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Good Government Starts at Home

Democracy isn’t a spectator sport.

Elections have consequences.

Those were two of my immediate reactions after watching last Thursday night’s presentation by the bi-partisan Congressional panel investigating the January 6^th attack on the Capitol. News coverage called it a closing argument on former President Trump’s efforts to incite an insurrection that could overturn the results of the election. To me, it was a call to action, a reminder that our democracy is a fragile experiment, and a lesson—long overdue—on the basics of civic engagement. 

These were messages that hit home all over the country and here in Santa Fe. As the late, great Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.” The same goes for the responsibility to protect, defend, and preserve our democracy. It starts right here, at the local level. It’s a task that belongs to each of us. It’s something we can’t take for granted and it’s something we need to re-dedicate ourselves to, starting today, and continuing every day.

I raise this question for a very specific reason. The hearings on the awful events of January 6^th focus on the efforts by the then-President to overturn the legitimate results of the election. But the ramifications and implications go beyond that election or any election. They go to the larger question of governance. And the truth is, the record of the Trump administration and its approach to governance gave evidence every day of the clear and present danger we faced as a nation. January 6^th started happening the day President Trump first took office. It just took four years to come to fruition.

Elections have consequences.

But governance doesn’t happen only on Election Day. It happens every day, day in and day out. It’s on display in public meetings, in decisions large and small, in appointments and in budgets, in the way the public’s work gets done and communicated. 

When it comes to local government, our job as residents and voters, individually and collectively, is to be informed well before Election Day arrives and well after it passes. In this case, Thomas Jefferson got it right: “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight.”

In my mind, education starts with involvement, engagement, and interaction. Yes, it’s my job and the job of every other local elected official to listen to you—to all the people of Santa Fe. It’s my job and the job of every other elected official to be available, accessible, and accountable.

At the same time, as we’re witnessing on the national stage, it’s the job of every resident to become educated—not only as to how each jurisdiction works, but also how the different elected officials work. Democracy is a two-way street. 

So please, heed the warning call that is coming from the January 6^th Congressional hearings. More than ever, as our democracy is threatened from within in unprecedented and unparalleled ways, it falls to each of us to become more invested, more involved, more engaged, more knowledgeable, and more educated on local government. Protecting our democracy starts right here, at home.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of democracy.”

It’s not too high a price to pay. What is unacceptable is not paying that price.