For the last several months, my inbox has been inundated by nonprofit organizations and think tanks touting the benefits to the Verde Valley should the infrastructure bill now pending in Congress be signed into law.
This trillion-dollar bill and a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill are both tied up in the House and Senate, limping along, maybe, kinda sorta, to a final vote. A good portion of their content was decided in the spring with the particulars being worked out now.
These emails cite support both nationally and by Arizonans from such a wild swath of demographics, special interest groups, age cohorts, workers unions, party affiliations and trade groups that I have quite simply lost count of who’s in favor.
It seems as though no one is opposed to either of these bills, except, of course, the 535 people who actually get to vote on it. Americans and Arizonans may support them by 51%, 63% or 98%, but none of us get to vote on either bill.
Instead, voting is up to 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the United States Senate — and possibly Vice President Kamala Harris should she be called in to break a Senate tie.
Thus, it makes no difference if we support it or not.
We do not have a vote.*
Members of Congress don’t care what our opinions are. Otherwise, they would pass these supposedly popular bills by 51%, 63% or 98% — whatever the poll happens to show reflects the majority of Americans. But that is not how our legislature works. Legislators draw out the debate to fundraise off us under the illusion that if we give lawmakers $25 here or $6,550 there, we can pass or reject the bills.
We are being milked for campaign cash.
Quite simply, majority rule doesn’t matter in the American republic so much as raking in money. This inability to work together for the common good trickles down from the Congress to state legislatures where left and right have drawn sharp dividing lines. They only collectively agree to pass bipartisan legislation when it comes to things like renaming post offices, resolutions only affecting a tiny handful of donors who give to both sides of the aisle and occasionally, legislation so overwhelmingly supported that to oppose them would be absurd.
On the local level, Sedona faces a lack of housing and a blight of vacation rentals owned by outsiders eating up what little housing we have, turning long-term rentals into short-term cash cows. Yet it’s not clear that any member of the Sedona City Council reached out to any of our state lawmakers to repeal Senate Bill 1350, nor regulate, control, eliminate or rezone any of the vacation rentals in our city to give residents and local leaders a modicum of control over these clearly commercial properties.
Perhaps that’s because most of our “nonpartisan” City Council is from one party and our three state legislators are from the other.
Perhaps it’s because local officials don’t understand how the state legislature works. One Sedona council member — who will be running for higher office next year — said council has been trying to work with Gov. Doug Ducey’s office to regulate vacation rentals. That would be great if our governor wrote legislation. But he, like the president, does not. He is the executive and his job is to sign bills into laws and enforce them.
The Arizona State Legislature writes the laws, not the governor.
This council member argued the legislature rubber stamps what Ducey wants, which is also absurd considering that legislators and members from Ducey’s own party circulated a recall petition in 2020. Ducey picked a budget fight with the legislature — his party controls both houses — and vetoed 17 bills this term, setting a record. The legislature overrode a veto for the first time in 40 years. Clearly, the legislature and governor are at odds.
We need to push lawmakers locally, at the state and nationally, to work together despite party, to write good, popular bills, then pass them without demanding we give them more money to do so. Government should not seesaw from term to term depending on who’s in power. Compromise sucks, but the upside is that hard-crafted legislation with little bits for everyone won’t be immediately overturned in the next term should the other party take the majority. Good bills are veto-proof.
We have to get past partisanship for the sake of partisanship — nothing gets done and we’re all miserable, wondering if their 50.001% majority is going to destroy everything we hold dear, while hoping we can get a 50.001% majority to destroy the other side. That’s not how this is supposed to work.
We need to demand lawmakers compromise in the center to pass legislation no one loves — but most people kind of like and no one really hates. Be smarter with your donations. Demand better. Push lawmakers to cross the aisle, not toe the line. Compromise, not conflict, is the point of a stable republic.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
* Editor’s Note:
The press releases about these polls also lack any “call to action.” They ask for publication of their polls results, but do no ask voters to do anything with them. The do not ask nor demand voters contact any members of Congress, nor senators, nor elected officials. They don’t mention anything about a timeline. They don’t ask for public action. They don’t ask for readers to share the content. They don’t ask for any grassroots efforts. They, universally, do not ask readers to do anything except read the polls and … perhaps … nod in agreement?
