The State of the State of New Mexico 2021: Government and Politics

The state of the state address, read into a camera with the aid of a teleprompter, sounded oddly irrelevant to me, written by public relations specialists, more of a soporific check list of good-sounding deeds than a frank discussion about what we as citizens might actually be thinking about, or what creative possibilities state government and citizens might work out together as the multiple crises afflicting us unfold.  There were echoes to Joe Biden in the speech, congratulating us for having the strength to overcome grief--the word grief was prominent--and urging unity, without specifying toward what end.  None of it sounded like the moment we are in.  It was more like a ritual prayer before lunch at a Rotary meeting, with a wink at passing wanna-have legislation and the re-election campaign which seems, at least at this moment, like a perfunctory exercise requiring little more than poll-tested talking points and expensive TV ads.  This, by the way, is exactly where Susana was six years ago, no competition, and the consequences for serious government were predictably unfortunate.

What might we be thinking about today?

Well, the relationship between our failing democracy in Washington and the state of our political system in New Mexico, for one.  From the looks of it most Republicans in Congress are so responsive to the anger of the January mob they are willing, in fact desperate, to ignore the need for adherence to the rule of law, at least for themselves and the mob.  What became of the party of law and order?  "We are angry and our anger is protected by the Constitution, leaving us free--free I tell you--to not wear a mask and to violate the Constitution and the will of the voters, when told to do so," seems to be the narcissistic, oxymoronic, logic.

One of our New Mexico county commissioners announces he is packing guns and joining the mob in Washington. One of our NM congresswomen, barely out from under a mob attack aimed at killing a vice president and speaker of the house for complying with Constitutional provisions, votes, on the grounds of states rights (!?) that Georgia and Pennsylvania election officials have "disenfranchised" her NM voters (!?).  She then votes against impeachment of the President not on the merits but on the grounds--laughable in the context of the calculated disunity sparked by Republicans over the past decades--we need more "unity," disingenuously echoing Joe Biden.  

Where does Washington end and New Mexico begin?  They are inter-mingling in both major parties, in my view needlessly, and in ways that are damaging to the unity of purpose citizens crave.

The New Mexican Republican Party, according to observers who know what they are talking about, is hopelessly split, not over how to handle state-level problems in New Mexico (something they might want to spend more time on) but over loyalty to a former President who groveled at the knees of a gloating Putin; who with cold calculation separated children from their parents at the border here, in New Mexico; who botched a pandemic at the cost of hundreds of thousands of needless deaths; and who tried to normalize the telling of lies that made his followers--some of them white supremacists and domestic terrorists--feel good, a prelude to broadcasting lies about the outcome of an election.  In a two-party system good government depends on vibrant, healthy parties.  The mess in the NM Republican party (see the NM Political Journal) is in, is bad for New Mexico.  Will a leader who still believes in democracy step up to the plate?  New Mexico needs you.  Don't be afraid.  This is a rare opportunity to make a difference.

The Democratic Party in New Mexico, as far as I can tell, is doing little more than asking us to contribute more money, well, just because...and gloating about removing some of our most outstanding legislative leaders with the kind of primary electioneering tricks that radicalized most Republican senators and congresspeople during the Trump presidency.  Why would the Democratic Party assist in this?  Call it Operation Just Because.  It was an anti-democratic move shredding the Party's credibility as a defender of democratic norms just as these are under serious assault and in need of support. Yes, Democratic Party leaders, tell us again how shocked you are, shocked, that Republicans in Washington would actually threaten to primary moderate Republican senators who exhibit anything less than blind obedience?  

In the middle of a series of political and governing crises the Democratic Party of New Mexico today seems to be more focused on the mischief of gerrymandering and disciplining legislators loyal to their constituents, than in standing up for democratic values in action as well as in word.  In truth, most legislators view the Democratic Party as a small nuisance, a geriatric, small lobby group, requiring occasional stoking.  Its power (the recent primary-ing of moderates notwithstanding) is largely confined by design to statewide races--due to the pre-primary, which often makes a difference--and it uses this power mainly to try to weed out all but the most establishment-sounding candidates.  Local or statewide, the Party appears to have lost its imagination and zest, essential ingredients in a crisis.

Liberal Democracy is in flames in many parts of the world, a process that began over thirty years ago and, like climate change, is just now beginning to show palpable threats to the political stability of many countries.  Many Republicans have opted, at least for the moment and without saying so out loud, against Liberal Democracy, without giving us a vision of an attractive alternative to replace it--because they don't have one.  They seem to exist solely, defiantly, to make government fail.

I spent most of my career as a political scientist observing countries in Latin America that were going down the tubes.  Believe me, New Mexicans, you don't want to be in the shoes of citizens in, say, Peru in 1990, or El Salvador in 1979, or Chile in 1973, or Mexico in 1968 or 1971 or 1994 or today; or Argentina in 1976, or Paraguay in 1986, or Venezuela in 1989 or 1999, or Nicaragua or Guatemala since the 1950s or Bolivia from 2003-2005, or Brazil from 1967-1979 or Colombia from the time of Bolivar until now.  I've been in each of these countries and witnessed first hand the cascade of wreckage left behind.  Go to Wikipedia and look up the origins of those crises.  You will find echoes there of what we see in US politics today.  We are not immune.

Not a peep from the Governor about any of this.  I voted for Michelle--the alternative was unthinkable--and I wish her administration well. But she was elected eons ago, so to speak, in this fast-moving moment.  She appears so far to be incapable of grasping the moment, embracing it with ganas, responding to it.  It is a moment, Michelle, that historians of New Mexico will write about one hundred years from now, some of it about you.  I think you have the ganas in you, don't be afraid.  Throw away the teleprompter and fire every one of your spinners.  Forget the 2022 re-election campaign. Meet the moment with the exuberant energy you used to have, and speak to us from your heart.  I expect more than a ritual recitation of your brag sheet and shopping list when the flames are lapping at the door.