COMMENTARY:
The morning headlines celebrated Congress’s bipartisan passing of the big affordable housing bill – and the much narrower win for the War Powers Act resolution seeking to rein in Donald Trump’s costly and useless Iran War.
Political parties – and our sclerotic hyperpartisonship – were already on my mind. Fresh news included the probable end to former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima’s bid to run for governor as an independent and the jockeying for position by folks seeking our state’s Democratic nomination for lieutenant-governor.
We should discuss more often whether our two huge political parties, neither contemplated by our Constitution nor welcomed by George Washington, now do more harm than good; and, if so, what the hell can we do about it?
Mayor Ken, a political moderate, had little chance in a primary against Deb Haaland. He started gathering petitions to run as an Independent. (I signed, because he asked, although with mixed feelings generated by my concern that his candidacy might distract voters from making the best choice between Haaland and Hull.) Now, a state judge has declined to issue an order based on Ken’s lawsuit arguing that it’s unfair to make an Independent gather way more petition signatures to run than a Democrat or Republican would have to. Based on precedent, I thought Ken would lose, but he raised an interesting fairness issue. One argument against change is that we could end up with way too many candidates; but so what? Our two-party system yielded Donald Trump. If we’d had six candidates, and ranked-choice voting, he’d still be bankrupting casinos and stiffing sub-contractors.
Also on my mind was the Democrats’ odd situation regarding a nominee for lieutenant-governor. Days after Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s primary victory over Harold Pope, she announced that a health issue is forcing her to back away. Legally, the Democratic Central Committee will nominate a replacement candidate. Practically, gubernatorial nominee Haaland will interview and vet Democrats interested in the nomination and select someone the Central Committee will nominate.
Internet traffic debated whether Pope should win it because he ran for it. That has a certain appeal – although an opponent could argue that Oliver’s big victory margin undermines that idea. (It’s such an obscure position I was jokingly asking who remembered that nice guy from Silver City [our current lieutenant-governor, Howie Morales?] Haaland will choose. Pope definitely deserves some credit for having run. Since she’ll have to run with and work with [if they win] the nominee, who will be only as prominent as she allows, letting her choose makes some sense. If she doesn’t choose Pope, Republicans will attack her for it.
The two parties unofficially do a lot of work we’d have to figure out some other way to do if we didn’t have them; but they also interfere with government and are now interfering with life in the U.S. Political thought gets reduced to rooting for Ohio State or Michigan, and letting your team’s coach molest all the children he wants, while screaming bloody murder if their coach breaks wind.
Hours later, headlines said Trump had canceled signing ceremony for that great housing bill, passed by huge margins. He won’t sign until Republicans swallow their consciences and judgment and vote in the Save the Republicans Bill, making voting harder for normal people, which Trump [reasonably] thinks is the only chance they have in November. Another stunning win for partisanship over the good of the people.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.