The Future In Rural America
The campaign trail is enlightening. I travelled around New Mexico, on the eastern half of the state, through 18 counties, with a candidate for Public Regulation Commission. The district, number 2, is the most rural of the Public Regulation Commission’s districts. The other four all touch the Rio Grande corridor, including the cites of Albuquerque and Santa Fe and have large urban populations. Those district’s commissioners can just talk about urban issues, and win. When campaigning in district 2, you don’t have that luxury. The districs has rural and small urban areas front and center.
I have learned that the rural voter has a direct and real sense of the role that politics and politicians can play in their lives. I have thought a lot about why, and have come to some conclusions:
1. The rural voter elects neighbors and friends that he knows directly. The voter understands the candidate, and this knowledge pushes the citizen/politician to do their best. The local politician faces constituents daily.
2. The rural voter understands the inner workings of state and federal agencies, because they understand what a direct impact they can have on their communities.
3. As technology evolves through companies like Facebook and Google, which provide an information highway to the world beyond NM, a lack of sufficient broadband denies this to many rural areas. Rural towns in New Mexico have great assets such as affordable housing, low crime rates and quality of life that can appeal to many. But we, through local government, need to provide the access pipes to allow our communities to prosper. We need to invest in high speed internet, and push the existing providers to deliver high quality, fast access at reasonable costs.
4. Citizens of rural areas are pragmatic. While many in the state’s north and central corridor espouse the goal of reaching 100 percent renewable energy generation in 30 years, the fact that we haven’t invested in energy storage technology doesn’t seem to bother them. We need a reliable approach to low-carbon energy, with an affordable price tag. This practical approach is available in the near term, if the Public Regulation Commission does its job.
5. We need big ideas. President Eisenhower declared that we needed the Interstate Highway system, and then motivated federal and state governments to support the concept and make it happen. President Kennedy had the idea that we should go to the moon, and then made sure that resources were made available to do it. By coming together with a common purpose, we bring out the best in everyone, and we all do better.
New Mexico is the fifth largest state in terms of land area, but has one of the lowest population densities. The Eastern half of New Meixoc is the wide open space that characterizes the American West. The American West, that land of dreamers and schemers, and people looking for room, and land, looms large in the American mind. We should stop dreaming about it, realize its full value.
