Partisan Politics for Dummies

(Denver Post, Apr. 29) If I undertook to write about partisan politics for dummies, I’d immediately have your attention. Many people think that’s all partisan politics is for. It’s everyone’s favorite punching bag.But I’ll argue that partisan politics is forever with us and a good thing, so we may disagree. At least if we avoid capital letters, there’s no trademark rub with the popular “For Dummies” book series. Anyone cover a cut with a generic bandaid or xerox on an off-brand copier, after all. So I come to praise partisan politics, not to bury them. If that sounds crazy or wrong, it doesn’t make you a dummy in the sense of low IQ. But it may do so in the sense of that book series – someone who just never got up to speed on a subject. Politically, I dare you to do it now. Really you can’t afford not to.

Several straws in the April wind bring this up. Harris Kenny of the libertarian Reason Foundation tells The Denver Post that for him and other young voters, “the future is nonpartisan.” Jason Salzman of the progressive Bigmedia.org complains in the Huffington Post that partisan Republicans (me included) “overwhelm” Democrats as voices in the Denver media.

Petitioners set out to make the Colorado secretary of state’s office nonpartisan after Democratic chairman Rick Palacio brands the GOP incumbent, Scott Gessler, as shockingly partisan. Some Republicans brand their state chairman, Ryan Call, as a liberal after he appeals for cooler rhetoric and fewer charges of “RINO” (Republican in name only) or “establishment.”

Meanwhile the new super-PACs overshadow the old parties as Romney takes on Obama. The waters are further roiled by such well-funded upstarts as the No Labels effort, targeting Congress, and the Americans Elect movement, promising a bipartisan presidential ticket with one maverick from each party.

Never mind that this led to a train wreck with Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr after the deadlocked election of 1800, necessitating a constitutional amendment. Our transpartisan dreamers missed that in school, which is typical of these earnest folks. Sam Cooke’s “Don’t know much about history” could be their national anthem.

History teaches ten reasons why partisan politics is fortunately here to stay: (1) Power corrupts; human beings tend to lie, cheat, steal, and overreach. (2) Parties check each other’s stewardship of power and fulfillment of promises.

(3) Human beings naturally disagree; interests inevitably clash; unanimity is rare. (4) Parties give voters a choice between contrasting visions for governance. (5) Governing is difficult; wrong turns are everywhere; mistakes can be disastrous. (6) Thus while the ruling party steers and accelerates, the opposition party is there to monitor and brake.

(7) Americans who see the rewards and benefits of government tend to be Democrats; those who see the dangers and costs of government tend to be Republicans; we need both. (8) Republicans, favoring the brakes, thus tend to agree parties are good; while Democrats, favoring the gas, tend to wish away the need for parties. Hence the “partisans R not us” angle taken by Salzman and Palacio.

(9) There is no real-world example of a free society with democratic institutions and constitutional self-government that doesn’t also have competing political parties, each party consisting of a contentious coalition around an establishment core. Hence the wisdom of Call’s appeal.

(10) There are too many real-world examples of unfree societies with only one political party, or with personality cults and thought control instead of parties, resulting in brutal tyranny. Hence the impossibility of Kenny’s nonpartisan future. It’s a fantasy, and ominous at that.

Aristotle said man is a political animal. Moses and Jesus warned he’s also an imperfect one; often a dummy, in fact. I know I sure am. Parties can help save us from ourselves.

Unlimited government dismays Americans

The lesson already from Supreme Court deliberations over the constitutionality of Obamacare is that unlimited government makes most Americans queasy, says John Andrews in the April round of Head On TV debates. No, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt, the big takeaway is conservatives' inconsistency, suddenly favoring the very judicial activism they long opposed. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Romney vs. Obama, the Trayvon Martin shooting, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, and the urban freeway wars. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for April: 1. SUPREME COURT WEIGHS OBAMACARE

John: President Obama’s takeover of the health care system, one-sixth of the US economy, will either be approved by the Supreme Court or struck down as unconstitutional in whole or in part, very soon now. Already, it’s making us think about why unlimited government power over our lives is a dangerous thing.

Susan: You can’t have it both ways – until healthcare hit the Supremes – your chronic complaint was activist courts. Now it’s nanny-state government. Seems to me “of the people, for the people and by the people” is the benchmark we’ve lost sight of.

John: Government by the people requires a constitution that maximizes freedom and responsibility while minimizing paternalism and bureaucracy. Lincoln, whom you’re quoting, would be horrified at how badly Obamacare violates that. So would the Founding Fathers. This law worsens health care and tramples liberty. It needs to go.

Susan: Healthcare run for the benefit of insurance companies and for-profit hospitals serves stockholders not people. The lopsided costs, compared to the rest of the world are the primary driver of our budget deficits. Obama’s plan saves nearly $150-billion over the next decade and delivers better care.

2. ROMNEY VS. OBAMA, THE MAIN EVENT

John: One man started as a leader in the free enterprise system. The other started as a community organizer among the discontented. One man makes no apologies for America’s goodness and greatness. The other travels the world apologizing and wants to transform America. Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama, the 2012 campaign now begins.

Susan: Bring it on. Romney is so out of touch with the typical American that his rants ring hollow. How does a guy with an elevator for his cars relate to Americans at the gas pump? Romney is adept at making money, lacking conviction and blowing in the wind.

John: A president seeking a second term must convince voters he did well in his first. In Obama’s case that’s hard. The 2008 candidate of hope and change is running this time on fear and resentment. His record of economic stagnation and foreign policy weakness leaves no choice. America needs President Romney.

Susan: Which Willard Romney? ? The guv who set the standard for public healthcare in Massachusetts? The one who refused to take on Limbaugh’s screed against women? The guy who doesn’t worry about poor people, old people or the family dog? Or the compromising, tax avoiding, entirely opaque one percenter ?

3. TRAYVON MARTIN CASE

Susan: Florida’s Stand Your Ground law led to the slaying of unarmed 17-year old African American teenager Trayvon Martin by self-appointed neighborhood vigilante George Zimmerman. In a travesty of racism over law, It took 6 weeks to charge Zimmerman with 2nd degree murder.

John: Much of the media has allowed speculation to outrun the evidence in this tragic case, Susan. Not on this program. It now appears Martin was the aggressor in the bloody brawl that cost him his life. It appears Zimmerman was not racially motivated. America’s liberal guilt industry has disgraced itself on this one.

Susan: The brutal slaying of an unarmed teenager is hardly a cause célèbre of the liberal media. The unwillingness of the police to arrest this guy with a record of erratic, gun-toting behavior – is shameful to the left, the right and the center. Good for the prosecutor for finally bringing charges.

John: Evidence, Susan, evidence. Not paranoia, proof. Not fantasy, facts. The country doesn’t need more reckless racial inflammation right now. The Florida authorities are moving appropriately. Justice will be done. Is there too much violent death in this country? Absolutely. Young blacks, young Latinos especially. But they’re mostly killing each other.

4. GESSLER RECALL?

Susan: Colorado Democrats are working to recall Secretary of State Scott Gessler following his attempt to disenfranchise thousands of Colorado voters – including members of the armed services. His claim that 5000 undocumenteds voted in 2010 remains entirely unsubstantiated. He is a state official behaving like a partisan political hack.

John: The priority for liberals is to make voting easy. The priority for conservatives is to make it honest. Coloradans in 2010 had a clear choice between incumbent Democratic Secretary of State, Bernie Buescher, Mr. Easy Vote, and Republican challenger Scott Gessler, Mr. Honest Vote. Gessler is doing exactly what he campaigned on.

Susan: Prior to his election, Gessler worked for a highly partisan conservative law firm. His agenda as a public official, is consistent with his partisan commitment to restrict the voting rights of the military serving abroad, minorities and seniors. And unfortunately, you’re right the voters got what they paid for.

John: Susan, come on. Partisan this, partisan that. Your party, the Democrats, has the trademark on voting irregularities and stolen elections down through the years. LBJ in Texas, JFK in Illinois, Gore in Florida, Franken in Minnesota, Gregoire in Washington State. Secretary Scott Gessler is a standup guy to protect Colorado from that.

5. I-70 EXPANSION THROUGH DENVER NEIGHBORHOODS

Susan: The proposed expansion of I-70 through Denver neighborhoods – Globeville, Swansea, Elyria – is moving into its 9th year. Consensus by impacted neighbors remains elusive – despite attempts to buy them off with a new school, rec center and clean street lights. Time for the Mayor and the Governor to step up.

John: You liberals hate the automobile, so I initially disregarded this Globeville stuff. But as a conservative, not just politically but culturally, I believe that big engineering projects exist to serve the human community, not vice versa. So if we can widen the freeway less disruptively, why not? Persuade me, Susan.

Susan: I think you are persuaded. The issue is efficiency, safety and economics. Demolishing the core city with high-speed freeways is expensive, dangerous and the worst possible land use policy. Urban corridors are key to job creation, small business development and commerce. Highways and cities don’t mix.

John: Stop sloganeering, or you’ll unpersuade me. Highways and cities do mix. How else can18-wheelers move the lifeblood of commerce from one metropolis to another? How else can people get around a big metro area – and don’t say white elephant transit. Still if there’s a 270 solution for longsuffering historic Globeville, explore it.

Imagining a Romney-Santorum ticket

A few days before Rick Santorum upset Mitt Romney in the Colorado caucuses, he made a campaign stop at Colorado Christian University, where I work.  As it was ending, several students asked the former senator if he would Tebow with them.  The picture with all of them on a knee, heads bowed, is my favorite 2012 political image so far. Rick has got game. I wonder, though, if the feisty Pennsylvanian’s political fortunes here are headed into the same kind of fade as the young Floridian’s football fortunes – and if so, maybe it’s for the best. (In Santorum’s case, that is; this is not one more column about ex-Bronco Tim Tebow.) 

My state's caucuses on Feb. 7, you see, were just a beauty contest. A binding vote on delegate selection for the RNC in Tampa won’t occur until Republicans from across Colorado convene at the DU Ritchie Center on April 13 and 14.  On that Friday, seven congressional-district assemblies will elect three delegates each.  The GOP state assembly will elect another 12 delegates on Saturday.

Will the result be different when the Santorum and Romney campaigns, along with those of Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, battle it out from scratch for Colorado's 33 pledged delegates over the next couple of weeks?  Longshot contenders Gingrich and Paul may show up to make their case in person, party officials say; but Romney and Santorum, the favorites, have given no indication as yet.

If you think it’s just a family feud among the Republicans, a tribe you wouldn’t join on a bet, think again.  You may not be interested in politics at all – but politics is interested in you. These are not ordinary times.

The United States is headed for a fiscal crackup, our national security is at risk, and the institutions that made us a world leader in the last century are looking shaky as this century begins. Three of every five Americans in a recent poll expressed no approval of President Obama’s job performance.  He’ll remain in power until 2017, however, unless the opposition puts up a strong challenger whom voters can trust.

This is where party politics are all-important, however distasteful you may find them.  The only meaningful opposition to Barack Obama and his failed policies, the only counter-force that has legs and a voice and a team on the field – like it or not – is the Republican party.  Hence the GOP nominating contest at DU in April and eventually at Tampa in August matters to the whole country, not just to us partisans.

America’s founders didn’t envision parties helping elect the president, but after George Washington it’s always been that way.  A man (or woman) of character, judgment, capability, and experience, an eminent citizen with integrity and wisdom and the gift of command, unencumbered with the brand of any faction, is what the Federalist Papers portray as our republic’s chief magistrate.  Who measures up in 2012?

Mr. Obama, unfortunately, does not. Voters in 2008 would have seen he didn’t measure up then, had not millions been swept away with emotion and wish-fulfillment; for many of us the sad evidence has now become incontrovertible.  You may disagree, of course.  But if you agree, the next (and only) question is whether former Sen. Rick Santorum or former Gov. Mitt Romney measures up better.

I don’t happen to have a vote in any of the upcoming Colorado assemblies.  To my fellow Republicans who do, I urge them to weigh the choice according to the founders’ gold standard, and not be swept away with emotion and wish-fulfillment. 

Decide soberly.  Temper your partisan or ideological zeal with disinterested patriotism.  If the result in five months is a Romney-Santorum ticket, and an Obama retirement in ten weeks more, we could do far worse.

Nearing war with Iran?

The president rightly rebuked the GOP presidential contenders for "casualness" in regard to a potential war with Iran, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the March round of Head On TV debates. No, replies John Andrews, Obama merely hopes to distract from his own failed policy on Tehran's nuclear aspirations. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Hickenlooper's leadership style, liberal antipathy to the automobile, a tourism tax giveaway, and the presidential race. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for March: 1. NEARING WAR WITH IRAN?

Susan: "When I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I'm reminded of the costs involved in war. This is not a game. And there's nothing casual about it." That’s the President’s response to the recklessness of the GOP presidential wannabe’s urging war with Iran.

John: Steadily, steadily, the fanatical regime in Tehran moves closer to possessing the nuclear weapons with which it hopes to exterminate Israel and devastate America. Obama would rather scold the opposition party for sounding the alarm than forge an effective policy himself. He missed a chance to remove the regime years ago.

Susan: A nuclear holocaust is a zero sum game for Israel, Iran, the U.S. and the planet. Consider recent events in Afghanistan – a mentally deranged soldier killed kids, women, fathers – terminating any prospects of earning the trust of the people. The human cost of war is far too great.

John: I understand your feelings. But we don’t just need emotions, we need solutions. This weak, naïve, self-absorbed man who happens to be president is day by day increasing the risk of a big conflict by failing to confront and squeeze Iran in smaller ways. Israel must be protected. Obama must go.

2. HICK LEADS FROM BEHIND

John: Much like Barack Obama, John Hickenlooper is long on style and short on substance. Obama’s famous copout of “leading from behind” now has its Colorado counterpart in Hick’s statewide tour of townhall meetings, the TBD Project. He claims that stands for “To Be Determined.” I suspect it means “Taxed by Democrats.”

Susan: The person who thought up TBD as the brand for the Guv’s priority setting initiative, ought to be fired. Am I naïve to believe it’s the Governor’s role to set the state’s direction? Aren’t campaigns about taking the public’s temperature? TBD is a Totally Bad Decision.

John: Hickenlooper’s townhall tour aims to manufacture a consensus for raising taxes, but people won’t buy it. Neither the governor nor the legislature is getting any traction at present. The alpha dogs in Colorado right now are activist judges – blowing up school finance, slapping down vouchers, and snarling at TABOR.

Susan: No the problem is the lack of leadership and stewardship of this great but fragile western state. Shame on the legislature for funding wealthy developers instead of education, transportation and infrastructure. Shame on us for electing people we like instead of leaders who might make a difference.

3. OBAMA IN TROUBLE

Susan: Can it get any worse for the GOP? Mitt Romney’s failure to condemn Rush Limbaugh calling Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a slut was beyond the pale. Romney’s response, “It’s not the language I would have used” later saying it wasn’t his business? Shame on you, Willard Mitt.

John: Coarse language from left and right is as old as politics. It’s deplorable, but totally irrelevant to who should be the next president. Obama’s numbers are falling. His energy policy has doubled gas prices. His health care takeover is hugely unpopular. Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul could all beat him.

Susan: John, no one’s approval ratings are lower than Willard Mitt’s. Even moderate Republicans – that endangered species – are looking for the not-Mitt option. It’s a long way to Tampa and this slugfest among wacked pundits and eager-to-please, candidates spells trouble for the R’s in November.

John: The one in trouble is Barack Obama. Presidents who don’t get the job done are shown the door. It’s the American way. Ask Jimmy Carter. They want a leader who is proud of America and believes in Americans as a free people. People have had it with Obama’s excuses and arrogance.

4. STOP THE TOURISM TAX GIVEAWAY

Susan: In 2009 Colorado Concern, a private business group, sponsored legislation creating a state sales tax subsidy, benefitting their members’ interest in building a NASCAR tract east of DIA - a victory of influence over intelligence. When the racetrack died, the giveaway should have been buried.

John: Aurora, Estes Park, Glendale, Pueblo, Douglas County, and Montrose County are pleading with a state board to subsidize tourism for two of them and not the other four. $50 million a year is the prize. Government playing favorites among competing localities and businesses this way is an awful idea.

Susan: Under any circumstance, the state has no business using tax increment financing to pay for assets that benefit a private developer and only a private developer. Urban renewal tools are just that – mechanisms to revitalize obsolete, dilapidated urban property. Not a way to reduce risk for influentials and campaign contributors.

John: I hate to agree, Susan, but amen. For me as a Republican and you as a Democrat to unite against this tourism tax giveaway, both believing in integrity in government, illustrates how the two-party system can sometimes let the people down when powerful inside players rig the game. It’s a shame.

5. LESS RAIL, MORE BUSES

John: Liberals will tell you they don’t like the automobile. They object to the personal freedom it confers. Yet they also object to high gas prices. What a delicious contradiction. A related contradiction is the money liberals continue throwing at light rail despite its negligible ridership. Bus rapid transit is far superior.

Susan: Wow! John, after 8 years of jousting with me, you’re beginning to sound like a progressive! Of course, bus-rapid-transit is the most efficient way to build mass transit. Dedicated lanes, mixed-use transit stops and cool-looking buses are the logical answer for regions as spread out as ours.

John: Progressive? No, I’m a regressive. I’d like to run the movie back to 2004 and let people vote again on the tax hike we now is far too small to build out the Fastracks fantasy train that few commuters use. Going forward, though, let’s agree – less rail, more buses.

Susan: The real problem is the lack of civic and political direction guiding RTD staff and directors. Mass transit needs to be part of a regional land use transportation network, connecting people with places, jobs and one another. Absent a comprehensive approach, we’ve all missed the bus.

Who needs a governor anyway?

(Denver Post, Feb. 26) “An empty taxi drove up to 10 Downing Street,” joked Winston Churchill about the man who defeated him for prime minister in 1946, “and out of it stepped Clement Attlee.” Droll, but Attlee laughed last. Nothing succeeds like success. Detractors who grumble that there is “no there, there” in John Hickenlooper’s remarkable political winning streak, have to admit the same thing about his long-running popularity as Mayor of Denver and now Governor of Colorado: voters just like the guy. The latest indication of Hick’s undiminished moxie was an odd little news item the other day, in which Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, hinted at a 2014 gubernatorial bid – but only if Hickenlooper, the Democratic incumbent, were to decline a second term as did his predecessor, Bill Ritter. To which the Gov’s office replied, in substance, fat chance.

The upcoming TBD Project, 120 townhall meetings around the state with private funding of $1.2 million, shows again how Hickenlooper has raised amiable vagueness to an art form. He says TBD stands for “To Be Determined,” an open invitation for citizens to help set the state’s priorities – and bristles at the GOP gibe that it’s really code for “Taxed by Democrats.” The very idea!

Cruising toward halftime in his four-year term, the canny Hick is still not ready to roll out an agenda. No hurry, we’ll just travel the counties and see what folks scribble on our whiteboard. If Christo can take till 2015 to drape the river, the administration’s big push on education, transportation, corrections, and fiscal reform needn’t start yet either. Get reelected, then get serious.

On what record, you ask, would the governor campaign, given his underwhelming accomplishments to date? That’s the interesting thing about being Colorado’s chief executive. Constitutionally the position is so weak – the executive branch being split among four elected offices, the legislative branch having dominance on spending, and the voters controlling taxes and debt under TABOR – that an incumbent can win again just by managing the atmospherics and avoiding blunders.

It worked exactly this way for all of the successful governors in the state’s modern era (since terms went from two years to four in 1962). The Republican John Love and the Democrats Dick Lamm and Roy Romer each won three terms. Republican Bill Owens was easily reelected once and then term-limited. Democrat Bill Ritter, dogged by scandal and done after one, is the exception who proves the rule.

Don’t misunderstand: Love, Lamm, Romer, and Owens were all surehanded leaders and formidably skilled politicians. (Gov. Romer, of course, trounced me in our 1990 contest.) I’m merely saying that if you look for their monumental legacies or enduring policy victories, there weren’t many.

Romer did get DIA built, though Mayor Federico Pena’s name is on the approach road, and he passed the CSAP legislation, though education is little the better for it. Owens pushed T-REX to completion, though congestion persists, and he signed voucher legislation, though judges then annulled it. Lamm ran off the Winter Olympics – though before he became governor – and now we may host them anyway.

Governing our state or any other state simply doesn’t lend itself to transformative Obama-style grandiosity – which from my conservative viewpoint is a good thing. The Hippocratic caution in public policy, “First do no harm,” is hard enough to uphold. Deliver that and we’re grateful, would be the sentiment of most Americans in what is still a center-right nation.

Today’s superstar governors elsewhere – Chris Christie in New Jersey, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana – became such by tackling Augean messes, not by peddling utopian dreams. Colorado, for all its problems, is in no such crisis, thank goodness. If the empty gimmickry of John “TBD” Hickenlooper has an upside, that’s it.