners out of business. If that is true, may my hand fall off now. Hmmm, it still seems to be attached to my arm.

What is frustrating about living wage ordinances can be summed up from this comment on the issue from m-pyre.

How is raising min wage going to solve the poverty problem:All it's going to do is make me pay more for stuff. As usual, the middle class get screwed. I went to college and care about my future and career, too bad many others don't. And shame on you for condoning this.

How do you fight against this kind of attitude? People have bought whole hog into the idea that government interference in the economy destroys the middle-class and causes inflation and other economic problems. What is so frustrating is that so much historical evidence points to the exact opposite result of government intrusion into the economy. Not only does this guy place the blame on the poor for their own poverty and assume that if you don't go to college that you don't care about your future, but he laughably assumes that a wage of $7.50 an hour will lead to inflation and screw him over. I say it is laughable, but really it's not--it's sad, frustrating, and exasperating.

As are Albuquerque politics.