Self-government needs newspapers

(Denver Post, Feb. 27) So Facebook brought down the Egyptian regime. Until now, the only thing I knew it had brought down was my productivity – and that of many other Republicans old enough to know better, after we all stampeded there upon hearing how Democrats rode it to victory in 2008. Obama in, Mubarak out, Zuckerberg to megawealth, and “Social Network” to the Oscars. Such is the Facebook scorecard so far, and there is 90% of the human race yet to be tapped – er, “friended.” Well, call me a dinosaur, but I still believe the front line of self-government in a free society is citizens reading newspapers. Your pretty pixels on a shimmering screen are fine. But ink on pulp, served up at the breakfast table for Printosaurus Retrogradus to devour, digest, and act upon, remains the superior medium for effective political engagement in my book. If you are reading this on newsprint – and about half the total audience of the Denver Post now may not be – you probably agree. Our task is to bring along enough of our fellow Americans, especially the next generation, so that newspapers can survive economically and the country, with their help, can keep renewing itself politically.

He’s gone apocalyptic, some will say. He’s a curmudgeon trapped in the 1950s, a technophobic troglodyte. He’s mad because his email service, America Online (itself pathetically passe’), has merged with the Huffington Post – and ISP wasn’t supposed to stand for “incessant socialist propaganda.” His prejudice for the fish-wrapping, birdcage-lining news medium of yesterday over the wild and woolly Web of today is groundless.

Maybe; the 1950s charge isn’t actually that far off. But the prejudice none of us who love newspapers should apologize for is simply a matter of setting value on their more comprehensive, structured, and reasoned interpretation of current events – in contrast to the fragmentary, fleeting, and impressionistic patchwork one is likely to get from the unedited maelstrom of online sources.

I want, and we should all want, the neighbors who share with us the duties of governance in city, state, and nation to be thinkers equipped for deciding responsibly. Does democracy carry the inescapable risk that your carefully considered vote will be cancelled by that of some shallow-minded flake? Boy, does it – which is all the more reason to work for a civic ethos where informed consent is encouraged and impulsive irresponsibility is frowned on.

Editorial gatekeeping and quality control in our news and opinion media cannot be mandated (thank God for the First Amendment), but they must not be lost. Twitter mustn’t become the only game in town. Newspapers didn’t lose their dominant agenda-setting and chaff-filtering function as radio and TV arose in the last century, and we need to hope they don’t lose it as the Internet burgeons today, even though electronic delivery may far outpace print delivery.

Election 2010 would have gone better here, in my opinion, if the Rocky Mountain News had still been around to compete with the Denver Post. But heaven help us if the people’s momentous decisions on candidates and ballot issues had had to be made with only the help of dueling websites and water-cooler gossip, and no Denver Post at all.

What keeps vital democracy-facilitating businesses like this one afloat as the new technology sorts itself out, I don’t know. I do know government subsidies are not an option. My personal crusade is more on the demand side, building readership.

That’s why, at every opportunity in my work on a college campus, I brace these laid-back millennial students to arm themselves for citizenship by reading print journalism and lots of it – the local paper, national papers, newsmagazines, opinion journals. Nothing else feeds your head in quite the same healthy way, I tell them. Please help me spread that message.

Obamacare on the ropes?

Activist courts are at it again, this time siding with the right to strike down Obamacare, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the February round of Head On TV debates. No, says John Andrews, Judge Vinson ruled as the founding fathers would have, and the Supreme Court may well agree with him. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Egypt's revolution, Denver's lackluster mayoral contenders, Colorado's new governor, and a populist fantasy of state officials working at real jobs. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for February: 1. COURT RULINGS DIFFER ON OBAMACARE<

Susan: A Florida judge ruled the Obama health care initiative unconstitutional – proving that activist courts – long the subject of conservative whining – cut both ways. Federal judges are split – three others are split – two in favor, one opposed. The issue will go to the Supremes. Too much fuzzy law and opinion.

John: If Congress can force you to buy a particular product, they can force you to do anything. Limited constitutional government is replaced by unlimited bureaucratic tyranny, and this is no longer the land of the free. Judge Vinson has the founding fathers on his side. The Supreme Court may toss Obamacare.

Susan: How ‘bout the Republican’s in Congress grant the American public the same cushy healthcare the taxpayer gives them? Now that their work week is down to 20 weeks a year – they ought to do something to respond to hard working Americans.

John: Hard-working Americans deserve a government that spends less, taxes less, borrows less, and regulates less – a government that gets out of the way so free enterprise can benefit everyone. The courts and the Congress can start by relieving families and businesses of the unworkable, unconstitutional Obamacare law.

2. HICKENLOOPER GETS STARTED

John: Hickenlooper has begun quietly but purposefully. No dramatic hundred days for him. McNulty the fiscal hawk and Gessler the moonlighter have dominated the headlines, but Hick understands that economic recovery is paramount. His cabinet is a mix of left and right, including a Republican as budget director.

Susan: Hick’s picks are terrific. It’s going to take bi-partisan thinking at the Capitol to address Colorado’s budget woes – failing dams, roads and bridges; underfunded higher ed and unmet social service needs. Let’s hope the Kumbaya is shared by the Legislature.

John: There’s nothing terrific about Ellen Golombek, a labor union militant, joining the cabinet just when we need a lean public-sector workforce and a welcoming private-sector job climate. The governor booted that one. But he did well in making peace with the oil and gas industry. That’s a winner for economic growth.

Susan: Hick is a pleaser and will figure out how to be all things to most people. His ability to accomplish that is enhanced by his aw shucks, extroverted personality. He will work hard to balance every interest, without taking a strong stand. That affect has worked for him - so far.

3. REVOLUTION IN EGYPT

Susan: Recent events in Egypt are significant. First – the power of social media – for good or ill – has marginalized the political establishment; forced foreign policymakers to respond immediately – without the necessary information. People power upends the status quo – sometimes for the best.

John: Egyptian strongman Mubarak may be gone by the time you see this. Too bad Obama failed to keep pressuring him much sooner for peaceful change, as Bush had begun to do. The danger now is that Muslim Brotherhood jihadists, sworn to destroy Israel and America, may fill the power vacuum in Cairo.

Susan: This is not a blame it on Obama moment. For decades, American presidents have backed stability over local democracy. Since WW 2 – if not before – we have backed despots and dictators. It’s been backfiring but the power structure’s covered up – based on fear. Those days are over.

John: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and other undemocratic Arab regimes face overthrow as popular unrest spreads. There are no easy options for US policy. Thankfully Obama’s dangerous arrogance is no more. But the Muslim Brotherhood’s dangerous subversion is everywhere. Congress will and should investigate.

4. UNDERWHELMING MAYOR’S RACE

John: What’s twice as bad as seven dwarfs? Fourteen miniature mayoral candidates -- or whatever the number is this week. Romer, Boigon, Hancock, Mejia – they all seem like lightweights compared to past mayors such as Webb or Hickenlooper. No wonder the likable and capable incumbent, Bill Vidal, flirted with running.

Susan: Number 14 just entered the Mayor’s race. That makes 3 council people, a longtime political appointee, a former legislator, a woman with a public legal background, 3 city employees, a homeless man, a libertarian and four other guys. All told - not a very impressive field at a very important time.

John: Not to mention ten lords a-leaping and three French hens. Pretty underwhelming which is why a late entry with executive credentials, TV charisma, or both, is still possible before the petition deadline. The capital of the Rocky Mountain Empire needs an economic jolt and better public safety. Who will step up, Susan?

Susan: The Hick exercised his considerable power to keep the best candidate out of the race – Bill Vidal. Vidal loves the city, knows the city and has a strong management track record. Hick’s attempt to control both sides of Broadway is going to backfire – sadly on the city he seduced – and abandoned.

5. STATE OFFICIALS’ SALARIES

Susan: Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler started a brOuhaha when announcing he’d be working part time for his former law firm – election specialists – to supplement his paltry state salary of $68,500. He should have thought about that before running for office. However, full time state electeds should be paid more.

John: I see no shortage of capable people wanting to run for governor, attorney general, treasurer, or secretary of state – even though all of them do pay less than $100,000. Colorado is low on the scale nationally, yet we have cleaner and leaner government than the high-paying states. Ain’t broke, don’t fix.

Susan: Implicit in that view are two choices: 1 – only rich people can run for office or 2 –so-called full time elected officials – need to moonlight – whether it’s teaching or speaking fees or working at the Dairy Queen. I want leaders to be full time. And I don’t want only the well-to-do to apply.

John: Susan, you’re brilliant. Picture it: Hickenlooper working weekends at Dairy Queen. Gessler as a greeter at Wal-Mart. Attorney General Suthers on the UPS night shift. Treasurer Stapleton bagging groceries at Stapleton. Humility under the dome. Exalted politicos finally getting their hands dirty. Let’s not raise their pay!

Why unions fear school reform

(Denver Post, Jan. 23) The indignation was feverish. Teacher-union partisans trembled. Elaine Berman, a State Board of Education member from Denver, boycotted. Mary Johnson, an education consultant from Colorado Springs, raged. “A person known for nearly total lack of support for public education” was “bamboozling” Coloradans. The miscreant was William Moloney, our state’s past Education Commissioner under both parties from 1997 to 2007. He had been invited back on Jan. 13 by State Board chairman Bob Schaffer to testify on school reform. His crime was not burning books or blowing up buses; it was pointing out the obvious. He had come, Moloney began, to talk about “three incontestable realities concerning which America has been in denial for decades,” but which “the hammer blows of impending financial disaster” have now brought home to everyone. (Or almost everyone; financial disaster doesn’t faze the Johnsons of this world.)

Reality 1, said the former commissioner, is that America’s schools perform poorly in world rankings and when measured against their own past performance. U.S. seventeen-year-olds have made NO progress in math and reading scores over the past 40 years, even as per-pupil spending in real dollars has doubled.

Reality 2 is the unsustainable level of educational costs in this country. We’re near top dollar on international comparisons, reported Moloney. Worse, public schools in Colorado spend 60 percent more than in Utah and 80 percent more than parochial schools in Denver – while trailing both in test scores.

But Reality 3 is good news, the witness told his former employers: “There are abundant models of better educational performance coupled with lower cost, even some within walking distance” of the Berman-boycotted boardroom at 201 E. Colfax. The days of school spending as an unquestioned, unmonitored entitlement may be numbered.

Perhaps most promising in the magnitude of savings and the chance to do more with less, he added, is the evidence that America has begun to break “the national obsession with class-size reduction, an expensive and counterproductive policy that has never been shown to improve learning performance.” Examples exist in Florida, California, and locally in Aurora and Jefferson County.

Marcia Neal, the State Board of Education vice chairman, thanked Moloney for his “excellent work” on the policy research (available from the Centennial Institute, where I work, at Centennialccu.org). “There is very little we can argue with,” concluded Neal.

Impatient parents and weary taxpayers can expect fierce argument, however, from Beverly Ingle, Henry Roman, and Brenda Smith. You’ve never heard of this tough political triad; obscurity is to their advantage. But if Johnson and Berman want to know who is really bamboozling us into the insanity of doing the same thing in schools decade after decade, gold-plating it, and expecting different results, talk to them.

They head Colorado’s three largest teacher unions: the CEA, the AFT, and the Denver Classroom Teachers. The confession of the late Al Shanker, AFT national president, is their guilty secret: “When school children start paying union dues, I’ll start representing their interests.” Class-size reduction (read: ever more employees with ever less to do) is their cash cow. That’s why genuine school reform terrifies them.

So, will the Swalm bill for tuition tax credits and the Spence bill for outsourcing noninstructional costs, together worth $300 million in deficit reduction, succeed this year? Will reformer Laura Boggs survive on the Jeffco school board, and reformer Nate Easley on the Denver school board? Will national reform leader Michelle Rhee, featured in “Waiting for Superman,” be welcomed here by Hickenlooper as governors have welcomed her in Florida and New Jersey?

Or will the mindless labor mentality of Samuel Gompers, “More,” continue at our kids’ expense? It all depends on who gets traction: Moloney, Schaffer, and Neal, or Ingle, Roman, and Smith.

Two takes on Tucson

The assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is proof we need more gun control, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the January round of Head On TV debates. Wrong, says John Andrews: gun rights enhance public safety, and the liberties of all shouldn't be curtailed to deter a few lunatics. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Speaker John Boehner, repeal of Obamacare, the Hickenlooper agenda, and dysfunctional mass transit. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for January:1. TWO TAKES ON TUCSON Susan: With the killing of six people, the shooting spree that felled Tucson Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a community meeting is igniting another cry for sane gun control. The shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, has a well-documented history of anti-social, illegal behavior. The system failed. He was able to purchase a semi-automatic weapon.

John: Better security at townhalls is needed. More gun laws are not. We can’t curtail the liberties of all because of an irresponsible few. And shame on the liberal ambulance-chasers who used this madman’s assassination attempt to demonize Republicans and chill free speech. Loughner followed Hitler, Stalin, and Satan. That’s not the Tea Party.

Susan: When a person unstable and known to authorities, can purchase ammunition at a WalMart, hours before killing or wounding 19 people with a semi-automatic handgun, change is needed. It’s time for laws prohibiting the sale of guns holding multiple rounds of ammunition and limiting the caliber of weapons.

John: The shock we all feel after these horrific murders, our sadness for Rep. Giffords and the others who were shot, isn’t necessarily a formula for wise legislation. 2nd Amendment supporters, including Giffords herself, know for a fact that reasonable gun rights enhance public safety. Thank God the congresswoman pulled through.

2. ADVICE FOR SPEAKER BOEHNER

John: Obama and the Democrats lost Congress because voters were alarmed about too much spending, too much debt, too much government. Speaker John Boehner is the doctor who has to put the president in rehab and sober him up before the country goes broke. A similar intervention helped Bill Clinton get reelected.

Susan: Speaker Boehner will have a tough time managing the tea party extremes with the more seasoned members of his party. Reading the Constitution was a great idea. To be successful, the Republican Congress will need to solve problems. Jobs – not healthcare – ought to be the priority.

John: Boehner scored his first big win on jobs even before he became Speaker – forcing Obama to back down on tax increases. The president’s new top staffer, grownups who understand capitalism, represent another win for Boehner. And I love Paul Ryan chairing the budget committee while Darrell Issa investigates the administration.

Susan: The garage door of opportunity slammed shut on the Speaker and his posse when they refused to offer an alternative to healthcare, hold hearings or allow the D’s to offer input. As for the Iceman’s hearings –DC insider stuff – ignoring the real issues facing the country: job, job, jobs.

3. REPEAL OBAMACARE?

John: Barack Obama’s takeover of health care, one-sixth of the economy, is collapsing before its first birthday. Costs are up, participation is down, lawsuits are mounting, and voter approval is falling. When a centrist like David Brooks says so, you know it’s bad. Repeal by Congress will take time, but it will happen.

Susan; The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warns repealing the Health Care Act will add $230 Billion to the deficit and leave 32 million uninsured, causing most Americans to pay more for health insurance. Congress gets a low-cost public option, subsiized by taxpayers. Voters deserve the same.

John: Susan, cut the comedy. If you believe a huge new entitlement will reduce the deficit, I have some swampland to sell you. Your so-called public option is a code word for socialized medicine, rationed care and mediocrity, Canadian-style. Pelosi abandoned that a year ago. Obamacare must be repealed and replaced.

Susan:: The country is divided on the healthcare law and with a record low number receiving employer-sponsored coverage, the tide is moving against the Republican repeal. Americans rate access to quality care a top issue. Rather than saying no, why doesn’t your party offer an alternative.

4. ADVICE FOR GOV. HICKENLOOPER

John: John Hickenlooper’s office move to the Capitol was a quarter-mile geographically, but light-years politically. His cutesy style as mayor won’t work as governor of a recession-hammered state. Hick needs to unleash his inner businessman, cool it on unions and taxes, and aggressively sharpen Colorado’s economic competitiveness.

Susan: In these particularly polarized and mean-spirited times, Hickenlooper’s non-partisan, let’s solve problems style will be very good for Colorado. He’s no ideologue and would rather be liked than feared or dismissed. That’s a good thing for the state when job creation is on everyone’s mind.

John: A governor who wants to be liked is the last thing we need right now. Ritter neglected the budget and the economy and Colorado is behind the eight-ball. Never mind winning the congeniality contest, Hick needs to be Chris Christie on the budget, Bobby Jindal on energy, and Rick Perry on jobs.

Susan: Hick could be Scrooge himself on the budget and it wouldn’t matter. The leg and the JBC have what little discretion there is. Hick’s can-do optimism and entrepreneurial drive will focus the state on economic development, innovation and sensible regulation. He owns the bully pulpit - the most important show in town.

5. FASTRACKS TO SEEK TAX HIKE

Susan: FasTracks the $4.7-billion comprehensive transportation system, approved by metro voters in 2004, is off-track. Thanks to the soft economy, rising prices and questionable management by RTD. The completed system is key to this regions economic and environmental vitality. Here’s hoping civic and political leadership will step up.

John: Light rail is a heavy mistake. In city after city, these tax-eating transit boondoggles have underperformed on ridership, overrun their budgets, and done little to relieve traffic congestion. The definition of leadership on FasTracks is to cut back the plan, live with existing revenues, and shift money into roads.

Susan: John, you are smart enough to know mobility isn’t a zero sum equation. It’s the appropriate balance of roads, mass transit, bike paths and pedestrian routes. However – until we have civic and political leadership to articulate a vision and build consensus around funding, it’s gridlock for all Coloradans.

John: For ordinary people at work, at play, in families, in the moment, the automobile is the ultimate freedom machine. That’s why Americans love their cars. That’s why liberals, including Hickenlooper, want us out of our cars. Let RTD run buses, not trains. Don’t raise taxes. Build highways, highways, highways.

Tea Party meets with GOP legislators

Republicans in the state Senate and House huddled with Tea Party leaders on Jan. 6, just hours after my column urging such cooperation was filed for publication on Jan. 9 (see left column on main page, Andrews in Print). The following report came to me Thursday evening from a friend at the Capitol: Today Colorado Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp and six other legislators from both the Senate and House met for 90 minutes with 25 leaders of Tea Party and 912 groups from across the state. The groups represented thousands of grassroots activists from Greeley to Pueblo, eastern plains to Grand Junction.

They agreed to forge a strategic partnership to advance a "small government agenda" with three policy themes -- taxation, regulation and immigration. Leaders of the groups pledged to get their members involved in the legislative process including hearings and advocacy, and legislative leaders pledged to work with the leaders to build local membership and better awareness of state issues.

Participating with Kopp were Senators Ted Harvey, Scott Renfroe, Kevin Lundberg, and Kent Lambert, along with Reps. Libby Szabo and Chris Holbert. Speaker Frank McNulty and other members of House leadership were in DC, hence unavailable to attend.

Then on Sunday afternoon, after my column ran, headlined "Hey, Colorado government, we're out of patience" and sprinkled with imaginary signatures such as "Worried in Widefield" and "Available in Arvada," I received the following email from someone calling himself "Juiced in Jeffco." Could it have been Mike Kopp himself?

Dear Former President Andrews: The Senate Republicans stand ready to blast steadily and constructively at the destructive statist policies of the day. Look for bright and passionate moments of contrast when such issues appear. Look for some surprises on new ways to void Obamacare. And look for a steady appeal to competent governance and for Senate Repubs to be continually let down after pursuit thereof yields smaller than hoped-for results. Please let us know how well you think our message, on the foregoing items especially, is penetrating the T space.