The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a resolution to condemn Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for “subverting the Second Amendment of the Constitution and depriving the citizens of New Mexico of their right to bear arms” following her short-lived gun ban in Albuquerque earlier this month.
Gun violence is a problem that concerns everyone, but removing a law-abiding citizen’s means of self-defense does nothing to reduce violence. The governor admitted this when she replied, simply, “No,” when asked if criminals will stop carrying guns because of her ban. The “public health order” had nothing to do with improving her constituents’ personal safety. It was a trial balloon to see how amenable the public would be to a blatant subversion of the U.S. Constitution. It failed. Members of her own party even came out against the order.
The attorney general of New Mexico, the sheriff of Bernalillo County, and the mayor of Albuquerque all made headlines for calling the gun ban unconstitutional and refusing to enforce it. This was bold, rare, and admirable, yet Republicans made little of the repudiation beyond seeing it as proof that the governor severely overstepped.
In America today, folks stick together—Democrats with Democrats, Republicans with Republicans, uniting under the partisan banner of party allegiance regardless of the egregiousness of a fellow party member’s behavior (see the one-sided censure efforts against Adam Schiff, George Santos, and Paul Gosar.)
But one Democrat lawmaker says he will vote for the GOP’s resolution.
Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) beat GOP incumbent Yvette Herrell by 1,350 votes last November in a mostly rural district that Republicans have held for the better part of 40 years. A new poll still shows another tight race, with Herrell currently leading by a single point. The poll has a 5% margin of error.
“As a responsible gun owner, I will continue to support common sense solutions that reduce gun violence, such as the Bipartisan Background Check Act and Ethan’s Law,” Vasquez told The Messenger on Tuesday. “We must produce constitutional, legal, and enforceable solutions that will help protect our children and our families.”
“Constitutional, legal, enforceable” is about as reasonable as it gets. But because Vasquez is a Democrat, some Republicans took to social media to label him “a Worthless Piece of (excrement deleted),” a liar, a “tyrant,” and a “beta body boy communist democRAT.” They all seem to support the resolution. They just don’t want a Democrat getting on board.
Herrell took a more tactful approach but criticized Vasquez nonetheless—for being too slow about it.
“It’s unfortunate that it took 11 days and a literal act of Congress to shame Gabe Vasquez into condemning the Governor’s blatant violation of our constitutional rights. New Mexicans will never have to guess where I stand when it comes to protecting the Second Amendment! #NM02.”
It’s a fair point. Vasquez could have spoken out sooner. His decision to jump on the 2A bandwagon was surely political, as all politicians’ decisions are. But so what? Supporting the Constitution and defending his constituents’ right to self defense is the right position regardless of the path he took to get there. When a politician lands on the right side of an issue despite the majority position of his party, it deserves a little more than ridicule.
Isn’t that what “principled Conservatism” means—as opposed to the type of blind party allegiance that New Mexico’s other two Democrat representatives demonstrated in opposing the resolution?
If you reserve support for principled Conservatism only when the position is taken by a member of your own party, you’re no better than Democrats, who talk a big game about diversity but demean anyone who’s Black or female or gay if they happen to be members of the Republican Party.
That’s not principled, it’s not what the GOP would hope of Democrats if the tables were turned and a Republican violated the Constitution, and it’s not the type of maturity we need from our political leaders if we ever hope to heal such a dangerously fractured populace.
Categories: Firearms & Freedom
The Conservative New Mexican 
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