At a press conference in Los Alamos just now Senator Tom Udall said, “New Mexicans pull together in hard times.”
Yes, Senator, we are so unlike those no-good folks in the other 49 states. Geez.
The Senator also reminded tourists everywhere that New Mexico is “still open for business.”
As long as you aren’t looking for fresh air during your visit.
Senator Udall, I respect you and voted for you, but did you really need to be here for platitude time?
This is what politicians do, and it’s silly, and we know it and they know it. Sometimes it approaches self-parody, as it did a couple of weeks ago when President Obama kissed a baby and laughed that he was a politician kissing a baby.
What’s fun is that as politicians get older and more secure in their tenure, all the other stuff drops away and they’re left with nothing but the platitudes. I remember Gil Lindsey, an old L.A. pol who’d been on the council so long he was known as The Emperor of Downtown. Late in his career, all he did was photo ops and ceremonial votes, sponsoring Korea Day and Meet Your Merchant Month. He never introduced serious legislation, didn’t show up for his committee assignments, and snoozed through policy discussions. But he kissed babies and showed up at block parties to pose for pictures with constituents, and on election nights he was asleep by nine o’clock because he could bank on a 70% majority in his district.
We may think it’s silly when pols say things like “New Mexicans really know how to pull together,” but we also expect it. It may not be all we want, but it’s kind of a threshold with us. Pols who don’t do the pro forma glad-handing and constituent stroking don’t break through.
And I say this as someone who’s working with my local mayor’s office to stage a ribbon cutting outside a new suite of offices. No one is the least bit interested in either the new offices or the ribbon cutting, but we’re going to do it because that’s what you do.