Nevada gets a D- in its mid-term exam.

I received a call this weekend from a constituent and friend who is paying attention to this legislative session. He has two bills he’s watching for and was asking me why he hasn’t seen them yet. I answered with a question: who sponsored the bills?

What has become clear this session is that we are way behind our normal pace, and today we extended the deadline for introduction of individual bills until next week. Some of that is simply because the Legislative Counsel Bureau is behind in drafting bills despite their best efforts. But it’s much more about committee chairpersons simply refusing to hear bills. Hundreds of bills have been introduced but have yet to get a hearing.

Of course, the vast majority of those not being heard are Republican bills, no matter now non-political or necessary those bills might be. Obviously, the “unity” the majority called for at the beginning of the session was just for public propaganda purposes.

That’s not to say we’ve been doing nothing. We’ve been hearing bills on relatively unimportant things, like dogs and cats. Seriously! We’re debating whether insurance companies should be allowed to “discriminate” against dog breeds (no matter the large number of companies that don’t) and whether we should require cat owners to de-claw their cats (no doubt important to those who want to keep their furniture intact). But we’ve done nothing to fix what really needs fixing: chronically failing schools; developing jobs and apprenticeship programs for people to be ready for the post-Covid economy, fixing the Unemployment Insurance disaster, and justice reform that puts the justice system within the reach of ordinary working families.

The biggest problem we’ve seen is the downright lack of integrity within our government and the lack of anyone calling them out. We can no longer turn to the media as they’ve become the propaganda machine for the majority. The majority leaders of our Legislature took $250,000 from the government employees union who almost immediately got $55 Million in avoided furloughs and cuts in return. And nobody investigated or held them to account for it. Although legislators cannot accept a bottle of water or a $2 trinket given to all legislators, I guess if the donation to a select few in power is big enough and reported, it’s not considered a bribe. And if the most recent proposal passes, billionaires will now be able to buy counties outright (with all the police power and tax authority of any county government) if they buy enough land and a well-connected accounting firm.

I fear for our state. Long gone are the principles of statesmanship and responsibility that we had a decade or two ago. It used to be that no matter who was “in power” at the time, both sides got to present their case for what should be passed. But no more. It seems only liberal bills are going to be heard this session. Only liberal causes will prevail, and race-based decisionmaking will be at an all-time high. To be sure, the corruption and myopathy at the top are sure to damage our state for the next generation if it continues. And when I’m gone, will there be anyone willing to say anything about it?

Yes, Thomas Jefferson’s words still ring true: “the government we elect is the government we deserve.”

Let’s hope we deserve something better in the near future.