New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog

"This Changes Everything," Former Sen. Feldman tells UNM Masters in Public. Policy Grads

I had the great honor of giving the first graduation address ever to the now-well prepared graduates from UNM Masters Program in Public Policy. Many of these fine folks are already serving as analysts for the NM Legislative Finance Service, the NM Tax and Rev. Dept., NM Voices for Children and other non-profits,  This was their first live event in over a year!   Here's what I told 'em.

 

This Changes Everything

May 13, 2021

Thank you Melissa Binder for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you on this special day, which comes as we emerge from one of the most difficult and tumultuous years in our country’s history. It is a year that, very likely, will change everything we know about government, about work, public health, elections, and even daily life.

I am particularly honored, and humbled to be with you today, because I know that many of you are already applying what are learning from this program out in the community.  You are addressing big problems facing non-profits, you are analyzing data from state agencies, and evaluating the effectiveness of various approaches to child poverty or homelessness. 

Congratulations to each of you—not only graduates but families, faculty, friends and the constellation of people in the community who support you.  Today is a day when I hope you will see just how many people there are out here in the community who are pulling for you, who are proud of you and who believe in you.

I am one of those.

When I obtained a Master’s Degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 – out of the same ratty building in the Wharton School where Donald Trump and I earned bachelors degrees the year before— no, I didn’t know him-- I didn’t even know there was such a field as public policy or public administration.  I just knew that I was interested in politics, so I majored in Political Science.   The events of the 1960s convinced me politics was fast moving, dramatic, chancy, dependent on human quirks and ---above all importantin determining almost everything about our lives from war and peace to death and taxes. I became obsessed—a news junkie, a groupie for my heroes in the civil rights movement like John Lewis and Martin Luther King.

But I had no earthy idea of how I would earn a living with my degree.  I veered off into journalism, teaching, public relations and then—almost  30 years later—I found myself running for office, walking door-to-door, losing, winning, then serving 16 years in the New Mexico Senate. I was just following my interest, with no end in sight, no burning ambition. And things happened, just like they will happen to you.  Except, I think you have a  far firmer foundation.  You are developing an understanding of budgets and statistics, how to evaluate the performance of a policy or a program at the state, local or national level.

That’s what elected officials need, especially here in New Mexico, where we have an unpaid, largely unstaffed citizen legislature, and a personal style of politics that is still based in  regional, ethnic or personal loyalties.  And now, with national issues invading state campaigns and  the partisan divide ensuring gridlock,  the solutions offered to problems are sure to become more divisive, more oppositional more “all or nothing”--- Like either defund the police or crackdown hard on crime and protestors; like either continue to subsidize the oil and gas industry or replace it entirely with alternative fuels; or maybe either place early childhood education in private hands or get the teachers unions involved. 

As long as solutions are limited to campaign promises, the  decision makers who want to make real progress will turn to staff and to non-partisan sources to find the evidence, to frame the questions and chart the directions.  Politicians are too busy fighting their own wars.

And that’s where youcome in.

Your group comes into professional life on the heels of the greatest health crisis in a century. …A pandemic that has killed 582,000 in the US…  A new civil rights movement that was spurred by the murder of George Floyd … It’s a movement that has brought hundreds of thousands to the streets and spurred a racial reckoning …And 2020 was the hottest year on record, with intense hurricanes, apocalyptic fires and droughts which have made climate change all but undeniable.

But that’s not all. Most important, for those who depend on a functioning democracy. There was the attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential election with misinformation about fraud and rigged voting machines. The campaign brought with it over 40 lawsuits, the bullying of state officials… and finally, an armed insurrection at the Capitol Jan. 6  to prevent the counting of electoral votes. This last-ditch attack was fueled by lies. They were spurned by the courts and local Republican officials, and the lie was repeated and used  by a sitting president to incite insurrection, on live TV, for everyone to see.  It left behind a scaffold to be used to hang Vice President Pence and blood on the floor of the US Capitol. Five people lost their lives. Senators and Congresspeople hid under their desks.

There has not been another watershed year like this since the civil war. And we are not out of the woods yet. The very foundations of our republic have been shaken.  Yet, we have survived. A constitutional crisis was averted. A vaccine against COVID 19 has been deployed.  Derek Chauvin has been convicted. The fires and hurricanes have abated—for now.

But the events of 2020 and 2021 have rocked us. They have created great dangers and great opportunities. They have changed everything, and they are your inheritance.

The rules of the game by which governments have operated for decades are hanging by a thread. There is no longer common agreement on a set of facts assembled over decades, even centuries  by scientists, historians, doctors or the media.  Public trust in all institutions—from the athletic department to the Catholic Church—is at an all-time low.  Elected officials pledge allegiance to their leaders, or their parties not to common sense, or the evidence. 

The media checks facts and calls out misinformation, but it doesn’t matter to many. The public has become numb, cynical about the government, the politicians, even the courts. Decision makers often retreat into their own corners, rely on their own sources, shut out conclusions and data they don’t like.

Caught in the middle are the hundreds of thousands of pubic servants charged with keeping the lights on, the roads in repair, the schools open, the taxes collected, the votes counted, the prisons operating, the fire department responding.

And, there you are as a policy analyst for the Legislative Finance Committee, or an assistant to a department head in the state or city government, a public information officer for the district court, maybe an election administrator, or a lobbyist for the Governor or a non-profit. 

What do you do to foster sound policy?  What do you do to bridge these cultural and political divides? What do you do to be ethical in a political arena fraught with conflict, and tough calls.? What do you do to ensure the survival of our system? Ok I know that last one was not in the job description and not in the scope of services.

But I am asking you to include it, and I am asking you to do that by standing up for facts, standing up for the evidence, and for social science,  It used to be easy, it used to be simply a matter of professional ethics… but now it’s not. Thousands of elected officials have swallowed the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen despite the recounts, the certifications, the court decisions.  Their staffs, their contributors, those who report to them are along for the ride.

Yet there are a few who have stood up—who have refused to back down from the facts—and have chosen to take the heat in order to preserve a nation based on laws, not expediency, not loyalty, not corruption. 

They are my new heroes.

In late November, Christopher Krebs, the Director of Cybersecurity in the Department of Homeland Security  called the 2020 presidential election one of the best we ever had.  Based on his investigation ,He saw no evidence of election fraud. His findings infuriated his boss, Donald Trump, who fired him immediately.

Republican Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger counted and recounted votes in the close Georgia presidential election, standing by their accuracy. He was vilified, his home was attacked but he stood his ground. Later, he was bullied by the President.  All he was asking, President Trump said, was that he find 11, 780 votes.  It was simple. Raffensperger declined.

Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovich was a career diplomat, served both Republicans and Democrats but she refused to bend to a President’s desire to get the Ukrainians to provide political dirt on his opponent. “Bad things” were going to happen to her, as a result of her failure to cede her authority to Rudy Giuliani, said President Trump. Hew was right. He fired her for sticking to the evidence and for refusing to say what he wanted her to.

And at the eleventh hour, Vice President Mike Pence stood up and told an insistent President that—even as President of the Senate-- he did not have the power, by law, to block the counting of certified electoral votes, and the election of Joe Biden. The consequences came very quickly.  His very name immediately drew the wrath of the President’s followers who stormed the capitol looking for Pence, to kill him.

I do not agree with these folks philosophically. Some of them have gone on to do things I don’t approve of. But that is not the point. They had the knowledge, the facts, they had investigated and could detect deliberate misinformation. And they had the courage to stand up for the evidence.

That’s what you need to do.  The knowledge you have, that you have accumulated, is power, but it is only power if you are willing to stand up for it.  It is power only if you are willing to testify, to not back down to bullies, or threats or personal attacks.  Because if we continue on the path broken in 2020, they will come.

And every attack on science, every attack on the data that supports the efficacy of fluoride and now vaccines is an attack on you.

When a Michigan legislator introduces a bill—as happened Tuesday—to punish fact checkers like those used by TV stations and newspapers—it is an attack on you.

When a TV station reports a conspiracy theory as if it was real news, it is an attack on you.

When no one questions the cost of tax breaks for the film industry of housing people with mental illness in state institutions, it is an attack on you.

When certain politicians say there is massive voter fraud that  justifies erecting new barriers to voting, it is an attack on you.

So, graduates, in this year where everything has changed, I hope you will continue to do some of the old things: to ask questions, to analyze, to probe, to look for solutions grounded in evidence.  Do that and you’ll  not only be a professional policy maker, but you will be a protector of democracy—here at the local level, where everything begins and is reflected.

Congratulations again on your achievement and thank you so much for letting me share this special day with you.

 

Authors Bill deBuys and Dede Feldman: More than Local

Author Bill deBuys was recently interviewed by Laura Paskus on In Focus about his new book, The Trail to Kanjiroba: Rediscovering Earth in an Age of Loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMU64Ioe68g He’s been one of my heroes since we worked together on creating a Bosque Council and the Valles Caldera in the legislature. He’s not only a New Mexico treasure but a superb writer and craftsman. I know so many people who are trying to write, grappling with the things I did in Ten More Doors—difficulty in being hopeful, the reexamination of why we’re at the current impasse—that I thought I’d pass this gem along.

It’s an In Focus “extra” with him about his own writing process and it applies to writing any narrative—and then ending it! He says the ending of his new book is encompassed in the last 16 words. Imagine! Check
it out.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcMVDuiCl3g

So proud that he read and liked Ten More Doors. Here is what he says about it: “High-level politics is like championship sports: defeats are as crushing; victories as joyous. You make a game plan but have to be ready to change it. You learn to know your teammates, how they play and where they are on the field. Same for your opponents. Ten More Doors will lift your appreciation, not just of the game, but of the difference a top player like Dede Feldman can make.”

Both books are available from local bookstores like Bookworks, Collected Works, Garcia Books and Organic Books, as well as IndieBound.org, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.

 

Fortunately, MRGCD Stood Up: "Fixing" Elections by Legislatures, Governing Boards Bad for Democracy

    I've gotten a lot of response to this article, which I penned for The Paper, an independent, online publication in Albuquerque. It's about a national trend, and how even the election for a very local body, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, reflects the drive to overturn unfavorable results.

    Check out The Paper at https://abq.news. They have some great, timely articles!

    A famous Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, once said, “All Politics is Local.”  For decades candidates seeking the votes of their neighbors or residents of the surrounding area took it as gospel. A bridge here, a speed bump there was more important than the nuances of the remote Israeli-Palestinian problem. And sometimes local issues about taxes or pollution had a way of percolating up from the grassroots to Washington. But now, local politics are imitating the national scene with its divisive wedge issues and bitter partisan warfare. 

    The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy (MRGCD) Board’s recent election is a case in point.  The MRGCD is arguably the lowest level of local government—but a recent attempt by the losing candidate to have the election results thrown out by the governing board mirrors the larger national debate on voting rights. 

   The results of the June election for Board positions 3 & 4 were landslides, with the incumbents Karen Dunning and Joaquin Baca winning with 75% of the vote in what is typically an unknown, low-turnout election held at an odd time, in a non-election year.  The loser complained that the early votes should be thrown out, and not counted in the total because they did not contain his nickname, “Scooter.” The ballots did contain his legal name, but a clerk had promised him that his nickname would also appear.  Up until the last day of early voting it did not. For that reason, the loser demanded that the approximately 950 early votes be jettisoned, although none had complained that they could not find the candidate they wished to vote for.  The results would not have changed. The loser would still lose, and the winner would still win.  But in the process, the  about half the voters would have their votes tossed out. They would be, in effect, disenfranchised after the fact. 

    Remarkably, the MRGCD’s lawyer wanted to do just that.  If her recommendation had been taken, the board would have simply  overriden the will of the voters, coming up with a new total that would stand in the history books as the official results.  All the early voters would have been disenfranchised. We are all fortunate that the District’s board members decided not to tamper with the results at the behest of the loser.

    Voters in other states are not so fortunate.  In the wake of the 2020 election, and the failure of the Jan. 6 uprising to overturn the results by force, state legislatures in some states are attempting to interfere with election administration and grant themselves—or their appointees– the power to overturn elections.  

    The most dangerous bills allow legislatures to assume the responsibility for election administration themselves and reject the decisions of independent  Secretaries of State and non-partisan officials. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan law and policy institute, Georgia has already given the legislature control of the state election board and granted it broad powers to investigate and suspend local election officials like the Brad Raffensperger, who famously stood up for the accuracy of the vote count in that state.  In Arkansas the partisan State Board of Election Commissioners now oversees election results and can correct them at will. In Texas, election administrators could face criminal penalties for doing their job if SB 7 is passed; in Iowa an election official who fails to perform list maintenance duties would face up to two years in jail under a pending bill.   

    These laws threaten the foundation of democracy—neutral elections, fairly administered. If governing bodies can reverse the course of a free election, as the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy Board was asked to do at the local level, we can no longer claim to be a democracy—here in New Mexico or in any state.  

Thankfully, the entire Conservancy Board voted against the challenge. We owe them a debt of gratitude—for democracy’s sake. 

We Dodged a Bullet, but Now Need to Repair Ramparts

New President New Day.  I didn't realize just how negative I'd become until the wave of relief hit me. The inauguration of a new president, the acknowledgement of the hardest of times, the renewal of hope and dreams now allowed, and celebrated in song and poetry-- I hope it had as strong an impact on everyone as it had on me.  We need the strength to repair the damage done to democracy that culminated in the insurrection and murderous riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6. It was instigated by Trump and carried out by militants who had become so brainwashed that they believed the election had been stolen and they were the heroes. It did not succeed. But it could have. The legitimate results of an election could have been overturned by chaos and a President that knew no limits.

This summer I read a book that sent me back to Europe in the 1930s --On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder.

https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Twenty-Lessons-Twentieth- Century/dp/0804190119/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1SRBSLU9DL6OM&dchild=1&keywords=on+tyranny+by+timothy+snyder&qid= 1606044161&sprefix=on+Ty,aps,205&sr=8-2

 It's worth a read.  

Here are 20 ways to prevent tyranny going forward, from this book:

A View from Just Outside the Roundhouse: All Hands on Deck

We Are All Citizens Now

Photo Art by Carolyn Fischman

Jan. 31, 2017

What a difference a few months have made. I remember when I lost my first election in 1995 writing a letter to the voters who had supported me. I said then that the most important office in a democracy was that of Citizen, not councilor, not senator not president. With “alternative facts,” blatantly unethical appointments and rash executive orders, it’s even truer today. But how to keep the momentum from the millions (yes millions!) in the streets and even more on the Internet going in an effective direction?   My suggestion is to keep your eye on the ball—Congress. I’m trying not to pay much attention to Trump’s talk and bluster but to his policies, which must be funded (or defunded) and passed by the Republican Congress.   There are lots of online tools to make it easy to contact your representatives like Indivisible ABQ. But no sense in preaching to the choir. I’m concentrating on moderate Rs who might still have some common sense—Jeff Flake and John McCain in AZ, Susan Collins in Maine. You might even have some relatives or friends outside of New Mexico. Work with them! Yes, many Republicans will say no, or equivocate. But for every elected official, this is a profile in courage moment. Remind them of that.

And don’t forget that letters to the editor, op eds, phone calls and hand-written letters count. Mailbox full? Switchboard tied up? Be ingenious. One friend suggested post cards to Rep. Paul Ryan’s home (Paul Ryan 700 St. Lawrence Ave., Janesville, WI 53545); another suggested filling in required email forms with a zip code from the targeted state. I suggest tea party style town halls in all swing districts. Hey, we might even have to travel. This is what a movement looks like.

Ethics? What Ethics?

President Trump’s unwillingness to divest, to disclose, to remove himself completely from his hotels and businesses guarantees continued conflicts of interest and public distrust. His insistence that the laws don’t apply to him sounds like a central African dictator, who’s squirreling away the country’s money. Even worse are the conflicts that his top appointments brush off so lightly. So what if the new HHS Secretary profited off of pharmaceutical stocks he bought in advance of a vote on RX pricing? Too bad if OMB pick Mick Mulvaney didn’t pay taxes on his housekeeper. Not long ago that was enough to stop Tom Daschle and Zoie Baird, but not this group. Shameless behavior on display here http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/tom-prices-confirmation-hearing-muddies-the-swamp as Republican senators wink and nod at nominees enduring the pesky press and public. Here’s another run-down of all the conflicts:http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/01/trumps-appointees-conflicts-of-interest-a-crib-sheet/512711/?utm_source=eb And is it coincidental that none of the Muslim majority countries where Trump has business dealings are covered by the travel ban?

Friends, if we loose our outrage about the basic principles of ethics and transparency—we’re collaborating. Common Cause, a group I am now connected with, is standing up at the national and state level. Support them. Closest to home, you can contact legislators for a strong ethics commission, disclosure of PAC and lobbyist activities and other reforms. To find out how, go to nm.commoncause.org and scroll down to Democracy Wire, at the very bottom. Common Cause New Mexico has a Face book page, too.

ABQ School Board Elections Tuesday Feb. 7

Lorenzo Garcia, Amy Legant are my picks for the North Valley district. I know, there’s only one seat—but longtime friend Lorenzo G. told me he wasn’t running and I told Amy Legant I’d support her. Darn it! Not much help on this one.

Solutions from the Grassroots

As gridlock—and worse—looms nationally, we need to remember that we have a lot to be proud of here in New Mexico. I am now hard at work on a book featuring some of the solutions that are working here at the grassroots level in health care, housing, local foods, education, and arts. I’ve always believed that real change comes from the bottom up and now I’m exploring that idea. And I’m finding a lot of local heroes here who didn’t wait for Washington to start solving problems. Let me know if you know one.

Repeal and Replace is Really, Really Bad for NM

The Affordable Care Act has cut our 2^nd highest uninsured rate by half. Over 266,000 citizens who didn’t have insurance now can go to the doc thanks to the Medicaid expansion. 40,000 more people get it through the exchange, which subsidizes policies and makes sure that they include basic benefits with no lifetime or annual caps and no exclusions due to preexisting conditions. All that will be swept away if there is no replacement, along with a reduction in RX prices for seniors and free screenings for Medicare recipients. I’ve seen estimates that from 6,000- 19,000 people will lose jobs in clinics, hospitals, insurance companies that have benefited from the act.

Fortunately, the NM legislature had the foresight to enshrine some of the ACA insurance reforms in state law, something that I was a part of. For example, under state law, insurers cannot charge women more than men for the same policy, “20- somethings” can be included on parents policies, and 85% of insurance revenues must be spent on care, not profit or admin.  

Republicans are already finding out how difficult it is to replace the ACA. http://wapo.st/2kccZkx?tid=ss_mail Certainly the ACA has not been perfect. Deductibles, premiums and co-pays have gone up. But just wait until you see the death spiral when the mandate is withdrawn. My prediction is that the replacement will be the same sorry health savings accounts or barebones policies that cost more with less coverage. Lifetime and annual limits will be restored. And oh, if we can buy cheaper policies across state lines, kiss our local insurance companies (like Presbyterian) goodbye. Lots of political risk here, but nothing compared to the real lives at stake.

Call members of the U.S. Senate and tell them not to confirm Tom Price as HHS Secretary. Meanwhile,

Keep the faith! With all its perils, we may be entering the most exciting time of our lives since the 1960s (for those of you who remember them).

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.

Ground Control to Major Tom: We May Have a Systems Failure

Blogger's Note: This is from the latest edition of my e-newsletter, From Just Outside the Roundhouse

I couldn’t help but think of our departed David Bowie this winter as I watched the legislature from just outside the roundhouse. It’s been four years since I’ve been out of that fray, and it looks, like Major Tom, untethered, disconnected and headed for parts unknown—in spite of the false display of accomplishment and good feelings on the final day. I feel the same way about the national political scene, where each party seems to be in denial that its grassroots are demanding an overhaul.

Is it just me or do you find these items disconcerting?

Item #1 The lack of meaningful action on the elephant in the room, i.e. an economy that continues to tank, making us first in unemployment, last in job creation. It’s fueling an exodus to neighboring states and leaving boarded-up buildings and For Rent signs in once thriving commercial centers like Nob Hill. The tired tools—smokestack chasing, tax breaks-- are not working. It’s obvious, but we’re stuck in political gridlock. Both the Governor and the divided legislature are to blame. Alan Weber had it right. The solutions are at hand: cellular phone service and high speed internet for the whole state; more flights at the Alb. Airport; diversification away from oil and gas to renewable energy; legalization and taxation of marijuana; investments in infrastructure and education; the use of unspent state funds identified by Auditor Tim Keller in his recent report.

Instead, the legis killed a measure that would have extended a tax credit for rooftop solar, dismissing an industry that is one of the few bright spots in the economy. And it made sure the voters would not have the opportunity to weigh in on legalizing (and taxing) marijuana, a proposition that brought $70 million into Colorado’s tax coffers last year.

Item # 2 In the wake of a major scandal involving the state’s chief ethics officer, the Secretary of State, the legislature, once again stuck its head in the sand and said the details weren’t quite right yet on the Ethics Commission, or on making lobbyist expenditures or independent PAC donors public. Really? Don’t we have a right to know? Shouldn’t lobbyists and elected officials be held accountable? Members of the Senate Rules Committee have had ten years to deliberate on this one, as bill after bill has come before them (I know, I was there), and their excuses are wearing thin. Many of the veterans are all for transparency—except when it applies to them. Then, as Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino said, a certain “paranoia” takes over that the elected officials will be victimized by the media or political opponents—and that-- with very few exceptions-- trumps the public’s right to know.

Almost all of the ethics initiatives were victims of a short session—and political moves designed to kill them. The Governor didn’t give messages or gave them too late, and House members got to vote for measures they knew would never make it through the Senate. Such is life in a divided body. The legislature, may be able to save itself at the 11th hour from Real ID, but can’t enact systemic reform to address deep-seated problems like declining public trust or economic stagnation.

Item #3 The unexpected rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The way we have constructed the primary system has magnified the extreme wings of each party…. but, whoa, is there some realignment going on here? Some of the polls say that there’s crossover between Sanders and Trump supporters. They’re so disaffected that they’re for anyone who’s against the “establishment.” Think of what would happen if they somehow united. There are lots of institutional barriers of course, but… just saying. Our two-party system has created stability, but change is very difficult, especially without the reforms that would open it up. It’s gratifying to hear Bernie rail vs. Citizens United and dark money, just as it is to hear Trump tell a few truths about the power of moneyed donors on the Republican side. Without reform in this area, there’s going to be even more frustration from the shrinking middle class and… who knows, maybe even a push for deeper changes like independent redistricting (killed by the leg), ability for independents to vote in primaries (also killed) and even…. perish the thought, term limits or statewide voter initiatives.