<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Haussamen Columns – NMPolitics.net</title> <atom:link href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/category/haussamen-columns/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index</link> <description>The real story</description> <lastBuildDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2020 15:22:27 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <item> <title>Why I’m moving on from NMPolitics.net</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2020/04/why-im-moving-on/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2020 15:21:03 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News about NMPolitics.net]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=757196</guid> <description><![CDATA[Last year’s hiatus helped me find perspective and rediscover hope. America has changed, and so have I. It’s time for me to focus on things other than political journalism.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757202" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Me with my girlfriend Sarah Silva backpacking in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness in 2019.</figcaption></figure> <p>Changing channels. It’s a television term that can also apply to navigating life. We’ve all had to do this a lot lately — making adjustments, some small, many massive, as we adapt to living during a pandemic.</p> <p>I’m making another change I need to tell you about.</p> <p>I shared a lot about my adventures in the wild on social media in the year or so before COVID-19 consumed our lives. As I looked back on it to write this column, a passage from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/haussamen/posts/10102296407393461" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">one social media post</a> from August 2019, which I wrote after hiking to Baylor Pass in the Organ Mountains, stood out:</p> <p>“Climbing the peaks around my homelands this summer and looking across to others I’ve visited has given me a truer sense of time — the planet’s time, not my own. Humanity is writing a dark chapter. The plants, animals and insects are feeling the pain too. These peaks have been watching since before humanity existed. There’s a calming peace in their embrace, looking across at their neighbors.”</p> <p>That sense of peace I find in nature has sustained me through tumultuous times, both in the year before this global crisis and even now. It’s changed me, in part by helping me find deep and quiet spaces to evaluate what I’m doing with my life.</p> <p>So before I get any further into this story, the news: I’m shutting down <a href="http://NMPolitics.net" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">NMPolitics.net</a>. I’m moving on to things other than political journalism, at least for now.</p> <p>I made this decision just before our governor declared a public health emergency on March 11. I wrote what I thought was a final draft of this column and was preparing to publish it. Then something apocalyptic happened to us all. I’ve spent the last month navigating crisis, preparing our home, working to keep our kids sane, grieving, and, in a handful of moments, re-evaluating. </p> <p>Ultimately, the circumstances that led me to the decision to shutter NMPolitics.net are even more pronounced today: I’m needed at home and my heart is pulling me in directions other than political journalism with the time I have for writing, photography, and creative and documentary work.</p> <p>An assertion from journalist Ezra Klein, which I first heard during a recent <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/ezra-klein-how-we-walked-into-this-and-how-we-can-walk-out/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">episode of the podcast On Being</a>, helped me gain clarity and confidence in this change. Klein believes we have built a political system in which it is, at the very least, difficult for people to express the best versions of themselves.</p> <p>He spoke of a conversation in which former President Barack Obama said we’re all one way in politics, but then around our kids’ sports fields, at PTA meetings or talking to neighbors we’re another way. That the other, non-political versions of ourselves are more core to our being. That this country is ultimately full of good people.</p> <p>I believe that. I have experienced it in my hometown of Las Cruces. It’s one of the reasons I love the tiny towns of Hillsboro and Kingston so dearly – places where people generally declare a truce on politics because it takes all of them working together <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/04/hillsboro-and-kingston-carve-out-an-existence-with-less-technological-connectivity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">to keep their towns alive</a>.</p> <p>I was at a professional crossroads when I restarted NMPolitics.net in 2015. I had just completed my part in helping start New Mexico In Depth, important work to build investigative and contextual reporting into the core journalism infrastructure in our state. (Right now, NMID is doing amazing reporting <a href="http://nmindepth.com/series/covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">on the pandemic</a>, by the way.) I was, frankly, tired. I was starting to not only see the structural flaws in American journalism, but to feel the toll they were taking on me. I wasn’t ready to leave journalism, but I wanted to do it differently. I wanted to help people come together to solve problems, like I’d seen folks in rural Sierra County do successfully.</p> <p>So I gave NMPolitics.net <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/about/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a new mission</a>: “In these polarized times, NMPolitics.net operates from a belief that the best way forward is together – that we must do the hard work of listening and understanding each other so we can find solutions that work for as many people as possible. We aim to do journalism that fosters conversation and builds community.”</p> <div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft"><img decoding="async" width="336" height="541" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500-336x541.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-42079" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500-336x541.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500-768x1237.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500-771x1242.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500-186x300.jpg 186w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500-636x1024.jpg 636w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HaussamenVertical1500.jpg 931w" sizes="(max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px" /><figcaption>Me in 2015 when I announced NMPolitics.net’s return.</figcaption></figure></div> <p>I embraced social media platforms that are commonly used by dark-money interests and foreign governments to spread disinformation and divide us, believing they could also be powerful platforms for conversation, education and community. I exhausted myself moderating debate with a stubborn insistence that people disagree, even vehemently, with respect.</p> <p>I delved into the world of solutions journalism – reporting that goes beyond exposing corruption and problems to explore how we move forward in a more productive and beneficial way.</p> <p>At a time when too many news organizations exacerbate the divisiveness, I found a community hungry for an alternative. So many of you donated, contributed to conversations and even helped police discussions when folks lobbed grenades. I didn’t feel like I’d found a real solution. What can one small news organization do to combat the hedge funds killing newspapers and cable news networks salaciously chasing ratings? But the work was still important, and I delved fully into it.</p> <p>Then a personal emergency forced me to take a break at the height of the Trump presidency. When this administration took office I assumed all the journalism I’d done to date had been preparing me for one of the most important moments in American history. Instead, I found myself consumed by a personal situation that left little emotional or mental energy for work. I had to step back.</p> <p>I had many moments of despair in those months. So I burned energy at the gym. I started reading science fiction and books about nature again, something I’d not made space for in years. I devoted myself to my family and our situation.</p> <p>And I retreated into the wilderness to recharge.</p> <p>I communed with vinegaroons, owls and deer in the desert. I stared down a bull elk after we unintentionally startled its herd, while he stared back and sized up the threat. I discovered a Mexican gray wolf where none is recorded to live. I found fresh bear scat, tracks and scrapes on aspens near a small spring and wild raspberry bushes. I photographed deer fawns and their mamas.</p> <p>I was knocked down by the boom of a lightning strike that was way too close for comfort as I scrambled to reach a remote cabin during a punishing hailstorm. I observed the retreating edge of a ponderosa pine forest that is stressed in part by climate change. I explored an ecosystem that’s regenerating years after an apocalyptic fire.</p> <p>I wandered among pictographs and other artifacts from lost times. I climbed peaks and stared across New Mexico at other mountains I’d climbed and the valleys in between. I pondered our history, culture and resiliency.</p> <p>We were living in incredibly troubling times before COVID-19, times that had only gotten worse since I restarted NMPolitics.net in 2015. But as I stepped away from the political system that encourages the worst of us, a system I’d spent so much mental and emotional energy working within and in many ways against, I found moments of joy and contentedness I didn’t experience when I was neck-deep in the muck. I found perspective I couldn’t see until I stepped out of that space. I heard from our ancestors and the planet and my family and friends. Hope and optimism gradually replaced despair.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HillsboroPeak-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757207" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HillsboroPeak-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HillsboroPeak-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HillsboroPeak-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HillsboroPeak-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HillsboroPeak.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Sunrise on the trail to Hillsboro Peak in the Gila National Forest.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks2-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757208" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks2-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks2-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks2.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Sunrise in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness in Northern New Mexico.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="577" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks-771x577.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757209" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks-771x577.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks-336x251.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks-768x574.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SanPedroParks.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Another scene from the San Pedro Parks Wilderness.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757210" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Pictographs at Tonuco Mountain in Doña Ana County.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain2-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757211" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain2-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain2-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TonucoMountain2.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Another scene from Tonuco Mountain.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah3-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757216" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah3-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah3-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/HeathandSarah3.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>With Sarah on Hillsboro Peak in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="575" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BaylorPass-1-771x575.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757220" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BaylorPass-1-771x575.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BaylorPass-1-336x251.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BaylorPass-1-768x573.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BaylorPass-1.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Looking from the Baylor Pass trail in the Organ Mountains across Las Cruces to the Doña Ana Mountains and, behind them, the Black Range.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="578" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heath-771x578.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757217" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heath-771x578.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heath-336x252.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heath-768x576.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heath-800x600.jpg 800w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heath.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Me after waking up in a tent in the Gila National Forest.</figcaption></figure> <p>When I returned to writing political columns <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/category/haussamen-columns/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">last fall</a>, I was different. It was a time to fight, not just for our democracy, but for humanity. Nativism was sweeping the globe. The systems in the United States that protected us from rule by overlords, including journalism, had been systematically eroded over decades. Our government was never designed to serve all people, but through long struggles we have historically made progress in that direction. Throughout the Trump presidency, we’ve been pulling back from human rights and accelerating the trend toward oligarchical rule.</p> <p>Powerful changes were in motion. I wasn’t certain we could stop them. As a father, that scared me. I was fighting for my children’s future when I started writing again.</p> <p>Still, I believe dividing and fighting is a retreat from progress and not how we will win the struggle for justice. Even now I hear common threads in the complaints about what’s wrong with our society from people across race and gender and political affiliation. But the system has increasingly limited our ability to see each others’ humanity. Klein helped me realize that’s in part by design. The system is pulling us apart, aided by a narcissistic president whose success depends on him breaking our nation into pieces.</p> <p>This reality was starting to wear on me when life forced my hiatus. When I returned to work last fall I discovered an even more divided community. If I wrote fighting words I received lots of positive and negative responses. Columns that sought common ground earned mostly crickets. Many people embraced the shouting, not the conversation.</p> <p>In short, the conditions under which I restarted NMPolitics.net in 2015 no longer exist. Back then the nation was at a tipping point: There were many people across the political spectrum who were concerned about what was coming and hungry for conversation that would build understanding and move us off this frightening road.</p> <p>Five years later our shouts are louder and more vulgar. Worst of all, so many of the conservatives I used to have strong relationships with have <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/10/the-gop-i-once-respected-is-dead/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">embraced the MAGA agenda</a> that would destroy everything that makes this nation a place where I’m proud to raise multi-ethnic daughters with a Latina partner who is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. This is no longer a country where I can even expect that our girls should feel safe.</p> <p>America has changed. So have I. That means the container that is NMPolitics.net no longer fits me.</p> <p>I remain a passionate defender of local journalism. I’m glad there are folks taking up that torch, going to work every day to watchdog government and write other important stories. For now, I won’t be among their ranks.</p> <p>Instead, I’m spending much of my time supporting my amazing partner Sarah and <a href="http://www.sarahasilva.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">her work</a>, which includes coaching community organizers in several states and, here at home, helping build a more equitable education system. I’m supporting our girls, who have filled the space in our family that my work vacuum created. Kids need more attention from their parents than our society is structured to give them. In this global crisis, our kids need all the time and energy I have to give.</p> <p>I find joy and meaning in helping these amazing girls navigate an uncertain world and in supporting Sarah’s efforts to improve it.</p> <p>My family needs me to be my best self. Spending hours each day in the political muck pulls me away from that.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="573" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sarahandthegirls-771x573.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-757212" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sarahandthegirls-771x573.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sarahandthegirls-336x250.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sarahandthegirls-768x571.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sarahandthegirls.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>A sunrise hike with Sarah and our daughters.</figcaption></figure> <p>I am developing new projects. My thinking about them is evolving as I adjust to pandemic life. I’ve found connection in the reactions on social media to the writing and photography I’ve posted about trips into the wilderness. I have some journalistic ideas in mind, and some art, too. I love this paragraph from an article Jessica Kantrowitz wrote <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/what-would-madeleine-l-engle-do?fbclid=IwAR0Z6GfkpYpnEom6CwvKN851FHf8iAxJn1YnEZ0FF8tVtQ8GEx1jXDpTc3w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">in Sojourners</a>:</p> <p>“There is something about the act of making art — of writing a poem, painting, making music, or crafting a sculpture, that even as it expresses our very specific personality and personhood, brings us out of ourselves and into the universal. And it is just that universal language that is needed right now, when dialogue has broken down in our country to a degree almost equal to the Tower of Babel. Art digs a deeper word out of us, and speaks that word to a deeper place in another’s person’s spirit.”</p> <p>As I’ve shared my outdoor adventures through photographs and written posts on social media in recent months, I’ve experienced that connection. I’ve seen folks I know are adamantly divided about politics come together to discuss and celebrate the wonders of nature and life.</p> <p>Like Klein, I believe America is full of good folks. I’m not going to give up the search for common ground, but I will be working in different spaces. I’ll be reflecting in a deeply personal – and perhaps universal – way that I hope will resonate and spark something important.</p> <p>I want to thank you all for your support of NMPolitics.net, which I plan to keep online for archives. So many of you have continued monthly donations. I really appreciate your patience with my journey. I’ll be cancelling all your monthly payments this month. I can’t continue taking your money now that I’m clear about heading in a different direction.</p> <p>Please stay connected with me. I’m sharing much of my photography and writing on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.facebook.com/haussamen" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/haussamen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Instagram</a> @haussamen and will share news about future endeavors. If you’re interested, I still sometimes rant about politics in the echo chamber that is Twitter <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/haussamen" target="_blank">@haussamen</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Democracy depends on saving local newspapers</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/12/democracy-depends-on-saving-local-newspapers/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:33:52 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[First Amendment]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=735792</guid> <description><![CDATA[A corporation that owns several New Mexico papers suggests more cuts are coming. We cannot let that happen.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="554" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sun-News-771x554.jpg?x36058" alt="Las Cruces Sun-News" class="wp-image-340019" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sun-News-771x554.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sun-News-336x241.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sun-News-768x552.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sun-News-1170x840.jpg 1170w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sun-News.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>The offices of the Las Cruces Sun-News, a newspaper owned by Gannett. (Heath Haussamen/NMPolitics.net)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>Despite years of cutting into democracy’s bones by decreasing news coverage in communities across the United States, a giant corporation that owns several newspapers in New Mexico still has room to cut staff, its leader suggests.</p> <p>To be perfectly clear about my position: Gannett leader Michael E. Reed is wrong. He must know it. And his company’s history of chopping down local newspapers for profit is a real threat to the First Amendment and the society it is intended to protect.</p> <p>But Reed and other top executives are paid millions to make cuts and spin those cuts to the public as positive. So he spews… what he spews. He told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/business/media/gannett-gatehouse-merger.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">The New York Times</a> that Gannett cares about “quality local journalism.” Gannett chief executive Paul Bascobert was quoted by The Times as saying the company’s mission “is to connect, protect and celebrate local communities.”</p> <p>The comments come in the context of Gannett being folded into GateHouse Media to form the largest newspaper company in the nation, still called Gannett, in an effort to save $300 million — most of it, officials claim, not coming from laying off journalists.</p> <p>Gannett is being managed, The Times reported, by Fortress Investment Group, a Manhattan-based private equity firm. And Fortress, The Times reported, is owned by the Tokyo conglomerate SoftBank. Gannett’s true mission is extracting money from communities for its shareholders. Selling us less news and information packaged as “quality local journalism” is a means to that end.</p> <p>My experience working for a Gannett-owned newspaper, the Las Cruces Sun-News, is what motivated me to set out on my own and start NMPolitics.net in 2006. </p> <p>I did some of my best work at the Sun-News. We responded to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by producing weeks of special editions full of local stories that aimed to help our community sort through how the world was changing.</p> <p>I was given months to investigate corruption at the Las Cruces Public Schools. My reporting helped spark a recall of two school board members and the misdemeanor convictions in 2003 of five on violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act.</p> <p>I spent months investigating problems in Doña Ana County government. My reporting led to a state audit that essentially confirmed our articles and led to improvements.</p> <p>I had time, months, to research and write a series on child abuse in Doña Ana County after seven children died. That series helped this community make positive changes.</p> <p>But by the time I departed in 2006, the newspaper had already made substantial cuts. We could no longer find the time for such projects. Things have continued declining since I left. Every time I thought the corporate overlords had cut the Sun-News’ staff to the bone and couldn’t do it again, they did it again. </p> <p>Today’s Sun-News is still one of the better newspapers in New Mexico, which is a sad statement about newspapers in general. The Sun-News still employs strong journalists, but they lack the resources to do what we could 15 years ago. Those journalists find ways to cover some important stories, but daily reporting and watchdog journalism have suffered greatly. That’s something I still grieve.</p> <p>Gannett is running reporters ragged until they burn out and leave journalism. In the meantime it’s pushing them to focus on what gets the most clicks and not providing the time or support to produce the quality journalism the company claims to want.</p> <p>The problem isn’t just Gannett. A recent study from PEN America <a href="https://pen.org/local-news/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">reports</a> that more than 1,800 newspapers have closed in the last 15 years, leaving more than 3 million people in the United States without a local newspaper. More than 1,000 additional papers have become what the study calls “ghost newspapers” — those with “little original reporting.” The Pew Research Center <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/09/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-dropped-by-a-quarter-since-2008/" target="_blank">reports</a> that 25 percent of journalists in the United States were laid off between 2008 and 2018. Few newspapers in New Mexico, whether owned locally or by big corporations, have been spared by the news business’ transition from print to digital.</p> <p>But the cuts have been especially deep at Gannett papers. Others in New Mexico include the Farmington Daily Times, Carlsbad Current Argus, Alamogordo Daily News, Deming Headlight, Ruidoso News and Silver City Sun-News. The nearby El Paso Times is also owned by Gannett.</p> <p>Reed suggested most of Gannett’s pending cuts won’t come from newsrooms. Out of 24,000 people working in the company, he told The Times, “there’s about 2,500 that are actually writing stories every day.” That leaves a whole lot of wiggle room to do the same thing news corporations have done in the past: Say newsroom cuts will be minimal, then chop the hell out of newsrooms.</p> <p>There aren’t enough reporters covering any New Mexico communities where Gannett operates. If there’s bloat, resources should be redirected there, not into cost savings. And there are lots of journalists besides reporters needed to produce quality journalism. Photographers. Videographers. Editors. Web and print designers. Plus other resources: Money for equipment, supplies, travel, public records and lawyers. </p> <p>Strong journalism requires intentional planning, team collaboration, rigorous editing and money. It isn’t just making a couple of phone calls and writing a few hundred words.</p> <p>Reed said Gannett reporters will have stories tracked to gauge output and reader interest. He suggested that could identify places to shift resources so the paper can “do more quality local journalism with the same amount of resources, potentially.”</p> <p>If I’d had to meet story and click quotas during my time at the Sun-News, I couldn’t have devoted months to investigating child abuse deaths or government corruption.</p> <p>The decline of local newspapers is a real threat to democracy. <a href="https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/public-finance-local-news.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">One recent study</a> found that when local papers close, government costs rise. Government that isn’t being watchdogged by journalists is more likely to suffer from waste, fraud and abuse, so it costs more to borrow money. That cost is passed on to taxpayers. PEN America’s study found <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/local-news-disappear-pen-america.html" target="_blank">communities frayed and people seriously uninformed</a>.</p> <p>I’ve been frustrated in recent years to see the Sun-News lack the resources to cover Doña Ana County and the Las Cruces schools with the same tenacity I could in the early 2000s. Scandals that feel eerily familiar have dogged both local government agencies recently. I suspect the Sun-News’ limited capacity contributed to a climate that let local governments backslide.</p> <p>I can’t think of a more tangible sign in these troubling times of how the oligarchy has eroded democratic systems than corporations buying local institutions that are designed to protect democracy and eviscerating them for profit.</p> <p>PEN America’s <a href="https://pen.org/local-news/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">study</a> proposes expanded foundation and public financing to combat local journalism’s decline. Those ideas can help — Certainly, nonprofit news organizations like ProPublica and the Texas Tribune and publicly funded outlets like NPR make a difference.</p> <p>Several years ago I raised money to start a nonprofit news organization, New Mexico In Depth, from scratch. Nonprofits provide important watchdog journalism. But they generally don’t fill the void created by declining newspapers.</p> <p>Locally owned newspapers have a better chance of surviving in a form that defends democracy than corporate papers. That’s because decisions are made by people who understand their communities and profits can be re-invested instead of being sent off into the the abyss that is the oligarchy’s bank accounts. It’s because the people in charge care about the people they serve.</p> <p>The Santa Fe New Mexican remains one of the strongest local newspapers around. Its publisher, after learning in the 1970s that selling to Gannett wasn’t all it was made out to be, fought an 11-year battle in court to take the newspaper back from the corporation — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/28/business/robert-mckinney-90-editor-who-regained-paper-s-control.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">and won</a>. The New Mexican has reinvested in its community by building a new printing press that prints other publications to supplement revenue. The newspaper is fiercely focused on improving Santa Fe and the surrounding communities and has spent its money toward that end.</p> <p>The New Mexican is evidence that strong management, creative business ideas and stubborn loyalty to journalism can offset declining print readership and revenues.</p> <p>We have other strong, locally owned newspapers in New Mexico, like the Albuquerque Journal, Rio Grande Sun in Española, Independent in Edgewood and Silver City Daily Press. We need to support these newspapers. Though they have their own flaws and challenges, they make a difference.</p> <p>Communities should also look for opportunities to take newspapers back from corporations like Gannett. I’d like to see community organizing turn its focus toward activating people to fight for the news they need and deserve, whether it’s an effort to buy back a newspaper or pushing a corporation to invest more locally.</p> <p>In the meantime, don’t stop supporting your corporate-owned newspapers. Subscribe and simultaneously push for change. Write to the corporate leaders in far-off states to demand that they put more resources into journalism in your community. Send letters to the editor to be published in the local newspapers or their competitors’ publications. Protest cuts.</p> <p>The employees of the Gannett-owned Arizona Republic recently unionized. They’re now battling a company that is allegedly putting hurdles in their way <a href="https://twitter.com/azrepublicguild/status/1205559756372361216?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">in violation of federal law</a>. Let’s support efforts to unionize in New Mexico if they happen.</p> <p>And at New Mexico’s Gannett papers, there’s a bit of good news that requires your help. The Sun-News recently won a Report for America grant <a href="https://www.reportforamerica.org/newsrooms/las-cruces-sun-news/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">to help fund a new position</a> — a journalist who will report for all the state’s Gannett papers on how school districts statewide are implementing a court mandate to increase efforts to help at-risk students. The grant requires that the Sun-News earn public help to fund a quarter of the job. When the paper asks, donate. This is an opportunity to support journalism that can make a real difference for our children.</p> <p>We have a First Amendment and a free press for a reason. Though Thomas Jefferson <a href="http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/1289" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">said</a> he’d prefer “newspapers without a government” to “government without newspapers,” we’re heading in the opposite direction. This road continues with us not knowing how bad the corruption becomes while the wealthy profit more and more off our ignorance, which they created. This road ends at the death of democracy.</p> <p>We cannot let that happen.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Look for Lujan Grisham to get VP consideration next year</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/11/look-for-lujan-grisham-to-get-vp-consideration-next-year/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 25 Nov 2019 16:31:27 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[2020 election]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Michelle Lujan Grisham]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Roundhouse]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=730144</guid> <description><![CDATA[There’s a good chance New Mexico’s governor will end up on the successful Democratic presidential candidate’s short list for vice president.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="583" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lujan-Grisham-Michelle-1-771x583.jpg?x36058" alt="Michelle Lujan Grisham" class="wp-image-672887" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lujan-Grisham-Michelle-1-771x583.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lujan-Grisham-Michelle-1-336x254.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lujan-Grisham-Michelle-1-768x581.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lujan-Grisham-Michelle-1-1170x884.jpg 1170w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lujan-Grisham-Michelle-1.jpg 1222w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. (Office of the Governor)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>Michelle Lujan Grisham has an impressive résumé. As governor she’s been highly visible by pushing New Mexico into national debates on hot topics like <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2019/09/24/new-mexico-set-own-fuel-economy-emission-standards/2432946001/" target="_blank">vehicle fuel efficiency</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/us/new-mexico-free-college-tuition.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">free college tuition</a>. She isn’t afraid to take strong stands on issues when doing so will anger conservatives and sometimes even <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oil-backed-blue-wave-new-mexico-funds-progressive-policy-through-n1072181" target="_blank">the progressive wing of her own party</a>. She’s a female person of color.</p> <p>And she appears to have boundless energy.</p> <p>For all those reasons, there’s a good chance she will end up on the successful Democratic presidential candidate’s short list for vice president.</p> <p>I hesitated for awhile to write this column. New Mexico’s last governor got lots of buzz in political discussions about vice president. The two governors before her ran unsuccessfully for president. The falls of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/politics/05richardson.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Bill Richardson</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/state-auditor-abuse-of-power-in-martinez-admin-settlements/article_8abcb0ed-27c4-51f4-b00c-b730a6507e2a.html" target="_blank">Susana Martinez</a> were swift and painful to watch, and no positive mark for New Mexico.</p> <p>And to be clear, this column is no endorsement of Lujan Grisham for vice president. I don’t endorse. While I like some things she’s done as governor, I have concerns about others, including the way she has treated some employees — especially her firing, via proxy, her first education secretary, <a href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/education/2019/07/23/karen-trujillo-public-education-department-new-mexico-gov-lujan-grisham/1804323001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Karen Trujillo</a>.</p> <p>But timing can mean everything in politics. Lujan Grisham’s star appears to be rising at the right time.</p> <p>The white men seeking the presidency, in particular, would be wise to consider a Latina to round out the ticket. A large swath of the Democratic Party is justifiably fed up with white men holding all the top jobs. The ticket needs to motivate people of color and their allies to vote.</p> <p>Others will obviously be on the list. Some are presidential candidates like Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker, assuming they don’t win the nomination. There are also former candidates like Beto O’Rourke. All will likely get a close look that includes considering the followings they built.</p> <p>But the winning campaign will also be wise to consider less-known politicians who could bring fresh energy to the national stage that could shine through next November’s election.</p> <p>Like Lujan Grisham.</p> <p>She’s a loyal foot soldier for the Democratic Party. She <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/04/25/amanpour-michelle-lujan-grisham-united-states-new-mexico-governor.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">appears regularly on national television</a> to promote the party line and is well-versed on the issues. At 60, she brings the wisdom of her years and the energy that’s rare in a politician of any age.</p> <p>Choosing the right running mate usually doesn’t help a presidential candidate much, but choosing the wrong partner can be disastrous. Lujan Grisham’s years in the U.S. House and the Roundhouse make her a fairly known candidate. She’s skilled at delivering a powerful anti-Trump message.</p> <p>I don’t know if Lujan Grisham wants the job, but my assumption is she has a strong sense of duty to the Democratic Party’s vision and would have to consider the possibility if approached. </p> <p>In the meantime, there’s little talk about Lujan Grisham joining the ticket thus far. Even Twitter mentions <a href="https://twitter.com/Matt37231754/status/1177948842408333312" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">are few</a>. </p> <p>That could work in her favor. While candidates duke it out to win the party’s presidential nomination, she’s focused on making changes in New Mexico while building the state’s reputation — and her own.</p> <p>There are many variables and a lot of months before this is sorted out, so anything is possible. But it’s likely discussions about Lujan Grisham will increase as the 2020 election approaches.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>We can still build the bridges that make America great</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/11/we-can-still-build-the-bridges-that-make-america-great/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 20 Nov 2019 14:37:22 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Border and immigration]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Borderlands]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=730123</guid> <description><![CDATA[The fear-based MAGA agenda promotes othering that is tearing us apart, but there are reasons to stay hopeful all around us.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="638" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jimenez-771x638.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-730126" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jimenez-771x638.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jimenez-336x278.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jimenez-768x635.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jimenez.jpg 774w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>My girlfriend Sarah’s grandfather, Ramón Jiménez, a Mexican immigrant and pecan farmer and a dear man who makes America great. (Heath Haussamen/NMPolitics.net)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>I came across a truck parked on the side of a dirt road while I was hunting last week with a red “Make America Great Again” cap displayed on the dashboard. The plate on the front read, “You can’t fix stupid.”</p> <p>I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The sort of othering promoted by President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda is sweeping the globe as populist movements grow in response to economic pressures. That, coupled with our long history of colonization and racism, is feeding anti-immigrant movements. Divides between the ideological left and right are widening. Those who would hold the middle are being marginalized.</p> <p>With younger generations consistently moving America in a more progressive direction, the Republican Party is increasingly abandoning democracy in an attempt to hold power. Some still believe in working to bring people of color, women and young people into the GOP, but the party as a whole has embraced nationalism and anti-democratic policies like reducing polling places and canceling presidential primaries.</p> <p>I understand the urge. Too many people whose families built wealth over generations lost it in the 2008 recession, then lost health care when Barack Obama was president. Trump provides a boogeyman — immigrants — and promises to protect a life people fear is slipping away.</p> <p>But America, in all its imperfect glory, is at its best when we act with the hope of a shared purpose instead fear of others. The white nationalist MAGA agenda, not immigrants, is the greatest threat to our way of life.</p> <p>Research by <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/how-america-ends/600757/" target="_blank">Harvard political scientist Daniel Ziblatt</a> suggests that democracies need strong center-right parties to survive the creep of fascism. So Trump’s success in bullying <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-takeover-of-gop-forces-many-house-republicans-to-head-for-the-exits/2019/09/22/d89f99fc-d4bd-11e9-ab26-e6dbebac45d3_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">out of Congress</a> those conservatives who would stand up to his agenda is especially troubling. To stop this threat, we need democracy-loving Republicans.</p> <p>The Republican Party of New Mexico should be a bastion of moderate conservatism. Republicans can’t win most offices in this state any other way. Republicans here should know better than to embrace the <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/06/this-is-a-crime-against-humanity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">kidnapping and traumatizing of migrant children</a> and wasting public money on an ineffective border wall.</p> <p>Instead, former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who now heads the state GOP, has wholeheartedly embraced the Trump agenda. Where are the independent Republicans? Some have landed in our neighbor city of El Paso.</p> <p>Jon Barela, a former N.M. economic development secretary who once ran for Congress in Albuquerque, is working to build the border economy across three states in two nations as CEO of the Borderplex, and he often speaks out <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-border/cheers-jeers-on-border-as-trump-pushes-wall-in-state-of-union-idUSKCN1PV14J" target="_blank">against the president’s rhetoric</a>. Heather Wilson, a former congresswoman from Albuquerque who was Trump’s first Air Force secretary, is the president of the University of Texas-El Paso. While in Washington she fought against Trump’s efforts <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/08/before-resigning-air-force-secretary-heather-wilson-irked-trump-pentagon-mattis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">to create a Space Force</a> as a separate branch of the military.</p> <p>The Democratic, pro-immigration stronghold in far southwest Texas seems to be a spot not only for refugees from Latin America, but also for some important conservatives.</p> <p>I’m sad that Rep. Will Hurd, a black, moderate Republican who represents the House district east of El Paso, isn’t seeking re-election. He is instead focusing <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/14/hurd-launches-group-build-more-diverse-gop/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">on building a more ethnically diverse GOP</a>. While the cynic in me thinks it’s too late for that, his stubborn hope, to be honest, helped sparked this column. We need more of it.</p> <p>There are others. I give Utah’s Mitt Romney credit for running into the burning building by seeking election to the U.S. Senate while so many others were fleeing to save themselves. I wish Arizona’s Jeff Flake and others had stayed to fight alongside him.</p> <p>That’s difficult when your party turns to white nationalism and the other party beats you up endlessly. The left has aided Trump in bullying Republicans who value democracy over party out of Congress.</p> <p>I was excited last year when the Koch-funded LIBRE Initiative hosted <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/08/longtime-foes-must-work-together-to-protect-dreamers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a panel discussion on immigration reform in Las Cruces</a>. My girlfriend Sarah Silva joined Barela and other conservatives on that panel who understand that immigration is instrumental to America’s greatness, and who still value common ground and compromise.</p> <p>Sarah faced some backlash from the left for having a conversation with Barela and others at a Koch-funded event. Othering isn’t unique to the right, though it’s much worse in that corner of the ideological spectrum at this moment in history.</p> <p>But the ideological purity the left trends toward isn’t helping hold the line against fascism any more than the blind party loyalty that has consumed the right.</p> <p>The removal of the most fascist-leaning president in modern history is a critical step to preserving what makes America great. We need people like Barela, Wilson, Hurd and Flake to stay active. We need Romney to be more vocal. We need more influential white Republicans to join Barela and Hurd in the fray, like state Sen. John McCollister in Nebraska <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMcCollister/status/1158178237899522048" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">has done</a>, and not leave it to the few prominent GOP people of color to lead efforts to stop the party’s descent into white nationalism. Is there a GOP state senator in New Mexico with McCollister’s courage?</p> <p>We also need the left to work with the Republicans who stand up for what’s right. Such alliances are quintessentially American. They’re necessary if we’re to successfully defend everything about America that is wonderful.</p> <p>Sarah’s grandfather, Ramón Jiménez, came to the United States from Mexico decades ago under the bracero program. He was eventually able to bring his family with him. He still speaks primarily Spanish. The land where he farms pecans has three homes on it. Two of his children live there with him and their families. His farm is a testament to the greatness immigrants bring to the United States. Life there is a mix of English and Spanish and always a celebration of family and freedom.</p> <p>I photographed Sarah’s grandfather standing on that patch of land three years ago with pecan trees and an American flag behind him. In the photo, this entrepreneur looks proud and content.</p> <p>That’s America, when we choose to be our best. America at its best is also Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman <a href="https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1196805157822062593" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">testifying Tuesday in the House</a> about Trump’s inappropriate demands of Ukraine.</p> <p>Lt. Col. Vindman shared that in the Soviet Union, which his father left four decades ago to bring his family to the United States, his acts of raising concerns about the president and testifying publicly “would surely cost me my life.”</p> <p>America is different, he said, addressing his dad: “Do not worry. I will be fine for telling the truth.”</p> <p>Lt. Col. Vindman’s faith in America makes America great. The GOP attacks on his immigrant heritage do the opposite.</p> <p>The United States has often met waves of immigration with fear that’s always been proven wrong. We must refuse to give in to that fear now. We must interrupt our own senseless othering and find ways to <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/building-bridges/heal-divide-break-bridging-20191112" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">bridge our differences</a>. Our task is to dig deep to find hope, understanding and courage, and then to act, together.</p> <p>We can start by standing up for what’s right, like Lt. Col. Vindman. And we can start, as <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/2019/05/09/las-cruces-opens-center-asylum-seekers-released-border-patrol/1151994001/" target="_blank">Las Cruces</a>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/when-migrants-arrived-droves-poor-new-mexico-city-opened-its-n1018656" target="_blank">Deming</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/us/el-paso-trump-escobar.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">El Paso</a> have done with diverse ideological support, by creating welcoming spaces for the migrants Trump mistreats. That’s a model the rest of the nation should emulate.</p> <p>We can build from there, regardless of whether Trump is removed from office by the Senate or defeated in the next election.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Election reform worked! Now let’s tackle other issues.</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/11/election-reform-worked-now-lets-tackle-other-issues/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 07 Nov 2019 21:01:02 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[2019 election]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Election reform]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Voter turnout]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=728393</guid> <description><![CDATA[Tuesday’s elections showed that structural changes have improved voting in New Mexico. Let’s use that momentum to tackle other needed reforms.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="511" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/12208770_10100935118073171_6580962201182162759_n-771x511.jpg?x36058" alt="Voting" class="wp-image-102989" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/12208770_10100935118073171_6580962201182162759_n-771x511.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/12208770_10100935118073171_6580962201182162759_n-336x223.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/12208770_10100935118073171_6580962201182162759_n-768x509.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/12208770_10100935118073171_6580962201182162759_n.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>A voting kiosk (Heath Haussamen/NMPolitics.net)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>Tuesday’s elections in New Mexico proved that, in spite of all our dysfunction, society is still able to implement structural reform that supports democracy and benefits people.</p> <p>We’ve made several changes in New Mexico since the last election. Most notable was the consolidation of the many tiny, local elections that had long flown under the radar into one, larger, nonpartisan election held every other November. That was intended to <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/02/heres-how-consolidating-most-local-elections-would-impact-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">make it easier for people to keep up and participate</a>.</p> <p>Other changes were the allowing of same-day registration during the early voting period across the state and, in Las Cruces, the use of ranked-choice voting, in which voters could rank all candidates in a race by preference instead of picking just one.</p> <p>Government at the local, county and state levels worked together to successfully implement the changes. As intended, it was easier for people to vote, and more did.</p> <p>Just over 10,000 people voted in the last mayoral race in Las Cruces <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2015/11/in-a-time-of-declining-voter-turnout-las-cruces-holds-the-line/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">in 2015</a>. In this year’s election, just under 14,000 people voted <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="http://electionresults.sos.state.nm.us/resultsPREC.aspx?eid=2747&type=MUX&rid=5840&cty=07%20&osn=600&map=CTY" target="_blank">in the mayor’s race</a>. The spike in turnout was even higher for less visible ballot items like seats on the regional soil and water conservation district board and a bond for Doña Ana Community College.</p> <p>Also, naysayers were proven wrong: Many school districts opposed consolidating elections because they knew how to control the electorate in less-visible contests. They feared greater turnout would kill their ability to fund infrastructure through property taxes and actively lobbied against consolidating elections. But the Las Cruces Public Schools easily won approval to continue a property tax <a href="http://electionresults.sos.state.nm.us/resultsPREC.aspx?eid=2747&type=EDX&rid=520&cty=07%20&osn=915&map=CTY" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">on Tuesday</a>. Fears about giving people a greater voice in school district funding were, predictably, unfounded.</p> <p>As if the benefits to voters weren’t enough, consolidating elections lets government operate more efficiently and waste fewer tax dollars. That’s another win for all of us.</p> <p><a href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2019/09/01/ranked-choice-voting-coming-las-cruces-heres-what-you-need-know/2180930001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Ranked-choice voting</a> was similarly awesome. I’ve long detested the two-party system that dominates politics in the United States. Thinking through my frustration has helped me understand how important systems are in shaping societal attitudes. We fit into the containers we create. So when the choice on a ballot is one or another, we simplify our thinking into black and white, good and evil, and most of us gather into one or the other group.</p> <p>When I had to rank 10 mayoral candidates from first to last on Tuesday, I found myself considering them in a more nuanced way, and also thinking strategically about how my rankings could help support certain candidates or take down others.</p> <p>We need more nuance in politics in the United States. Any change that encourages it is positive.</p> <p>The Las Cruces mayoral race also stayed more positive than other recent contests. Candidates needed each others’ supporters on second or successive ballots, so they played nicer. We need more of that as well. I’m happy that Las Cruces joined Santa Fe and about 20 other cities nationwide in using ranked-choice voting.</p> <p>Also, a couple thousand folks statewide registered to vote and voted <a href="https://www.kunm.org/post/2100-people-used-same-day-registration-during-early-voting-nm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">at the same time</a> under another change in state law. Guess what? The sky didn’t fall. Quite the opposite: For those people, participating in democracy was more convenient.</p> <p>Voter engagement and turnout weren’t stellar in this election. But they improved. Creating a system that better encourages participation led to higher participation. Systemic change mattered. Over time that change will help enable the growth of a stronger culture of voting and participation in democracy.</p> <p>That reminds me of what I observed happen on an infrastructure level when Las Cruces redesigned its downtown. Before we had a massive plaza, it was difficult to gather hundreds or thousands of people for a rally, protest or vigil anywhere outdoors in the city. Immediately after Las Cruces built a space for such gatherings, people filled it for a Christmas event and then <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/01/womens-march-draws-1500-people-in-las-cruces/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">the 2017 women’s march</a>. It’s filled up many times since. Infrastructure that allows higher participation actually encourages and helps lead to higher participation.</p> <p>We’re in a fight for democracy in the United States. It took a lot of work over several years to enact complex election reform in Las Cruces and New Mexico, but we did it. It’s paying off, and it’s important we keep going. There are so many other broken or mediocre systems we need to improve.</p> <p>Our education system is failing our children, for example. As a parent who’s active in public schools, I’m confident in saying all our funding increases and tweaks to the current system haven’t created positive structural change. Adding a few days to the school year and increasing funding won’t be a “moonshot,” either. We need to re-vision our entire public education system from top to bottom, thinking creatively and boldly like we have with our election system.</p> <p>A few other examples: We need to rethink how counties are structured in New Mexico — with elected county commissions and separate elected officials like sheriffs who don’t control their own budgets. The current system encourages infighting and waste. We also need to reform our ineffective Public Regulation Commission and ill-equipped state Legislature.</p> <p>We need to dismantle systems that are structurally racist or discriminatory in other ways, such as those that benefit folks in cities but are useless to people in rural areas. We need to replace them with systems that aim to live up to the promise of New Mexico’s cultural values and that take advantage of the technology of the 21st Century to reach and help people.</p> <p>Our government is still largely structured and operating as though we’re living in the 20th Century. To keep up with the changes around us in technology, business, culture and other areas, and to implement and defend a more robust democracy, government must adapt.</p> <p>Following Tuesday’s elections, I’m confident that we in New Mexico have the ability to dream big, think outside the box, diligently hash out important details, and invent new systems that better serve people. Let’s build on the momentum created by election reform and keep going.</p> <p>The work isn’t sexy. It won’t do much to help policymakers win re-election. But it’s exactly the sort of effort we need to dig out of the mess that is <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/11/vote-like-the-apocalypse-is-coming-because-it-might-be/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">the society that’s crumbling around us</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Vote like the apocalypse is coming, because it might be</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/11/vote-like-the-apocalypse-is-coming-because-it-might-be/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 01 Nov 2019 14:53:28 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[2019 election]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Apocalypse]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Climate change]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Roundhouse]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=727589</guid> <description><![CDATA[California’s fires and blackouts are the latest indicator of the harsh reality we’re preparing to hand to our children. It’s not too late to change course, but we must act now.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="514" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WoolseyFire-771x514.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-727591" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WoolseyFire-771x514.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WoolseyFire-336x224.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WoolseyFire-768x512.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WoolseyFire-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WoolseyFire.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>A scene from the destructive 2018 Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles. (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usforestservice/45923164272/in/photolist-2cY5dNm-2bDJF96-2bDHG9e-2cY5i2S-2agV3pC-2cY4DdL-2cY3KWY-2d3psqt-2bDHWiM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Peter Buschmann for the U.S. Forest Service (opens in a new tab)">Peter Buschmann for the U.S. Forest Service</a>)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>I’ve happened to be reading the apocalyptic novel <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sower_(novel)" target="_blank">Parable of the Sower</a> over the past couple of weeks as intentional power outages and terrifying wildfires have raged across California.</p> <p>In Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel, which is set in California in the 2020s, climate change has exacerbated many other human-caused problems and pushed the United States toward collapse. Government is unable to deliver critical services to people. Crime, drug abuse and fires are rampant. People have to survive on their own. Millions set off on dangerous treks toward Oregon, Washington or Canada to flee what is essentially a failed state.</p> <p>The novel served as a warning for me of the very real threat we’re facing today. </p> <p>In 2019, California’s fires and blackouts are an indicator of the reality we’re preparing to hand to our children. Climate change is laying bare the consequences of the way our society has operated for too long: Government and private industry have morphed into an oligarchy that measures success by whether the rich are continuing to increase their wealth, not whether the rest of us are living happy or even economically stable lives. We’re numbers on spreadsheets, and automation is making us increasingly expendable. As a result, decisions about things like critical infrastructure are too often based on what’s good for short-term corporate profits, not our long-term health and sustainability.</p> <p>California has created <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/10/16/20910947/climate-change-wildfires-california-2019-blackouts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">such a mess</a> that the only answer is turning off power to millions of people to reduce the risk that aging utility lines will spark additional fires during the dangerous windy season. The system is literally unable to deliver electricity to people it’s supposed to serve without risking killing those same people. So the power gets cut with little notice. Food in refrigerators spoils. Traffic lights go dark, vehicles collide, and emergency response is stretched thin. Nursing homes scramble.</p> <p>Fires are raging in areas where power wasn’t turned off. Mandatory evacuations. Awful air quality in some heavily populated areas. Homes destroyed.</p> <p>Solutions are complex and expensive, so this is California’s reality for the foreseeable future. Maybe it’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/opinion/california-fires.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">the end of California as we know it</a>. Decades of decisions to punt on the long-term health of that state are creating conditions you’d expect in a developing or a collapsing nation.</p> <p>This is inevitable in a society that operates primarily to help the rich get richer. Our American experiment in democracy has morphed into something much more nefarious — just another nation where the wealthy exert control for personal gain. This time it’s an experiment in carefully tweaking how much the wealthy have to give people in exchange for consent to control. Walmart and other big corporations raising the minimum wage while milking the system in other ways, like making employees dependent on government welfare, is a good example. Give people just enough that they won’t start a revolution; take the rest of what you make off their labor in profit and let them find other ways to make ends meet. Offer them additional credit cards if they can’t.</p> <p>Private industry in California could have invested in upgraded power lines, and even burying lines where practical so they don’t spark in high winds. Private industry didn’t make that choice.</p> <p>Government could have forced private industry to do it anyway. Government didn’t make that choice.</p> <p>In hindsight, the result seems inevitable. It won’t be the last time something out of a futuristic novel becomes our reality.</p> <p>Over decades, we’ve eroded systems that protected us. We’ve de-regulated business. We’ve sold our democracy to the highest bidders. We’ve sold news organizations to corporations that obliterate them for profit — and, the conspiracy theorist in me says, to get rid of a critical check on power that hinders profits by shining light on corruption and abuse. We’ve outsourced the education of our children and the holding of our inmates and so many other important things.</p> <p><a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/10/climate-report-makes-clear-the-future-is-at-stake-and-we-must-act/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Climate change</a> and our aging infrastructure are bringing it all to a head today. We don’t know how to fix this mess. So we have toxic drinking water in Flint, Michigan, out-of-control wildfires in California, and lots of problems in New Mexico.</p> <p>We’re spending <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.pressreader.com/usa/santa-fe-new-mexican/20190922/281513637870765" target="_blank">tens of millions of dollars</a> to fill in a massive sinkhole near Carlsbad created by private industry that sits under highways and homes <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/02/large-chunk-of-carlsbad-and-tax-dollars-may-get-swallowed-by-sinkhole/" target="_blank">before it collapses</a>. Rural Doña Ana County is full of colonias that <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/11/public-meetings-focus-on-dona-ana-county-colonia-improvements/" target="_blank">lack basic infrastructure</a>, and people here constantly <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2016/05/residents-search-for-ways-to-improve-substandard-roads-in-vado/" target="_blank">feel the consequences</a> of decisions to allow unregulated growth decades ago. In one of those towns, Sunland Park, government has considered <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/01/officials-consider-relocating-an-entire-neighborhood-in-sunland-park/" target="_blank">relocating an entire neighborhood</a> that’s in a flood zone. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2016/06/is-sunland-park-the-borders-flint-michigan/" target="_blank">Drinking water problems</a> have <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2016/07/following-wifes-death-anapra-resident-worries-about-kids-who-drink-tap-water/" target="_blank">plagued Sunland Park’s residents</a> too. New Mexico’s schools <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="http://projects.searchlightnm.com/rnm-breaking/states-public-schools-run-on-old-infrastructure/" target="_blank">are dilapidated</a>. Our rural roads <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2019/05/24/nm-ranked-third-worst-rural-roads.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">are crumbling</a>.</p> <p>Our last governor accelerated de-regulation. The world’s thirst for oil has turned Southeastern New Mexico into <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/10/as-oil-and-gas-exports-surge-west-texas-becomes-the-worlds-extraction-colony/" target="_blank">an extraction colony</a> where population is booming and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/27/us/new-mexico-oil.html" target="_blank">government can’t keep up</a> with infrastructure like roads and schools. What <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.10/public-health-the-hidden-consequences-of-new-mexicos-latest-oil-boom" target="_blank">disaster</a> awaits us <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/11/in-nm-drilling-overwhelms-agency-protecting-americas-lands/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">there</a>?</p> <p>Meanwhile, you know what those with the most wealth are doing? <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaire-doomsday-preppers-escape-plans-2017-6" target="_blank">Prepping for the apocalypse</a>. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html" target="_blank">Literally building bunkers</a>. Capitalism takes risks. Sometimes they pay off. Sometimes a company goes bankrupt. When you similarly gamble with people’s lives — Nah, we don’t need to upgrade those power lines. Why build levees strong enough to withstand a Category 5 hurricane? — you lose people’s lives. You might lose an entire society. The oligarchy is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">preparing to weather a societal collapse</a> it might cause, a horror that most of the rest of us don’t have the means to adequately prep for or survive. The wealthiest among us know what they’re doing.</p> <p>They only have that power over us because we give it to them. We still have the ability to vote out people who are owned by big money. We don’t do it very often, but we could.</p> <p>The challenge is that their money and power has corrupted so much. The Republican Party. The Democratic Party. The mainstream media. Government. Business. Health care. Education. Social media. And so on.</p> <p>Though one major politically party is <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/10/the-gop-i-once-respected-is-dead/" target="_blank">substantially worse</a> than the other at this moment in history, neither offers a vision to give the power to the people. When have Susana Martinez and Martin Heinrich been in such enthusiastic agreement about anything? When Facebook agreed to build <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/news/facebook-picks-los-lunas-new-mexico-over-utah-for-new-site/" target="_blank">an expensive data center</a> in Los Lunas that would create some jobs in exchange for <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1277850/facebook-opens-data-center-in-los-lunas.html" target="_blank">a ridiculously generous commitment</a> of public support from local governments. When New Mexico’s leaders <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/01/theres-nothing-to-like-about-state-giveaways-to-facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">gave a lot to get a little</a>.</p> <p>The choice between Democrats and Republicans has long been a choice about how quickly we’ll artificially warm the planet, not whether we’ll do it. Same with big money. The choice isn’t whether Corporate America gets to control us, but how much control it gets.</p> <p>That might be changing. But it’s been true for a long time, and it’s still true in 2019. You need only to consider Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s embrace of the oil and gas industry’s fossil fuel extraction efforts in our state to see that truth. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oil-backed-blue-wave-new-mexico-funds-progressive-policy-through-n1072181" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">As NBC News put it</a>, New Mexico is paying for progressive policy changes with fracking. Without better regulations and greater reinvestment in the affected communities, that’s not a deal that works out well for people, no matter how well-intentioned it may be.</p> <p>Meanwhile, California is burning. As The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/us/california-fires-homes.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">recently reported</a>, for wealthy and adequately insured people whose homes are lost, it’s a chance to build the dream homes they always wanted. They have the means to bounce back. The fires can destabilize people with less, on the other hand, taking everything and essentially making them refugees.</p> <p>The oligarchy will continue to gamble with our lives to get richer — if we let it.</p> <p>Which brings me to <a href="https://voterportal.servis.sos.state.nm.us/WhereToVote.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="next week’s election (opens in a new tab)">next week’s election</a>, and every election after that. We have the power to change things, but only if enough of us get active. There will be many races across New Mexico on Tuesday’s ballot for offices like mayor, city council and school board where no candidate has plans to address the underlying issues that plague our society. Vote anyway, for the candidates you think are good or at least not as bad.</p> <p>Vote on issues like <a href="http://nmindepth.com/2019/10/29/fix-for-hobbled-public-financing-system-on-albuquerque-ballot/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a proposed fix</a> for public financing of elections in Albuquerque and funding for education infrastructure in Doña Ana County.</p> <p>Stay active between elections. Look for candidates who have plans to address these issues and support them. If you can’t find any, consider running yourself. Vote again. Local races matter as much as state and federal. </p> <p>The path forward for New Mexico and the United States is as challenging as building a safer electrical grid in California. We can do it, but only with diligence and the courage to make choices that threaten the system that holds all but the wealthiest in a state of uncertainty. </p> <p>If we don’t start making hard choices that we’ve put off for decades, it will become even more difficult to pull ourselves out of this mess. Our society is collapsing under the weight of generations of unsustainable actions. We must change now. I’d prefer that Butler’s apocalyptic vision for the future not become our children’s reality.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>NM GOP leaders don’t really care about corruption</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/10/nm-gop-leaders-dont-really-care-about-corruption/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2019 16:17:06 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Bill Richardson]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Diane Denish]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Public corruption]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Republican Party]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Steve Pearce]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Susana Martinez]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=726290</guid> <description><![CDATA[Remember all the complaining about Bill Richardson? Republican leaders were right then, but apparently only because it was politically convenient.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="534" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pearce-Steve-771x534.jpg?x36058" alt="Steve Pearce" class="wp-image-196333" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pearce-Steve-771x534.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pearce-Steve-336x233.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pearce-Steve-768x532.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pearce-Steve-1170x810.jpg 1170w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pearce-Steve.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>New Mexico GOP Chair Steve Pearce (Heath Haussamen/NMPolitics.net)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>Former N.M. Gov. Susana Martinez <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2009/12/another-day-another-eyebrow-raising-story-about-the-richardson-administration/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">once complained</a> that her Democratic opponent Diane Denish and her predecessor Bill Richardson were perpetuating “a corrupt system that rewards friends while stealing from taxpayers.”</p> <p>Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, while he was running for governor last year, <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1220864/pearce-takes-aim-at-lujan-grisham-in-new-campaign-ad.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">blasted</a> his Democratic opponent Michelle Lujan Grisham for the “kind of corruption” that “holds New Mexico back… politicians rigging the system for their own gain while fleecing taxpayers.”</p> <p>Former state GOP Chairman and gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2009/06/weh-guv-must-be-the-role-model-for-integrity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">once said</a> the state’s chief executive “has to be the role model for integrity.”</p> <p>Another former state GOP chairman, Harvey Yates, wrote <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Governor-Richardson-Crony-Capitalism-Harvey/dp/1937654478" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">an entire book</a> about Richardson corruption. Yates <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2009/05/capitalizing-on-corruption-is-key-for-gop-in-2010/" target="_blank">once said</a> the state needs a governor who has “absolute integrity, a willingness to do what is necessary to cleanse the state of political corruption and the fortitude to persevere until the job is done.”</p> <p>Republican leaders in New Mexico have consistently taken a verbal stand against corruption while Democrats ruled the state. They’ve argued, correctly, that awarding government contracts in exchange for campaign donations and other favors, for example, is very, very bad. </p> <p>Oh, how times have changed.</p> <p>When President Donald Trump’s administration announced last week that it was awarding the federal contract to host a meeting of world leaders next June <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/us/politics/trump-g7-doral.html" target="_blank">to his own golf resort</a>, most Republicans were silent. Inconceivably, some were even <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1184943559696437256" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">supportive</a>.</p> <p>And when Trump’s acting chief of staff <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/17/politics/mick-mulvaney-quid-pro-quo-donald-trump-ukraine-aid/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">admitted last week to a quid pro quo</a> — that the president withheld military aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country to investigate Trump’s political opponents — most Republicans remained silent then, too.</p> <p>Even though Trump walked back the awarding of the G7 meeting contract to his own resort over the weekend, the fact remains that Republican leaders were largely silent in the face of this blatant corruption. Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1186270381491081218" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">blamed criticism from</a> the “Do Nothing Radical Left Democrats & their Partner, the Fake News Media.”</p> <p>I’m glad someone is standing up to Trump’s shameless self-dealing.</p> <p>Trump’s corruption is so severe that while it’s true Richardson did bad things, his misdeeds aren’t in the same universe: Trump is blatantly making domestic and foreign policy decisions based on how much he and his family can profit politically and financially. He’s dealmaking with foreign interests in the way the Founding Fathers feared the most.</p> <p>And each time he gets away with it he follows up by doing something worse.</p> <p>Awarding the G7 meeting contract to himself would have escalated a continuing pattern of directing government money to Trump properties. <a href="https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/10/10/travel-review-prompted-by-airmens-stays-at-trump-golf-resort-goes-to-air-force-hq/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">The Air Force</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/politics/mike-pence-ireland-doonbeg/index.html" target="_blank">Vice President Mike Pence</a> are among federal officials under Trump’s thumb who’ve spent public money at Trump hotels.</p> <p>Walter Shaub, the former director of the federal government’s Office of Ethics and a frequent critic of Trump’s immoral actions, had this to say about the G7 contract <a href="https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1185146118251991040" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">on Twitter</a> before Trump backed down: “The President of the United States participated in the award of a contract to himself. Are there Senators who find that acceptable? Are you prepared to say all future Presidents can award themselves contracts? Why do we even have an <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/OfficeGovEthics" target="_blank">@OfficeGovEthics</a> if the Senate will allow this?”</p> <p>Faced with the certainty that this isn’t the last self-profiting stunt Trump will pull, Republicans have a choice: They can do nothing, as they’ve done while Trump has abused his position for personal gain time and again, inflicting death and destruction on the nation and world in the process, or they can make a stand.</p> <p>There’s unfortunately little evidence that they plan to do the right thing. Trump has effectively weeded out most GOP members of Congress who expressed any public concern about his actions, leaving Sen. Mitt Romney <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/10/mitt-romney-middle-impeachment-fight/600373/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">standing alone</a> for the time being.</p> <p>With few exceptions, today’s GOP leaders are welcoming corruption into our government with open arms and displaying <a href="https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/1185910291902746624" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">an impressively awful exercise in mental gymnastics</a> to justify it. </p> <p>Republicans are literally allowing Trump to use the resources of the federal government to enrich himself and his family instead of serving the good of the nation’s citizens. They’re allowing the very thing they have blasted Democrats in New Mexico for doing for so long.</p> <p>Oh, the hypocrisy.</p> <p>I won’t believe ever again that a Republican running for office in New Mexico gives a damn about corruption unless that person has a history of standing up to Trump’s misuse of the federal government.</p> <p>But Trump’s corruption won’t only eat the Republican Party alive. It threatens to destroy this nation. Because all the stuff New Mexico Republicans used to say about the evils of graft are true. It diverts the focus of government away from the needs of the people and replaces that proper focus with an insular, criminal enterprise. This particular criminal enterprise is operating on a global scale and has the resources of the federal government — foreign aid, lucrative contracts and even nukes — at its disposal. It’s focused on improperly influencing elections and making millions for the Trump family instead of making America great.</p> <p>It’s not too late to change course, but it won’t happen unless Republicans with integrity find courage that seems to be in short supply these days. Pearce, now the chair of the New Mexico GOP, is <a href="https://twitter.com/NewMexicoGOP/status/1141153151745048577" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a Trump apologist</a> in <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/NewMexicoGOP/status/1182053143967698944/photo/1" target="_blank">a red MAGA cap</a>. Martinez has a platform to speak out with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/Gov_Martinez/status/1183765750864990208" target="_blank">her appearances on Fox News</a>, but she’s conveniently not blasting Trump with the ferocity she used to bring to her fight against Denish and her criticism of Richardson.</p> <p>Imagine the reaction from Republicans years ago if Richardson’s chief of staff had admitted to a quid pro quo.</p> <p>Integrity means standing up for what’s right even when it’s not politically beneficial. Democrats don’t have the numbers to stop Trump, so at this moment in history the fate of our republic falls on Republicans. The world is watching. Our children need more Romneys and fewer Pearces.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>After spaceport leases released, NMPolitics.net settles lawsuit</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/10/after-spaceport-leases-released-nmpolitics-net-settles-lawsuit/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 17 Oct 2019 15:05:48 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News about NMPolitics.net]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Spaceport America]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Transparency]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=725964</guid> <description><![CDATA[The Spaceport Authority admitted no wrongdoing in its handling of my public records requests but agreed to pay $60,000.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="482" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SpaceShipTwo-771x482.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-725970" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SpaceShipTwo-771x482.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SpaceShipTwo-336x210.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SpaceShipTwo-768x480.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SpaceShipTwo-1170x731.jpg 1170w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SpaceShipTwo.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>A replica of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo at Spaceport America. (Heath Haussamen/NMPolitics.net)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>As a teen I photographed the moon through a telescope with my dad. I almost minored in astronomy in college. As someone who hopes to watch Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2008/12/a-portal-into-space-and-its-in-my-backyard/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">fly into space</a> with my kids, and who desperately wants my kids to have the option to find quality jobs in our community, I want Spaceport America to succeed.</p> <p>The spaceport is a state government agency that’s funded with our money. Our ability to scrutinize the project is essential to its need to earn public trust and continued funding. So <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/03/sunshine-will-help-spaceport-america-succeed/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">transparency is critical</a> to the spaceport’s success.</p> <p>That’s why I sued the N.M. Spaceport Authority, the state agency that runs the spaceport, <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/08/nmpolitics-net-sues-for-release-of-spaceport-america-records/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">in August 2018</a>. I had sought financial records the year before as part of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/series/spaceport-america/" target="_blank">a journalistic investigation</a> into whether the spaceport was having a positive impact on our economy. The agency put up walls around public information by, among other things, redacting portions of four lease agreements with tenants and blocking some people, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/08/transparency-problems-plague-spaceport-america/" target="_blank">including me</a>, from accessing its Twitter feed.</p> <p>In short, as one article in that investigative series concluded, <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/08/transparency-problems-plague-spaceport-america/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">transparency problems plagued Spaceport America</a>.</p> <p>My lawsuit has led to some significant victories:</p> <p>• The spaceport recently released fully unredacted copies of the leases. We finally have a clear picture of the sort of agreements the spaceport is making with tenants other than Virgin Galactic (whose full lease agreement has <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Executed-VG-Lease.pdf?x36058&x18930" target="_blank">always been public</a>). You can browse the unredacted leases <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BN-211-396-Unredacted-Lease-Agrmnts-ltr.pdf?x36058" target="_blank">by clicking here</a>.</p> <p>• We essentially got confirmation that the spaceport scrubbed the list of accounts it had blocked from seeing or responding to its tweets after I made a stink about the agency blocking me. When I discovered I had been blocked, I asked who else was on the list. The agency denied my request for the list. I warned them to preserve it as it existed at the time of my request, but they did not. By the time the spaceport provided the list <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/10/spaceport-releases-some-new-info-but-ignores-nmpolitics-nets-lawsuit/" target="_blank">more than a year later</a>, there were no blocked accounts, mine included. While the list they were required to release is lost, I hope the negative publicity pressures the agency to act better in the future and serves as a warning to other government agencies.</p> <p>• The spaceport’s chief financial officer, Zach De Gregorio, said during <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/DeGregorioDeposition.mp3" target="_blank">a deposition</a> that he factored no documents into <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Spaceport-America-Economic-Impact-09-21-2016.pdf?x36058&x18930" target="_blank">an analysis</a> that claimed the spaceport was having <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/08/is-spaceport-america-taking-flight/" target="_blank">a positive economic impact in New Mexico</a>. The spaceport contended all along that there were no documents responsive to my request. I was skeptical, but under questioning by my attorney, C.J. McElhinney of Las Cruces, De Gregorio said under oath that there was nothing to provide. He said he took no notes while interviewing business owners and didn’t look at any documents to gather data. He characterized the analysis as his “best guess” of the impact based on his “professional judgment,” saying, “I think there’s value in that.” I’m glad we got that clarified for the public to consider when weighing the validity of the spaceport’s economic claims.</p> <p>With that in mind, I’m writing to tell you I’ve <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/9.30.19.SpaceportSettlement.pdf?x36058" target="_blank">settled my lawsuit</a> against Spaceport America. The state agreed to pay $60,000 in exchange for me <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10.11.19.DismissalOrder.pdf?x36058" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">dropping the lawsuit</a>.</p> <p>Settlement talks got serious just before we were scheduled to go to trial in September. I believe we would have proved the violations we alleged in court, and there’s a good chance the state would have been ordered to pay a much higher amount in damages and attorney fees.</p> <p>In the end, I considered what I summed up above. The primary documents I was seeking were the lease agreements, and they finally released them in August of this year — almost 2.5 years after I requested them, but at least we now have them. Going to trial wasn’t going to win the release of documents that factored into the economic analysis if there were none. And the list of blocked Twitter accounts is lost forever, so trial wouldn’t lead to its disclosure either.</p> <p>The only legal recourse for the delay in releasing unredacted leases and hiding the list of blocked Twitter accounts was to make the spaceport pay, and we accomplished that. Going to trial could have forced them to pay more, but this was never about money for me. It was about getting public information to you.</p> <p>Of course, as part of the settlement the spaceport didn’t admit any wrongdoing. But I’m hopeful the negative publicity the spaceport earned will deter future shenanigans.</p> <p>However, there’s a hiccup in what this means for spaceport transparency going forward. In 2018, the state Legislature and former Gov. Susana Martinez gave the spaceport a new law allowing additional secrecy. How much secrecy could end up being <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/02/courts-could-end-up-deciding-how-much-secrecy-spaceport-gets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">decided by the courts</a>, because there are differing interpretations of the law. It may give the spaceport leeway to redact information from lease agreements again.</p> <p>While I believe it’s clear that the spaceport acted illegally by redacting information from lease agreements when I requested them in 2017, it’s not clear that such redactions would be illegal today. My case had no chance of influencing that reality.</p> <p>I still find it incredible that even though the spaceport was playing fast and loose with the law — the attorney general <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/07/spaceport-violated-open-government-law-ags-office-says/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">found four violations</a> of open government laws in the agency’s dealings with me — the state’s policymakers rewarded the spaceport with more secrecy. But it happened.</p> <p>So in the end I decided my one-person news organization had taken this fight as far as it could.</p> <p>I’m grateful to my attorney for his help with my lawsuit, and to the office of Attorney General Hector Balderas for pushing the spaceport to release some information it had withheld. I’m glad we won the release of the unredacted lease agreements and grateful I was able to publish an investigative series about the spaceport that is still relevant. If you missed it, you can read it <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/series/spaceport-america/" target="_blank">by clicking here</a>.</p> <p>Today there’s a lot more spaceport-related activity in Southern New Mexico. Virgin Galactic has moved lots of employees from California to Las Cruces. The company’s vehicles overflow the parking lot at its offices. We’re expecting testing on SpaceShipTwo at Spaceport America to begin soon. I’m excited to take my daughters to see history made when commercial spaceflights begin.</p> <p>I remain steadfast in my belief that transparency and public scrutiny are critical to the spaceport’s success. It’s your turn to pick up that torch and carry it. File a public records request under the new law for all leases the spaceport has with clients. See if the agency redacts any information. I’ll be curious to know. </p> <p>Good luck!</p> ]]></content:encoded> <enclosure url="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/DeGregorioDeposition.mp3" length="26467344" type="audio/mpeg" /> </item> <item> <title>Public officials can’t block us on social media</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/10/public-officials-cant-block-us-on-social-media/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 10 Oct 2019 19:42:35 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[First Amendment]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Michael Padilla]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Roundhouse]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=725389</guid> <description><![CDATA[It doesn’t matter if it’s President Donald Trump or state Sen. Michael Padilla. We have a right to see when they talk about public business and discuss it.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <p><strong>COMMENTARY:</strong> President Donald Trump violated people’s First Amendment rights when he <a href="https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/knight-institute-v-trump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">blocked them on Twitter</a>.</p> <p>Spaceport America violated my First Amendment rights when it <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/08/transparency-problems-plague-spaceport-america/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">blocked me on Twitter</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://firstamendmentwatch.org/deep-dive/can-elected-officials-block-critics-on-their-social-media-pages/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Several court rulings</a> have affirmed that government officials can’t exclude people from accessing their social media accounts to avoid criticism. Most prominently, federal appeals judges in New York ruled <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/trump-twitter-first-amendment.html" target="_blank">in July</a> that Trump can’t block Twitter users from an “otherwise open online dialogue” because he doesn’t like what they say.</p> <p>So it was discouraging to discover this week that state Sen. Michael Padilla had <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/haussamen/status/1181604970337955845" target="_blank">blocked me on Twitter</a>. Like, seriously? What Democrat wants to be compared in a column, because of their own behavior, to Trump? But here we are.</p> <div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="336" height="264" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Padilla-Michael-336x264.jpg?x36058" alt="Michael Padilla" class="wp-image-476399" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Padilla-Michael-336x264.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Padilla-Michael.jpg 364w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px" /><figcaption>Michael Padilla (Courtesy photo)</figcaption></figure></div> <p>I became aware that the Albuquerque Democrat had blocked me because the Twitter account for the N.M. Senate Democratic caucus, which I follow, <a href="https://twitter.com/NMSenateDems/status/1181601235360612354" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">retweeted something Padilla had tweeted</a> — and I was forbidden from seeing it.</p> <p>Viewpoint discrimination is the only logical reason Padilla would have blocked me. When he was running for lieutenant governor in 2017, my girlfriend, Sarah Silva, helped spark a chain of events that led to him dropping out of the race.</p> <p>Sarah highlighted past sexual harassment allegations against Padilla <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahsilva.newmexico/posts/10210329384777077" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">on Facebook</a> in November 2017. With his candidacy, she said, Democrats risked losing her vote.</p> <p>A day later, the Associated Press was interviewing Sarah for an article, along with now-Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (then the frontrunner in a contested gubernatorial primary). Lujan Grisham told the news organization that Padilla should <a href="https://oklahoman.com/article/feed/1517392/apnewsbreak-lujan-grisham-tells-senate-leader-to-leave-race" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">leave the race</a>.</p> <p>I wrote <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/11/the-system-protected-michael-padilla-for-too-long-no-more/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a column</a> owning up, as a journalist and a man, to not being tough enough on Padilla for his alleged treatment of women. “The system protected Michael Padilla for too long,” my column’s headline read. “No more.”</p> <p>Padilla didn’t immediately quit the lieutenant governor’s race, but the furor continued. A couple of weeks later I ran <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2017/12/its-time-for-michael-padilla-to-step-aside/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a column</a> written by Democratic consultant Heather Brewer calling for Padilla to drop out. Later that day, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/padilla-drops-out-of-race-for-lt-gov/article_4bae3781-9b2b-5a68-8cef-e6a28759b0ee.html" target="_blank">he did</a>.</p> <p>Is that when Padilla blocked me? I don’t know.</p> <p>When I discovered it this week, I <a href="https://twitter.com/haussamen/status/1181604970337955845" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">complained loudly on Twitter</a>. Padilla unblocked me quickly and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/SenPadilla/status/1181613068444262402" target="_blank">wrote in a tweet</a>, “Hello <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://twitter.com/haussamen" target="_blank">@haussamen</a> haven’t blocked you. Thanks for letting me know.”</p> <p>Unconstitutional infringement on my rights ended. Thanks for letting me know.</p> <div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="336" height="500" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PadillaTwitterBlock-336x500.jpg?x36058" alt="" class="wp-image-725404" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PadillaTwitterBlock-336x500.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PadillaTwitterBlock-768x1144.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PadillaTwitterBlock-771x1148.jpg 771w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px" /><figcaption>The message I received when I tried to access Padilla’s tweets while I was blocked. (Screen shot)</figcaption></figure></div> <p>After that I heard from other social media users who’d been blocked by government accounts — including someone who used to work for former Gov. Susana Martinez being blocked <a href="https://twitter.com/BaileyNGriffith/status/1181617715947167744" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">by the N.M. Senate Democrats’ account</a> and a former student at a public university being blocked by that school after he was critical of its administration.</p> <p>Government folks, you have to stop doing this.</p> <p>Public officials are allowed to have social media accounts for their private lives. They can block people from accessing those. The First Amendment doesn’t give someone who disagrees with your actions the right to troll your family and say mean things about your children on a personal Facebook page.</p> <p>But when you discuss or conduct government business on social media — as Trump and Padilla do on Twitter — you can’t exclude people from that public forum because you don’t like their views or they’ve criticized yours. Lack of accessibility is part of the story of how, over generations, people lost trust in their government. It’s part of how we got the current disaster that is the Trump presidency.</p> <p>We must always fight zealously for government transparency and accessibility. The appellate court ruling in the case against Trump “will help ensure the integrity and vitality of digital spaces that are increasingly important to our democracy,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/trump-twitter-first-amendment.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">said Jameel Jaffer</a>, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which brought the lawsuit.</p> <p>“The ruling,” Jaffer said, “will ensure that people aren’t excluded from these forums simply because of their viewpoints and that public officials don’t transform these digital spaces into echo chambers.”</p> <p>I understand why some government officials and agencies want to block people from seeing or responding to their tweets. I’ve blocked a handful of people on Twitter and Facebook who trolled me ruthlessly and weren’t interested in serious discussion.</p> <p>But my job isn’t paid for with tax dollars. If you choose to work for the government, the First Amendment gives people the right to petition you and discuss your actions. Always. No matter how harsh their critique, you can’t take away that right.</p> <p>Public officials who don’t want to face criticism on social media shouldn’t create accounts to discuss public business. It’s really that simple.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>The GOP I once respected is dead</title> <link>https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/10/the-gop-i-once-respected-is-dead/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Heath Haussamen, NMPolitics.net]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2019 15:25:20 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haussamen Columns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Race and ethnicity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Republican Party]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://nmpolitics.net/index/?p=725039</guid> <description><![CDATA[Forget compassionate conservatism. Cruelty is the Republican Party's core identity today.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="771" height="494" src="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald-771x494.jpg?x36058" alt="Donald Trump" class="wp-image-72372" srcset="https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald-771x494.jpg 771w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald-336x215.jpg 336w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald-768x493.jpg 768w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald-1170x750.jpg 1170w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald-780x500.jpg 780w, https://nmpolitics.net/index/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trump-Donald.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" /><figcaption>President Donald Trump (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>COMMENTARY: </strong>State Rep. Alonzo Baldonado is “willing to bet that your quality of life has improved dramatically since Donald Trump took office.” That’s because, the Los Lunas Republican wrote in a recent <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1369374/with-latinos-thriving-get-ready-to-flip-nm-to-red-ex-ask-yourself-were-the-last-three-years-better-or-worse-than-before.html" target="_blank">Albuquerque Journal guest editorial</a>, “nearly 6 million” new jobs have been created during Trump’s tenure and Latinos filled 2.4 million of them.</p> <p>Baldonado doesn’t mention a single Trump action that led to more jobs. But in calling complaints about Trump a Democratic Party “fear-mongering farce” he claims, incredibly, that Hispanic Americans “are thriving like never before under President Trump’s leadership.”</p> <p>He’s right that the economy has added millions of jobs since Trump took office. It added even more during the same time period <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/07/05/trump-is-falling-almost-1-million-jobs-short-vs-obama/#7023c4818caa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">at the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency</a>. The economy has been on the upswing through both presidencies, consistently <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000009" target="_blank">driving down unemployment</a>.</p> <p>But should having a job make up for all the chaos, destruction and death Trump has inflicted on our nation? As a small business owner, the GOP tax bill Trump signed into law, which has benefited me economically, is probably the equivalent to a job for others. Following Baldonado’s logic, Latinos, and I assume people like me who have multi-ethnic families, should be grateful Trump supporters if our finances have improved.</p> <p>But the American Dream is about so much more than money. In addition to opportunity as a reward for hard work, it’s about democracy, civil rights, freedom and equality.</p> <p>Trump threatens all of that, putting at risk the republic in which my Latina girlfriend and I are raising two multi-ethnic daughters. In the past couple of weeks alone, as he’s faced the possibility of impeachment, Trump has threatened <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/30/politics/trump-democrats-impeachment-ukraine-investigation/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">a whistleblower</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://theweek.com/articles/868957/trump-committed-impeachable-offense-just-by-threatening-adam-schiff" target="_blank">a congressman</a>, which are arguably additional offenses worthy of impeachment. He’s fanned the flames of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/30/politics/donald-trump-civil-war-impeachment/index.html" target="_blank">a second civil war</a>. He’s basically attacking everyone who puts his job at risk.</p> <p>But I’ll focus for a moment on the question Baldonado asks about whether quality of life has “improved dramatically” for my family and me under Trump. Unequivocally, the answer is no.</p> <p>Because of Trump’s words and actions — threatening a total Muslim ban, partially enacting it, cracking down cruelly on Latin American immigrants — my daughter fears that some of her darker-skinned relatives and friends could be kicked out of the United States and she might not see them again. This is not illogical. She fears what the white nationalists who have infiltrated our government are trying to make reality. Trump, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">reportedly</a> sought to build a moat filled with snakes or alligators along the border and shoot migrants in the legs, is a real threat to people in my daughter’s life.</p> <p>I fear for my loved ones’ safety after a white supremacist terrorist killed 22 people at a Walmart in nearby El Paso — a Walmart that looks just like the shopping centers we frequent in Las Cruces. That terrorist came for people who look like my girlfriend and our daughters, using the same violence-inciting rhetoric Trump spews for political gain.</p> <p>Trump has encouraged violence against journalists like me. Doing my job is more dangerous and frightening than it’s been in the past.</p> <p>Immigration enforcement agencies have clamped down on the borderlands in a way that makes their presence <a href="https://nmpolitics.net/index/2019/09/resisting-yet-another-occupation-in-the-borderlands/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">more ominous and frightening</a>. While the president hints at civil war, we are surrounded by militarized checkpoints he controls.</p> <p>It’s become more difficult to have the sort of respectful, bridge-building conversations I have worked to foster throughout my career. Trump has fueled the fighting in a way that’s unprecedented in my lifetime. The example he sets is counter to everything I believe about how people should treat each other.</p> <p>There’s a second problem with Baldonado’s argument: Another integral part of the American Dream is a sense of belonging. It’s community. It’s neighbors and people who help each other in times of need.</p> <p>It’s nativist and selfish to imply that if you have a job, none of the trauma Trump is inflicting on others should matter.</p> <p>But it isn’t surprising. Trump’s narcissism has consumed the Republican Party, whose leaders almost uniformly back the president in defiance of the values their party once espoused — values many of them still hear preached on Sundays.</p> <p>I often disagreed with the politics I encountered during the 13 years I spent in evangelical churches, but I found common ground with a belief in showing concern for others and helping people in need. George W. Bush and others called it compassionate conservatism.</p> <p>In this case, Baldonado’s argument encourages people to turn a blind eye to atrocities. Never mind that Trump’s administration has intentionally traumatized migrant children. Do you have a job? Then who cares!</p> <p>He mistreats women? He’s spending like there’s no tomorrow? He’s using the federal government to promote his re-election and make money? He’s conspiring with foreign governments to influence the next election? He’s eroding democratic and constitutional protections? Do you have a job? Then who cares!</p> <p>The white evangelicals who are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/evangelicals-arent-turned-off-by-trumps-first-term--theyre-delighted-by-it/2019/08/11/3911bc88-a990-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">largely responsible for Trump’s election</a> hammer liberals for immorality and corruption. The GOP does the same to Democrats. It takes a helluva lot of mental gymnastics — and a generations-old ability to dehumanize other people to dull the pain of your own horrific actions — to not see the hypocrisy clearly, to go on the offense over God and guns while the president you’re supporting commits all the sins your God warns against.</p> <p>Trump lays bare the sins our society has long tried to bury in a way that reignites tension and conflict. The Americans, and the Spaniards before them, dehumanized Native Americans and Africans to justify genocide and slavery. The Declaration of Independence calls Natives “savages.” Today our president talks about people of color <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/29/trump-baltimore-infest-tweet-cummings-racist-227485" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">infesting</a> the United States as though they’re insects or parasites. He even referred to several House Democrats <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-blasts-savages-ocasio-cortez-three-other-women-color-schiff-n1059941" target="_blank">as savages</a> a few days ago. Too many of his supporters go along with it.</p> <p>Our political system spends countless dollars dehumanizing people to divide us. Corporate America sorts and counts us and pushes us to justify our existences based only on productivity. There are so many forces pushing us to think the way Trump does, the way Baldonado encourages. I reject them all.</p> <p>I choose community and empathy. I will not sacrifice those values. I wouldn’t vote for Trump under any circumstances. Because I live in community with people around me in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the United States, across the border in Mexico, and beyond. Because I care about the people we’re harming and the planet we’re altering. Because no amount of money would get me to actively support Trump or stand silently on the sidelines while white supremacists infiltrate our government and work to replace our nation with a fascist, homogenous state.</p> <p>I know conservatives who are fighting for what’s right instead of giving in to Trump’s bullying. Some evangelical churches have sheltered the very asylum-seeking migrants Trump wants to feed to alligators. There are still some prominent Republicans speaking out against the madness, and I’m grateful for their courage.</p> <p>But the voices of those few — <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/politics/romney-trump-china-ukraine-rebuke/index.html" target="_blank">U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney</a>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/25/ohio-gov-john-kasich-tea-party-anti-trump/2190990002/" target="_blank">Ohio’s governor</a>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-state-lawmaker-in-nebraska-says-his-party-is-enabling-white-supremacy/2019/08/05/4fab3c74-b76b-11e9-bad6-609f75bfd97f_story.html" target="_blank">a state lawmaker in Nebraska</a>, a former GOP congressman <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/09/27/joe-walsh-trump-ukraine-whistleblower-crn-vpx.cnn" target="_blank">who’s running against Trump</a> — are drowned out by politicians like Rep. Baldonado and the white supremacists standing beside him in supporting Trump, people who are acting out Trump’s words by injuring and killing folks in Charlottesville, El Paso and elsewhere.</p> <p>The Republican Party I once respected is dead. Cruelty is its core identity today. People like Baldonado who hitch themselves to the Trump train are complicit in his atrocities.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss> <!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: https://www.boldgrid.com/w3-total-cache/ Object Caching 153/229 objects using Disk Served from: nmpolitics.net @ 2025-03-07 11:00:49 by W3 Total Cache -->