Governors meet at our crossroads capital
With national politics upended by Trump antics, animosity between the parties and an inability to find compromise, much of the actual governing in the United States has moved to statehouses around the country.
Locally, both at the state and municipal level, elected officials are charged with forming policies that help people. They can worry about how things work, rather than what political point they are scoring. They have to produce balanced budgets; no deficit spending allowed. Competence matters more than sound bites.
When the U.S. eventually emerges from this ignominious period in our politics, much credit will go to state-level leaders who are keeping the country going.
Many of those leaders — the governors of our nation — are in Santa Fe this week for the National Governors Association’s annual summer conference. There is little we like in Santa Fe as much as welcoming visitors here to enjoy our sunshine, culture and history. We hope these leaders share their wisdom and experience with one another, but also see in our city a place where different cultures live together comfortably (if not always harmoniously) and where it’s just fine to hear languages other than English in public spaces.
Take care, English-only advocates visiting — that language you are hearing could be Tewa or Tiwa or Towa, indigenous tongues that have been spoken in this land long before a European thought to board a boat looking for India. This isn’t a town to stop a stranger and tell them, “Speak English, it’s America.”
Not that any of these visitors would. Still, even in Santa Fe, we’ve heard tell from downtown bargoers of a few heated disputes about the use of Spanish in the room. That’s a shame, because Spanish dates back hundreds of years before a word of English was spoken. We are proud to be a city where being bilingual, or trilingual, is a badge of honor. Our official name, after all, is La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, or the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi.
Santa Fe, as the oldest capital in the United States, long has been a crossroads of sorts, where different people came to seek reinvention, make money through trade or seek a fortune by leaving the old country behind. It is a place that honors its past, preserving the best of what we have been while planning for the future.
And few sectors in our society have as much influence on what will happen 10 years or 15 years from now than the people who govern. For example, governors helped spread the Affordable Care Act, especially those Republican governors — like Gov. Susana Martinez — who accepted the Medicaid expansion so that more people would have health insurance. With the presidential administration actively seeking to destroy this landmark bill, governors are on the front lines of ensuring people can afford health care. Losing decent health care is a step backward the country cannot afford.
Health coverage is necessary for people with chronic conditions, those who are battling opioid and other addictions and to access the most up-to-date medical care. The National Governors Association is active, too, in looking actively into what works in health care, whether using data to reduce medical costs, building collaborations to improve the success of children and developing ways to evaluate Medicare programs. We need governors to fight for the right to affordable health care for all.
The summer meeting this year has other timely topics, focusing on international cooperation, investment and trade. With the country traumatizing families on the border, a president putting NATO on notice that the U.S. is second-guessing its participation and a growing trade war with no end game in sight, these are precarious times.
Governors, who run statewide campaigns, perhaps have a better shot at pushing back against the worst policy ideas coming from Washington. They aren’t accountable to a rabid base, either from the left or the right, and govern not from a wimpy middle but from a consensus built with bright ideas from all participants. We need their expertise not just on the state level, but speaking out on these important national and global issues. Because, if Congress will not push back against the president’s worst ideas, governors must. Welcome to Santa Fe, one and all. We are glad you are here.