The dysfunctional Land of Disenchantment

About a month ago, I blogged about how New Mexico — the state and state goverment alike — were slouching further toward Gomorrah.

I basically said it sucked, and that denial was part of the problem. Residents admit that.

But, per another Albuquerque Journal piece, many of the same residents refuse to admit that
1. The Great Recession is over;
2. NM has been governed by a Republican gov the last six years;
3. The GOP has had partial control of the NM state legislature during part of that time. (The previous session of the House was Republican, and the first session of the Senate in her first term was controlled by a coalition of Republicans and select Democrats, per Wikipedia.)

In other words, Gov. Susana Martinez, in her first six years, had either one side of the Roundhouse or the other in her corner four of six years. And, during her first term, she got at least some Senate Dems in her corner the first two years. (The coalition was a carryover from the last Senate session under her gubernatorial predecessor, Big Bill Richardson.)

When Martinez is being called a RINO, you know the river Denial is running deeper, especially in red-state areas south of Duke City, than is the Rio Grande. And, per the previous paragraph, no, wingnuts, not all Democratic legiscritters were "librulz" determined to oppose her agenda.

But state Democrats, specifically the state legiscritters in the Roundhouse, aren't helping.

They now have the majority in both chambers, yet fiddle while Rome, Santa Fe and Albuquerque burn by debating, or perhaps, "debating," an official state cheeseburger, an official state dance and green chile vanity license plates. That's on top of the Land of Enchantment already overloading with such nuttery to the point of having a state question. (Of course, when it comes to state foods, pandering and related, once again, the blather is bigger in Texas.)

Oh, making a wedding polka the official song of a state with a below-average marriage rate and above-average divorce rate is ironic at a minimum, hypocritical at the most.

It seems clear that New Mexico Democrats don't want the responsibility of the tough decisions, even if Martinez's poll slump means it would be easy to blame her for them, and keep doing so through the 2018 state elections.

Well, if they keep playing that way, it WILL backfire. Now is not the time to be dilatory.

(Welcome here, readers of Joe Monahans' site. In case you're wondering, I grew up in Gallup and have relatives in Grants and Farmington. Take a look at my Flickr albums for a few of my photos of adult returns to the area.)