ustxtxb_obs_1984_04_20_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

in the District 14 seat held by Lloyd Doggett. Four Democrats are vying for that seat. We wholeheartedly endorse state Rep. Gonzalo Barrientos. While Barrientos offers a change in style from Doggett, he does not offer a change in substance. As the state representative for southwest Travis County, Barrientos has proven his ability to work effectively in the legislature on behalf of women, consumers, minorities, the environment, and labor. He is compassionate, and, as chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, showed creativity in marshalling disparate interests and personalities into an effective whole. Barrientos is opposed by Ed Small, a conservative former lobbyist for the Cattle Raisers Association; by Cathy Bonner, a former promoter of the MoPac expressway and a leader of the Texas Women’s Political Caucus; and by Margaret Moore, Travis County attorney. A former Vista coordinator, Barrientos’ concerns have always been for those outside the inner circles of power. STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Looking at state House races, we endorse Mike McKinney in the District 15 race to replace Jim Turner; Ron Lewis for Wayne Peveto’s seat in District 19; incumbent Al Price in District 22; incumbent Tony Garcia in Place 42; Russ Tidwell in Place 49 to replace Gerald Hill; Paul Hernandez, a populist and community organizer who would bring a new perspective to the State House, in Place 51 to replace Gonzalo Barrientos; Bob Melton in District 57, opposing incumbent C. K. “Chock” Word; Harris Worchester, a progressive and Hightower campaigner, for Bill Coody’s seat in District 63; Rick Perry for Joe Hanna’s seat in District 64; Jaime Perez in District 74, running against incumbent Robert Valles; Oneta Rothfelder in District 91 for Lanny Hall’s seat; ‘Garfield Thompson in District 95, opposing incumbent Reby Cary; incumbent Jesse Oliver in District 111; Gregory Luna in District 116, opposing incumbent Joe Gamez; incumbent Walter Martinez in District 119, a hard worker fast becoming an expert on education and health issues, who is being opposed by Tommy Adkisson, also progressive but a pawn here in a Bexar County power struggle; Dan Morales, opposing incumbent Joe Hernandez in Place 124; incumbents Ron Wilson Paul Colbert Debra Gonzalo Barrientos in race for state senate District 14 seat. Danburg and Roman Martinez William Gaston Leland for El Franco Lee’s seat in District 142. In the races for seats on the State Board of Education, we support incumbent Mike Fernandez, Jr. in Place 20. While there is no Democratic opponent for Board chairman Joe Kelly Butler in Place 7, Rick Potthoff of the Citizen’s Party \(see the race for Virginia Currey’s seat, there was little information available, and there were few endorsements made by labor and teacher organizations. The lack of interest and scarcity of credible candidates may serve to reinforce Ross Perot’s call for an appointed board. G. R. Democrats This does not mean that agendas are not being written on Wall Street, that agreements are not being made in Capitol corridors, that candidates are not being molded for public consumption. But that is all part of the seduction machine, and we are the seduced. The seducer is a dissembler, an assumer of images, a Don Juan in many guises. And, not having come up with solutions of our own, we want, to a certain extent, to be seduced. We want to be swept off our feet by new ideas, by miraculous solutions to problems that are part and parcel of our post-industrial society. This may be Walter Mondale’s biggest problem in the Presidential campaign. If Walter Mondale is anything, he is one of us. He does not offer the mystery and allure necessary for the successful seduction. He is not the unknown quantity that Gary Hart is. Hart’s new ideas are, for the most part, not new, but he is young, he is untried, he has not yet failed us. Moreover, as there is nothing more seductive in this country than the idea of progress, Hart has been able to attach its seductive aura to his name. The idea of progress is our legacy, a largely nineteenth-century phenomenon born in the rift in the old order brought about by the French and American revolutions. It is a humancontrolled order brought to the sudden chaos caused by the disruption of the eighteenth century worldview, based upon concepts of cyclical processes and the succession of kings. In place of Newton’s mechanical universe, we found the open frontier and our manifest destiny, justifying unbridled consumption, growth, and conquest. Progress became the doctrine of the Western world. It could be found in Karl Marx’s belief in historical process and in the British Empire-builders, who saw in Darwin a natural model and justification for social hierarchy. It can be found in the arts the theory of the avant garde emerging in nineteenth-century France and the cult of the new that still dominates Western cultural life. This idea of progress operates through mirage. Not that there has not been social progress as can be seen, for example, in the development of the polio vaccine or in the integration of public facilities in the South. But the idea of progress, as it comes to us in the political arena irresistible, inevitable is seen as something governing the course of events but not governed by social and economic conditions. Hence, the “New Ideas” and “New Democracy” of Gary Hart try to trace a spiritual lineage from the New Frontier. They do not have to explain themselves so much in terms of current events as they need to justify their claims to direct descent from Camelot. There is also some of this about Jesse Jackson’s campaign. Jackson represents progress in the sense that he represents THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5