By MERILEE DANNEMANN
Triple Spaced Again
© 2025 by Merilee Dannemann
The state of our Union is frightening. That is why we need New Mexicans to engage intensively at the state and local level. We are at a moment of unprecedented contradictions.
Yet again, as in Iraq in 2003, a Republican president has found alleged justification for using military force to remove the president of another nation. The contradiction is apparent.
Near-universal public opinion seems to be that Nicolas Maduro was an evil dictator and Venezuela is better off without him, but President Trump had no legal justification for ordering our military to invade the country.
Trump’s claim to Greenland is Putin-like imperialism and deserves to be rejected soundly by all thinking citizens. Closer to home, the violent actions of federal agents in Minneapolis, Portland and elsewhere are beyond unacceptable.
So, let’s try to keep New Mexico as a haven, not just of safety, but also of civility, decency and the Bill of Rights.
As our state legislature prepares to convene, it is urgent that legislators work together to help ensure that New Mexico remains a livable state where the rule of law is upheld and enhanced, and the state’s numerous imperfections are addressed in the public interest, with the influence of special interests set aside.
Lawmakers need to remember that an election is waiting in the wings and will be affected by what does and does not get accomplished in this legislative session.
Our state’s leaders need to ensure the state is ready to resist interference with a free and fair election in which no voters are intimidated. We need prepare to elect as our next governor a person who has the ethics and strength of character to resist illegal federal incursions into our communities. Legislators must act with unusual determination to solve the state’s problems.
New Mexicans deserve to know whether their elected Republicans are traditional conservatives who believe in the rule of law or supporters of Trump’s imperialistic and anti-constitutional policy agenda.
I am hoping a legislator introduces a memorial in support of Minnesota’s resistance to the incursion of masked federal agents, and that it passes unanimously. Such a memorial has no practical effect but it would tell New Mexico voters where our state’s Republicans stand on Trump’s extremism.
The level of responsibility is higher for Democrats as the majority party. It is up to Democrats, especially those in the leadership, to act decisively on the issues that matter most to New Mexicans.
Let’s hope we don’t hear the familiar griping that that the 30-day session is too short to get things done. The important issues have been studied and analyzed for months or years. Democrats need to take meaningful action on such issues as homelessness, affordable housing and juvenile crime.
It is especially critical that Democrats set aside the toxic influence of the trial lawyer lobby and pass health care reforms to end the crisis of doctors continuing to leave New Mexico.
Those reforms include the interstate compacts – all of them — and an amendment to the medical malpractice law to significantly reduce doctors’ liability and the cost of insurance. The leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Sam Bregman and Deb Haaland, have both wimped out and avoided taking any stand on the specific issue of medical malpractice. The third Democrat, former mayor Ken Miyagashima of Las Cruces, has a strong position on the issue but does not appear to be gaining enough traction to take the lead.
Unfortunately, this is not a year for good old New Mexico bipartisanship. Until Trumpism has been contained, we cannot take the risk of a Republican governor. So, since we can’t count on a new Democratic governor to get this urgently needed job done, the legislature had better fix malpractice this year. Now.
Merilee Dannemann’s columns are posted at www.triplespacedagain.com. Comments are invited through the website.