{"id":203491,"date":"2016-11-01T12:02:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T18:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=203491"},"modified":"2016-11-02T18:20:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T00:20:23","slug":"change-comes-from-us-not-the-next-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/11\/change-comes-from-us-not-the-next-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Change comes from us, not the next president"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0My mom, like so many others, is beyond excited this year about the opportunity to help elect the United States\u2019 first female president. She has daughters and granddaughters and wants them to live in a nation without a glass ceiling.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve also spoken this year with Americans who have lost jobs or homes during the last eight years. I talked with two last week who are worried because their Obamacare premiums are rising and they don\u2019t qualify for a subsidy to offset the increase. I\u2019m among those who will be struggling next year to pay for the rising cost of health insurance.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lost count of how many millennials and independents I\u2019ve spoken with this year who are fed up with the entire system. They don\u2019t see it as sustainable. They want change but don\u2019t know how to enact it. They\u2019re worried about the future.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve talked with others who have had it pretty good during the Obama presidency and want to continue on that path. They view the last eight years as progress, even if imperfect.<\/p>\n

None of these folks are wrong. They\u2019re just people with their own unique views and experiences.<\/p>\n

In one of the most divisive election seasons of our time, that\u2019s important to remember.<\/p>\n

The election isn\u2019t yet settled. Polling shows a tightening race in New Mexico<\/a> and nationwide<\/a>. Voting in New Mexico strongly favored Democrats early on<\/a>, but Republicans and independents cut into that lead<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Early voting turnout in New Mexico still favors Democrats, but not as significantly<\/a> as it did 10 days ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seems likely that Democrat Hillary Clinton will be our next president, but Republican Donald Trump still has a chance. Regardless, after the election is over, the next president will take the reins of a divided, angry and frightened nation. The task ahead is monumental.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t believe Trump or Clinton is prepared to unite and help us all find a way forward. Trump has done pretty much the opposite throughout the campaign by fanning the flames of division with inflammatory and hyperbolic rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Trump seems to be aware of some of the problems that have left so many Americans out in the cold. But his proposals to address those issues lack substance, at best \u2013 and they\u2019re impractical and outrageous at worst, like building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

Clinton is less inflammatory. But as the candidate favored by the system, she has shown little awareness of the pain and problems that have so many people across the ideological spectrum on edge. The system seeks to protect itself, and it\u2019s found the candidate it believes will do that.<\/p>\n

Voting matters. Show up and vote your conscience. But the work doesn\u2019t stop on Election Day. How we live our lives is just as important.<\/p>\n

The truth is that folks aren\u2019t \u201cdeplorables\u201d and they aren\u2019t \u201cillegals.\u201d They\u2019re people. They\u2019re our neighbors. They\u2019re us. We\u2019re all in this experiment we call the United States of America together. Short of the apocalypse, that isn\u2019t going to change.<\/p>\n

We must work to understand each other\u2019s fear and pain and joy and hope. If we don\u2019t commit to moving forward together, we\u2019ll continue down this divided, combative path, and the fissures will grow.<\/p>\n

The change we need isn\u2019t going to come from the next president. As always, it must come from the ground up. It must come from us. All of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re all in this experiment we call the United States of America together. Short of the apocalypse, that isn\u2019t going to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[708,226,116],"class_list":["post-203491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2016-election","tag-presidential-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}