New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog

Hope for 2018-- from the Bottom Up in New Mexico

Need to revive hope in the New Year?   Here are a few of the New Mexico solutions featured in my new book,  Another Way Forward: Grassroots Solutions from New Mexico. I will be talking about others Jan. 13 1-3 at the Los Poblanos Farm Store, 4803 Rio Grande Blvd. in Albuquerque. 

Solution #1: A service corps for young people to provide training in outdoor occupations, a sense of stewardship for New Mexico’s public lands and a leg up to further education.

Solution #2: A farmers market located outside a primary health clinic to offer low-income mothers fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms at affordable prices.

Solution #3: A community land trust to provide affordable housing, preserve a traditional neighborhood, and clean up an old industrial wasteland.

Solution #4: Tele-conferencing to bring the expertise of medical specialists to rural areas and address chronic diseases and opiod addictions.

Solution #5: A new type of experiential museum for all ages that is breaking the traditional mold and creating jobs for young artists.

Solution #6: A small factory that provides quality, on-site childcare for its employees at 25 cents per hour.

Solution #7: A civics program that gives kids a real-world opportunity to write a bill and lobby it through the legislature.

Solution #8: A medical residency program that encourages—rather than discourages—budding health care providers to locate in remote rural areas.

Solution #9: A fire department whose EMTs help 911 callers find services and solve problems rather than just taking them to the emergency room.

Solution #10: A program that matches the savings of low-income families if they take a financial literacy course and use the money for school, a small business or a home.

These are only ten reasons to have hope in the New Year —look around your community for the problem solvers, or just read my book, available through me www.dedefeldman.com/another, at Amazon (including Kindle) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999586408, Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/another-way-forward-dede-feldman/1127525590;jsessionid=E807877B1B77494C2FA174B10F926C74.prodny_store02-atgap05?ean=9780999586402 or BookWorks, where I’ll be having an event Feb. 1. at 6 pm. 

It Can't Happen Here-- Or Is Trump Bringing it All Back Home?

Note:  Here's a book review I wrote that appeared recently in the ABQ Free Press. 

Sinclair Lewis’s classic American satire, It Can’t Happen Here, was first published in 1935 in an era of economic depression and growing fascism at home and abroad. The dystopia was an immediate bestseller, spurring an unabridged series in the New York Post and countless theater productions.

Yet today’s citizens know little about it. They should pay more attention.

            Consider the main character Buzz Windrip, a presidential candidate who is a professional common man. His folksy, down-to-earth speeches use simple words to extol the greatest nation on earth, bash the big banks, the political elites and the press. He suggests that Negroes and Jews be barred from civic activity (even though he allows that many, many Jews are part of his movement) and that women stay at home. For safety’s sake, foreigners present too great a risk to America’s way of life to permit their presence. Windrip’s 15-point plan enlarges the military, increases veteran’s benefits and expands the definition of treason to include among other things, advocating foreign alliances.

            Sound familiar? Just replace the word Mexican or Muslims for Jews and Negroes and it’s hard not to think of Donald Trump. In the novel, the rise of the Chief, as he is later called, is preceded by an era of radio demagoguery voiced by a Father Charles Coughlin figure that bears a striking similarity to Rush Limbaugh. Like the anti-Semitic Coughlin, Bishop Paul Peter Drang has a huge following. His “League of Forgotten Men” is 27 million strong and forms the base of Windrip’s growing support. It is composed of formerly middle class men dispossessed by the big banks.   It is strongly reminiscent of the Tea Party.

            In an era of economic insecurity and a fear of foreign forces, Buzz Windrip is elected legally. Opposition does not mobilize quickly and he carries out his promises, which most had not taken seriously. He declares martial law. The Supreme Court is abolished. Congress becomes an advisory body. The “MM”, formerly a private marching club tasked with beating up opponents who dared to appear at Windrip’s campaign rallies, becomes a national police force, staffing checkpoints and concentration camps to which dissenters are sentenced—when they are not summarily shot.   Ironically the wall Windrip said he’d build to keep foreigners out is ultimately used to keep Americans from escaping to Canada.

            It Can’t Happen Here is not regarded as one of Sinclair Lewis’s best books. He won the Nobel Prize for his others: Main Street, Arrowsmith and Babbitt, mainstays of high school English classes. But this is his strongest protest against middle class complacency and the tendency of most Americans to opt for security—tendencies that have lingered into our era, and now loom over the 2016 presidential race.

Where are the heroes, the protestors, and the resistance to Lewis’s creeping fascism? The protagonist of It Can’t Happen Here is a small town newspaper editor, a reluctant liberal, who values his individualism and intellect too much to take action in time. Finally, he joins the resistance just as the totalitarian regime declares war on (where else?) Mexico. At the end of the novel, his success is uncertain.

In 2016, my friends assure me that Donald Trump will never be elected. Too many constitutional protections, too much media scrutiny. But in the wake of terrorist attacks, the shrinking middle class, and the waning hopes of our youth, I can’t help but worry. Anything can happen when fear takes over. Especially, as Lewis demonstrates, when the groundwork for fascism has already been laid.

For Political Junkies and Last Minute Shoppers

Attention Political Junkies, New Legislators, Lobbyists and Advocates

Special Holiday Sale

$24

      2014 Winner: Best Political Book,  NM-Arizona Book Awards               

Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits and Citizens

            Order Direct from former Senator Dede Feldman at 505-220-5958 or dedefeld@comcast.net includes shipping, tax and signature. Check, credit cards or cash gleefully accepted.         

 “An insightful and compelling history of New Mexico’s legislative battles. Feldman’s observations are astute and her story well told.” US Senator Tom Udall

“Finally an honest book about the New Mexico Legislature.”Wally Gordon, NM Mercury

“…essential reading for anyone involved with or interested in New Mexico’s Legislature.”  Steve Terrell, SF New Mexican

“Dede Feldman is done mincing words… about the way the process works, and the way it should work.”  Santa Fe Reporter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attention Political Junkies and Christmas Shoppers…

Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits and Citizens by Dede Feldman is now available for sale directly from the author--- before it hits local bookstores and without the wait for web orders.  It’s the perfect gift!

 

 Dede will be selling and signing her new book at a spur-of-the-season…

 Hot-Off-the-Press Book Signing Party

Friday Dec. 20 5:30-7:30

Downtown Pop-Up Store

105 Gold SW

           Featuring Hot Chocolate, Nog and other gifts from the fabulous Jemez Springs artists whose Gallery is Popping Up downtown from Dec. 6- Jan. 3

 To RSVP or reserve your signed copy for pick up later call Dede at 505-220-5958, or order directly from UNM Press at 800-249-7737.  Otherwise, just show up … with bells on.

 About the book: Published by UNM Press,  $24.95 Paperback  Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits and Citizens is a legislative history with a human face. Here maverick leaders, shameless special interests, and earnest advocates clash in the unique arena that is the New Mexico Roundhouse. The New Mexico Senate comes alive, with stories of grit and grace, honor and disgrace. For students of government, advocates and lovers of politics this book is invaluable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stewart Udall: He was a Friend of Mine

    The folksong  "He was a Friend of Mine" sung by several Udall children and their friends, was a great theme for the moving celebration of the life of Stewart Udall, former Secretary of the Interior, defender of Navajo uranium miners, and father of the current environmental movement.  The three hour memorial Sunday June 20 was held at the Paolo Solari Amphitheatre under the blazing solstice sun. Friends from all stages of Udall's life, including Bruce Babbitt, Native Americans, two US Senators, renown authors, professors and environmental activists spoke from the heart.  

    As for so many others in the audience, Stewart was a friend of mine-- and a mentor.

    Most recently, during the meetings of the Governor's Ethics and Campaign Finance Task Force several years ago, he keep my spirits up with his steadfast advocacy of public financing of elections and his warnings about the corrosive impact of money on the political system.  Earlier, when I met him in 1988, during his son's  (unsuccessful) run for Congress in the Albuquerque area, his broader view brought me, the be-leagured press secretary for candidate Tom Udall, down to earth.   Amidst a barrage of negative advertising vs.Tom from opponent Steve Schiff, Stewart quoted Mark Twain....   "It takes  only a minute for a lie to go around the world, but it takes an hour for the truth to get its boots on." 

    I will not summarize Stewart's celebration here  (he planned it-- down to a four minute limit for each speaker)  but here are a few quotes from the occasion. 

    Advice from Stewart: • Don't let indecision and regret take away your life-- move on

•As you age, compare who you wanted to be with who you are now

•Consider how you are viewed by your family and friends

    Herbert Brown, long time advocacy partner:  " He was where power, advocacy and literature intersect."  A mountain climber, he was always reaching for a handhold a little higher.   

    Blogger's note: his results:  The Clean Air and Water Acts, The Wilderness Act, a expanded National Park System, the Endangered Species Act, the National Trail System, the Land and Water Conservation Funds, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Program.   

    Robert Stanton,former director of National Parks and  now Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department l:  "I still have the letter in which Secretary Udall, my Secretary, appointed me as the first African American park ranger in Teton National Park.  This was at a time in the early sixties when I could not be served lunch at restaurants in my home state, on account of my race."  

    Patti Limerick, University of Colo. Western Historian, who visited Udall in his later days, for walks around Santa Fe,  recalled how he he would say,  "Now we can pick up the pace," just as she thought he was finishing. 
 

    Friends of Stewart's recounted his  advice and a posed a question left in his wake:  

    " Never Neglect the Mystery"   and Will You take care of the earth? 

    From James McGrath:  Stewart's memory will green the earth-- more than once."