Commentary:
I welcome several things the Legislature did in its 2022 session; but we’re still in trouble.
We finally capped short-term loan interest at 36%, found a reasonable compromise on taxing social security, set aside money to clean up uranium sites, raised teachers’ salaries, and did other good things.
But there’s a lot we didn’t do. We didn’t do much to confront the danger climate wackiness poses to us and our descendants, and to creatures who can’t vote but may face extinction. I doubt we invested enough in dealing with the current drought, which scientists say is the worst in at least 1200 years. We didn’t go forward with a state bank, because bankers put on a full-court press. We didn’t correct the unfairness that New Mexicans buying goods or services pays 8.3125 percent in gross-receipts tax, while high-fliers who buy tickets to space won’t pay state tax. Damned few folks who can pay $450,000 for the exciting pleasure would forego such a trip just to avoid paying our state $37,406.25. (Does the GRT keep you from attending a movie or buying a television set?)
By and large, our local state legislators are an earnest, caring, competent, hard-working set of folks. I also agree with their policy views more often than not. The old pattern of folks running for office to help their businesses (particularly lawyers, who couldn’t advertise) and grow their egos doesn’t hold today. Most of these folks are retired, or work for non-profits.
But we’re still in trouble. Our state usually lacks funds and depends too much on a source of income that’s cyclical at best and is endangered by the urgency of decreasing the rate at which we poison air, water, and land.
Our country is in such deep trouble that life often feels schizophrenic: New Mexico doing sensible and socially beneficial things while the nation pulls itself apart.
The U.S. is like a movie protagonist, maybe the kid of a poor widow whose coal-miner husband died in the mines, who fights like hell to scratch out a living however s/he can, takes some risks, treats most folks pretty well, and reaches some form of success.
But, like most tragic heroes have fatal flaws, such as disloyalty to friends, abusing employees or spouse, or letting ambition curdle into greed. In the case of the U.S., one tragic flaw was our complete disregard for the rights and interests of folks who didn’t look like us. We enslaved Blacks, exploited Browns, and arguably committed genocide against Native Americans. And we haven’t treated poor Whites all that well, either.
Owing largely to a naturally rich continent and a safe distance from other powers, but also to our cleverness and organizational skills, we became the most powerful nation in the world, a pleasant but unsustainable experience. Now, we’re paying the piper. Other nations are challenging our preeminence, and our own arrogance is helping them. Nonwhites are about half of us and get to vote (pending current legislation in swing states). Our hyperpartisanship is endangering our democracy. (I recommend a short video by Adam Kinzinger’s Country1st.com.)
Mr. Trump can’t magically raise U.S. white male Christians to unfair heights, but neither can the San Francisco School Board erase the good done by Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere, and John Muir because they were white and imperfect.
We’re a nation. We’re imperfect. Our differences are both our greatest strength and a grave danger to us.