With
a wave of right-wing propaganda sweeping across New Mexico’s political
landscape, legislators are taking aim at immigrants, environmentalism, gay
rights and the institution of science.
The
New Mexico legislature is currently in session, and bills have been proposed to
lock gay couples out of marriage and to allow the teaching of the “theory” of
“intelligent design” in schools. In addition, newly elected Republican Gov.
Susana Martinez has come down against the environmental lobby and the right of
immigrants to live in this country.
According
to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Tom Anderson, a state representative from
Albuquerque, introduced a bill to the legislature that would prevent schools
from punishing teachers that chose to teach “alternative theories” about
evolution.
The
bill states that New Mexico’s school boards “shall not prohibit any teacher,
when a controversial scientific topic is being taught in accordance with
adopted standards and curricula, from informing students about relevant
scientific information regarding either the scientific strengths or scientific
weaknesses pertaining to that topic.”
The
bill further states, “A teacher who chooses to provide such information shall
be protected from reassignment, termination, discipline or other discrimination
for doing so.”
Among
the list of “controversial topics” protected in Anderson’s bill are “biological
evolution” and “causes of climate change,” meaning the bill would allow
teachers not only to teach intelligent design, but to deny that humans are
responsible for global warming.
This
disturbing trend is continued in local elections in the state. The Albuquerque
newspaper The Weekly Alibi recently interviewed candidates for the Albuquerque
school board. Seven out of 14 candidates interviewed stated they supported
teaching intelligent design in school.
Proposed bills attack gay
rights
The
legislature is currently also the site of outrageous attacks on gay rights.
Three separate Republican legislators, William Sharer, David Chavez and Nora
Espinoza, have introduced bills that would legally codify marriage in New
Mexico as exclusively between a man and a woman.
Currently,
New Mexico is one of only 10 states that respects same-sex marriage licenses
from other states, although a gay couple cannot be married in New Mexico.
Gov.
Martinez herself has added to the attacks on science and human rights. She
recently passed an executive order stating that police are required to do
immigration-status checks on anyone they arrest. This executive order echoes
the racism of SB1070 in Arizona and overturns the state’s previous policy of
prohibiting police officers from acting as immigration agents.
In
addition to the racism of this executive order, Martinez and her administration
have taken a hard-line stance against protecting the environment.
Upon
taking office, Martinez fired the state’s entire Environmental Improvement
Board, saying in a statement that their policies of restricting carbon emissions
were “anti-business.” During her campaign, Martinez expressed doubts that
climate change is caused by humans.
“I’m
not sure the science completely supports that,” she said.
Red-baiting
environmental movement
As
if that is not enough, Martinez’ camp cooked up some 1950s-style red-baiting.
Former
astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Martinez’s pick for secretary of energy, minerals
and natural resources, told right-wing radio host Alex Jones that the
environmental movement is made up of Communists.
“There
are individuals, apparently among them, who are apparently a very large number
who have taken—should we say captured the environmental movement, and turned it
into what previously was considered a Communist movement,” Schmitt said on
Jones’s show. “That’s just something that people of common sense are going to
have to capture, and wake up enough to take control of their government again.”
This
attack on environmentalism is especially scary considering that the secretary
of energy, minerals and natural resources is the highest-ranking environmental
protection post in New Mexico.
Schmitt
removed his name from consideration for the post after refusing the mandatory
background check all members of the governor’s cabinet must undergo.
These
attacks on science and human rights should be seen as a call to arms for all
progressives, and be met with the same kind of resistance demonstrated by our
brothers and sisters in Wisconsin.
