I should say, by way of a preface, that it is a very dark day in America, as those in power actively shred the Bill of Rights right before the nation's eyes. But I decided to wait until tomorrow to talk about all of that, to give myself another day to let it all sink in. So today I am choosing instead to write something positive, because I think we could all use some good news right about now.

The state of New Mexico just announced that, beginning in November, it will become the first state in the nation to offer universal free child care to all parents. Here's the basic story:

New Mexico, long at the bottom of state rankings for child well-being and educational outcomes, is on the verge of launching a first-in-the-nation program aimed at helping reverse those trends: free child care and preschool for all resident families, regardless of income.

The move would save families an average of $13,000 a year in a state where the median family income is just above $64,000 annually. American households increasingly struggle to cover day care fees, which can dwarf housing costs. And while Congress this year passed tax credits that the Trump administration says will help parents with rising prices, federal funding for early childhood has remained flat.

. . .

The state says the expansion of an existing program that already made more families eligible for child care assistance than most other states will make more than 12,000 additional children eligible for free care. To build supply, New Mexico says it will reduce red tape and offer low-interest loans to build or grow child care centers. To attract and retain teachers, it is promising more money to centers that pay at least $18 to $21 an hour for entry-level workers.

The state is going to use revenues from oil and gas extraction to pay for it all. Rather than having to go through a bunch of red tape that measures parents' incomes, going forward all parents will be eligible and no such paperwork will be required. This, obviously, will save time and energy for both the parents and the state (who will no longer have to collect or verify such information).

This seems like an excellent example of the good that governments can do, when they set their minds to it. New Mexico also provides free school lunches to all its students, regardless of income. Free school lunches are available in a handful of other states as well (California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Vermont), but New Mexico will be the first to provide free preschool child care to all.

The sad thing (to me, at any rate) is that all of America could have been here by now as well. Part of the original proposal for one of Joe Biden's signature pieces of legislation would also have provided free preschool child care for everyone -- but this got removed at the insistence of Joe Manchin (along with a whole raft of other good ideas people like Bernie Sanders have long championed, such as free college tuition at state-run schools).

Child care, for those who haven't had to deal with it recently, is an enormous burden for parents. It is incredibly expensive. So expensive that when you sit down and do the math, for a lot of parents it means that one of them staying home and not working (to care for their own children) is actually financially better than working and paying for child care. Making a salary provides income, but if the child care (along with all the other costs of going to work) adds up to more than the money you are actually making, then it's better to just not have a job.

Freeing parents from this economic burden changes lives for the better in a big way. The article ends with a review of what happened in the state earlier, when they raised the income threshold for child care assistance to one of the highest levels in the nation (400 percent of the poverty line, or a little more than $100,000 in income for a family of three). Here's what happened, when a state university center studied the effects:

[R]esearchers spoke with middle-income families that had newly qualified. They heard stories about being able to afford mortgage payments, buy a reliable car, start a business or save for emergencies.... "To a person, they talked about how life-changing it was for their families."

Government did something, and it turned out to be "life-changing" (in a good way) for their constituents. Making child-care free for all will merely expand this beneficial effect to more parents.

Republicans, of course, are against the whole idea:

Republican lawmakers have criticized the initiative, urging Democrats to focus instead on improving the state's troubled child welfare agency or reducing crime. The state's Republican Party, meanwhile, called it a "permanent handout for the wealthy to pay for their in-home nannies." [New Mexico Governor Michelle] Lujan Grisham dismissed that, saying she was not worried "about the 1 percent engaging in our free child care system."

For all their bluster about how "pro-family" they are, every time Democrats try to do something which would actually make parents' lives easier, Republicans resist. They usually call it "socialism," but here they are doing exactly the opposite (as they did when Joe Biden tried to forgive student loans), by saying it is a giveaway to the wealthy. This makes no ideological sense, since the Republican Party pretty much exists to give stuff to the wealthy (see: tax breaks), but it's the political line they have decided upon.

As Bernie Sanders has proven, things that Republicans hate (because of "socialism") are actually extremely popular with the public. Just ask Zohran Mamdani, who seems to be on a glide path to becoming New York City's next mayor. Governments identifying problems and then dedicating money to solving such problems -- in a way that tangibly and directly affects millions -- is seen as a good thing by many voters. Republicans want to have everything "means-tested" so that they can tinker with all the hoops people have to jump through -- by lowering the bar for eligibility, by instituting mandatory work requirements, by making the paperwork so onerous and difficult many who are eligible don't even bother -- because they know that when such ideas are offered universally, they become wildly popular with the public.

There's a lesson here for the Democratic Party. Economic populism is popular with the voters. Rather than "tacking to the middle" (another way of saying "refusing to solve problems and letting the Republicans do what they want," really), actively proposing good solutions and implementing them enthuses voters. Democrats in New Mexico are showing other states that such things as free child care and preschool are indeed possible -- all it takes is the political will to use tax money for such beneficial programs.

And, like I said, that is some good news indeed, in a week where we all could use some.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant