In which Obama gets a 2nd chance but blows it

Might the recent inauguration herald some real hope and change at last, wonders a tongue-in-cheek John Andrews in the February round of Head On TV debates. He even momentarily dons an Obama button before Susan Barnes-Gelt reaffirms the hardball playbook and reminds us it's all the Republicans' fault. John on the right (button quickly discarded) and Susan on the left also go at it this month Hillary Clinton's past, the GOP's future, immigration reform, and gun control. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for February: 1. PREVIEWING OBAMA’S SECOND TERM

Susan: Obama has four years of on-the-job-training – and he doesn’t have to pander to special interests for re-election. Washington is a swamp and he can apply his will and intelligence to cut entitlements, reform the tax code and protect the vulnerable. Elections have consequences. He must play hardball.

John: Mr. President, sir: Like my [Obama campaign] button? I voted for Mitt, but since I follow a God of second chances, I appeal for you to devote yourself to hope and change. Change your confrontational ways. Stop trying to transform us into France. Give Americans reason to hope for constructive cooperation between Democrats and Republicans.

Susan: Washington’s dysfunction is driven by the politics of partisan primaries. Incumbents who are moderate problem solvers are threatened by right wing ideologues – not Democratic challengers. Majority Speaker Boehner is trying to manage a freak show that has noting to do with Obama’s leadership style.

John: Barack, my friend, this saddens me, but it’s over between us. [Removes button, tosses it away.] You had your chance. Your spokeswoman here, Susan, won’t get off the Alinsky talking points. Second-term hardball, Obama unfettered. Veer to the left, no comprise, consensus be damned. In 2010 that approach cost you dearly. It will again in 2014.

2. ARE REPUBLICANS EVEN RELEVANT ANY MORE?

Susan: After decades of posturing and hyperbole, immigration reform will happen. And human issues – human rights, women’s health, LGBT issues and religion – are no longer the third rail of partisan politics. The reason: young people see the world in chiaroscuro– shades of grey. If Republicans don’t embrace change, they’re doomed.

John: The party of the left keeps helpfully advising the party of the right to come over there with them. Then we’d have both parties proclaiming government is the only answer and relativism is the only truth. Ain’t happening, Susan. The answer is freedom and responsibility. Republicans will stand on that, thank you.

Susan: How’s that workin’ for ya so far? Let see, R’s lost seats in the Senate, the House and – ummm – the White House? Senate Minority leader McConnell and House Majority leader Boehner serve at the will of a fractured herd of nattering nabobs of negativism. They make Spiro Agnew look respectable.

John: In America, freedom and responsibility have always worked better than bureaucracy and dependency. Always will. Democrats can go on being the party of government, Republicans the party of liberty, and we’ll see who has the best winning percentage over time. My money is on liberty.

3. HILLARY’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

John: As Obama builds a new cabinet, America is better off with Hillary Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. She is dishonest, unscrupulous, and manipulative even by the low standards of Washington. Her evasive Senate testimony about the Benghazi massacre was shameful. America does not need a Clinton third term in 2016.

Susan: Hillary’s tenure as Secretary of State was great for the President, our global partners and the nation’s safety and respect. An unparalleled advocate for the rights of women, children the underserved across the globe – she is a remarkable leader who happens to be female. Kerry has big shoes to fill!

John: John Kerry as incoming Secretary of State is no prize either. The Vietnam peacenik who threw away his war medals will have US enemies laughing at us around the world. Mrs. Clinton leaves him a legacy of weakness and appeasement. She failed as foreign minister and would fail worse as president.

Susan: This country and the world would benefit from Hillary Clinton’s leadership – whether as president of the United States or head of a multi-national organization. She is smart and articulate with impeccable values. She knows who she is and what she stands for and is respected throughout the world.

4. IMMIGRATION REFORM, AGAIN

John: I like Marco Rubio as a rising conservative star, and I like the savory seasoning that Latinos add to the American melting pot. But Rubio is wrong in teaming up with Obama for a so-called path to citizenship, which really means amnesty for lawbreakers. Ten million new Democratic voters? No thanks.

Susan: Republicans will continue to be irrelevant if the old white boys don’t recognize the inevitable. The realities of the 21st Century – from demographics of economic sustainability depend on sane immigration policy. A majority of Americans agree. Marco Rubio is the face of America’s future. Get used to it.

John: The social and economic dysfunction of Mexico has sent opportunity-seekers flooding into the USA for decades. Can we make room for them? Absolutely, on the right terms. But full political participation is not the way. Amnesty failed when Reagan tried it, and will fail again. Secure the border first!

Susan: John F. Kennedy said it best in his 1958 book, A Nation of Immigrants. The United States is and always has been a nation of people who value both tradition and the exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves in their adopted homeland.

5. GUN CONTROL, AGAIN

John: The gun control proposals by Feinstein in Congress, and by Hickenlooper here in Colorado, take away too much self-protection and self-responsibility and offer too little assurance of greater public safety in return. A government big enough to give us everything we want is big enough to take away everything we have.

Susan: Thirteen. Sixty-four. One hundred and forty two. One hundred and thirteen. Two-hundred and fifty. Four Hundred and fifteen. Thirteen years. 64 mass shootings. One hundred and forty-two guns. One hundred thirteen illegal guns. Two hundred and fifty dead. Four hundred and fifteen injured. Do the math.

John: Firearms are dangerous, no question. But power-hungry big government is far more dangerous. Citizens and politicians alike, including Colorado’s own Democratic senators, need assurances that proposed gun laws will truly deter criminals and lunatics, not just disarm the law-abiding. Then we can deal.

Susan: Thirteen. Sixty-four. One hundred and forty two. One hundred and thirteen. Two-hundred and fifty. Four Hundred and fifteen. Thirteen years. 64 mass shootings. One hundred and forty-two guns. One hundred thirteen illegal guns. Two hundred and fifty dead. Four hundred and fifteen injured. Do the math.

'Keep & bear arms' isn't negotiable

(Denver Post, Feb. 3) Firearms are dangerous. When learning to use a rifle in boyhood, and later when training with a handgun, I was drilled hard on this. Instructors barked at my least show of carelessness. But the force of government and political power is more dangerous than any gun. Our public officials are trustees over the organized monopoly of legitimate violence in this country. Under due process of law, they hold the dispensation of life and death over us all. How chilling if this fearsome power were to be used carelessly. Unfortunately, instances of its careless use are all around us, often on a massive scale and with disastrous consequences. That’s why in these United States we live not only under laws – in which the government tells the people what they may and may not do – but also under constitutions, in which the people tell the government what it may and may not do.

This recently came to mind as I listened to state legislators taking their oath “to support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Colorado,” and last week to President Obama swearing for his second term “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

In Barack Obama’s heart, however, it seems his constitutional agenda is more transformative than protective. He’s on the record in a 2001 radio interview, thinking aloud about the need to “break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution [which make it] a charter of negative liberties.”

Such goals as “redistribution of wealth and… political and economic justice in society” are harder to accomplish, the future president explained, because the Constitution says what the states and federal government “can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what [they] must do on your behalf.”

One of the “tragedies of the civil rights movement,” Mr. Obama concluded, was its failure to “put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change.”

Tragic? Only if we misunderstand rights as claims on other people. The modern bureaucratic state establishes such claims all the time, obligating one group as givers and privileging another as takers. Society can sustain a certain amount of this without going broke or coming to blows, and opinions differ on how close we are. But if words mean anything, such a process is not the creation of rights. God alone can do that.

Rights, in the American political tradition, mean those equal, natural, inherent endowments of an individual’s very being which no one else – especially government – may arbitrarily take from him. “Negative liberties,” Obama’s term, is correct is that rights are a stern “Thou shalt not” to a grasping, meddling, paternalistic, power-hungry Caesar.

That’s true even when Caesar is cloaked in good intentions and a democratic majority. So the federal Bill of Rights, ten amendments to our U.S. Constitution, and the Colorado Bill of Rights, 31 sections of our state constitution, ban piled upon ban specifying what government “can’t do to you,” are a free people’s best friend.

The latter in particular, established for us since statehood in 1876, deserves your attention as gun control is debated this year. The right to keep and bear arms – federally guaranteed by the Second Amendment, but with a problematic militia clause – shines unclouded in Colorado’s Section 13, where it is justified explicitly by an individual’s “defense of his home, person and property.”

Now come Gov. Hickenlooper and his legislative allies, with their well-meaning proposals to, in some degree, disarm law-abiding Coloradans – supposedly in exchange for new assurances of what government “must do on your behalf” (to quote the President one last time). Don’t they recognize how much Section 13 ties their hands? They need to.

Don't disarm the law-abiding

Since Connecticut's strict gun control didn't prevent the Newtown horror, policymakers shouldn't impose new restrictions that disarm the law-abiding, says John Andrews in the January round of Head On TV debates. Just do the math, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt, and we'll all conclude too many have died, laws must be tightened. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Colorado proposals to help children of illegal immigrants and shut down death row, as well as the continuing fiscal cliff drama and the Obama-Boehner standoff. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for January: 1. GUN CONTROL

Susan: Thirteen. Sixty-four. One hundred and forty two. One hundred and thirteen. Two-hundred and fifty. Four Hundred and fifteen. Thirteen years. 64 mass shootings. One hundred and forty-two guns. One hundred thirteen illegal guns. Two hundred and fifty dead. Four hundred and fifteen injured. The Second Amendment? Do the math.

John: The mass violence is unacceptable, Susan, absolutely. We have to address it. America can do better. But my friend, listen to yourself. Most of the guns in those shootings were already illegal. Legislation in Congress or in Colorado must recognize that. When responsible citizens have firearms to protect themselves, crime goes down.

Susan: Thirteen. Sixty-four. One hundred and forty two. One hundred and thirteen. Two-hundred and fifty. Four Hundred and fifteen. Thirteen years. 64 mass shootings. One hundred and forty-two guns. One hundred thirteen illegal guns. Two hundred and fifty dead. Four hundred and fifteen injured. Do the math.

John: The math says more Americans are killed each year by hammers and clubs than by guns, according to the FBI. More Americans are killed by automobiles than guns. Connecticut’s very strict gun laws didn’t prevent the Newtown horror. The problem is the culture, not the weapons. Don’t disarm the law-abiding.

2. COLORADO ASSET BILL (DREAM ACT)

Susan: Colorado voters retained a Democratic Senate and turned over control of the House to the Dems. The economy is uppermost for D’s and R’s, but reduced tuition for undocumented students – the ASSET bill – is high on the agenda. Investment in education for ALL Colorado students is key to the future of this great state.

John: Public policy should not reward lawbreaking. It’s unfair that CU should cost more for Tommy from Kansas, a citizen and the son of citizens, than for Tomas from Mexico, whose parents snuck him into the country as a child. Tomas is not to blame, but neither are taxpayers. Let private charity subsidize his tuition.

Susan: The demographics of Colorado and the entire country are changing – Exhibit 1: November’s election. Kansas Tommy’s future is inextricably bound to Tomas’s skills. Education is not a zero sum game. America’s future depends on an informed, diverse and well-trained workforce.

John: America’s future depends above all on the rule of law, a shared common culture, and patriotic citizens who understand that rights involve responsibilities and cheating has consequences. The Asset Bill or Dream Act disregards all those values with misguided sympathy and a hidden leftist agenda. Don’t pass it. 3. DEATH PENALTY

John: An ancient principle of justice says that if you take a life, you pay with your life. This is not barbaric, it’s reasonable and right. A child-murderer like Austin Sigg or a mass killer like James Holmes deserves the death penalty. Colorado should not abolish it.

Susan: Which testament is it? The ‘eye for an eye’ bible or the theology valuing the sanctity of life? Honestly, I am ambivalent on the issue of the death penalty. I am a pragmatist. Which costs less? Lifetime incarceration or the death penalty? It’s a calculation, not a principle.

John: When lawmakers debate abolishing the death penalty, they will be told it has become impractical with the way the appeals process works today. There’s your pragmatism. Then we should fix that process, not redefine crime and punishment to the vanishing point. Tell it to the Ridgeways and the Aurora theater families.

Susan: I need to be convinced that loss, grief and anger can be assuaged by retribution – the death penalty. Reforming the justice system isn’t the answer, particularly during these hyper-partisan times. Life imprisonment may be more unbearable than death.

4. FISCAL CLIFF & DEBT CEILING

John: With last-minute legislation on January 1st, Obama got his tax increase on the most productive Americans. The minimal added revenue will not nearly solve our trillion-dollar deficits. It merely penalizes success and hurts everyone’s prosperity. Congress must address the spending crisis. Do your thing, Republicans.

Susan: If the D’s and the R’s don’t stop their playground antics – the country suffers. Dems must get serious about entitlement reform. Republicans - about the bloated defense budget. The rest – to quote the Bard, “ Sound and fury, signifying nothing!”

John: Washington is all bloated, but for the record, defense spends less than half the money as entitlements. But it starts with attitude. As the Lincoln movie reminds us, when America faced a cancer called slavery, the president and both parties came together. Why can’t they now, with the cancer of overspending?

Susan: Overspending is merely a symptom of the cancer. The disease is myopic self-absorption where nearly everyone exposed to the DC swamp becomes infected with the perq’s of power, the illusion of control and the obsequious groveling of special interests. It’s a toxic, potentially fatal disease.

5. WHITHER SPEAKER BOEHNER?

Susan: House Republican Speaker John Boehner has a problem: followership. Leaders cannot lead without the consensus of disciplined, informed colleagues who share a common sense of purpose, while disagreeing on tactics. His power as Speaker is hostage to a minority of luddite anarchists.

John: Americans knew what they were doing when they reelected a Democratic President to step on the gas and a Republican House to hit the brakes. It’ll be bumpy, but divided government may create the opening our economy needs to recover. John Boehner is tough as a boot. He’s the right speaker to confront Obama.

Susan: The problem isn’t divided government – a balance of D’s and R’s. The problem is the intransigent myopia of the far right and, perhaps, the far left. Progress in a democracy demands compromise, negotiation and mutual respect. These three characteristics define the Beltway’s endangered list.

John: You didn’t mention the most uncompromising ideologue of them all, our left-liberal President. Dogged John Boehner leading the House majority and crafty Mitch McConnell leading the Senate minority can’t match him on charisma, but they have the people’s best interest at heart to avoid US bankruptcy. Unlike Barack Obama.

A center-right agenda for Colorado

(Denver Post, Dec. 29) Unlike Washington, DC, where divided government will continue in 2013, the new year in Colorado will bring a return of unified control by Democrats. On Jan. 9, Rep. Mark Ferrandino (D-Denver) takes the speaker’s gavel from Rep. Frank McNulty (R-Highlands Ranch), whose GOP majority was ousted by voters in November. If you visit the state House that day, you’ll notice that Democrats are mostly seated to Speaker's left, Republicans mostly to the right. The custom dates from the French Revolution, when legislators enthusiastic for political activism massed on the left side of the chamber, while those more skeptical massed opposite them. As Ferrandino assumes power alongside incoming Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, Colorado’s party of the left has another chance to show what it can do with dominance under the Gold Dome, an advantage Dems last enjoyed in 2007-2011. My housewarming gift, as a friendly opponent, is a memo from voters they probably didn’t persuade this time.

Colorado Christian University, where I work, polled some 1300 Coloradans shortly before the 2012 election with an automated phone survey by SmartVoice.com. We went for a center-right sample, with 44% of respondents self-described as conservative and 30% as moderate. Their views on the role of government may help caution Democrats against overreach while providing Republicans a roadmap to relevance.

The CCU-SmartVoice poll asked about the best way of fostering prosperity, protecting liberty, helping the less fortunate, improving the schools, and encouraging people to treat each other decently. That is, most of what we want in living together. In prioritizing what civil society can do voluntarily, over what activist government might promise, respondents reminded us the left isn’t the whole ballgame – not yet, at least.

What’s the key factor in higher living standards? Free enterprise, said 45% of center-right Coloradans. Better education was next with 38%. Government programs were named by only 9%.

What’s most important in improving America as a free society? “Revival of our founding principles,” said 54% of poll respondents. Federal, state, and local government were named by 28%. Just 18% chose “progressive reform like most other countries.”

What factor matters most in providing for children, the elderly, and the disabled, the poll also asked. Families and churches were cited by 46% of those polled, voluntary private charity by another 18%. Only about one respondent in three, 36%, said government programs matter most.

The citizens typified in this particular survey obviously weren’t the voting majority that gave Democrats a 37-28 edge in the Colorado House. But Speaker Ferrandino would be unwise to ignore them if he seeks to govern with broad consensus. And House Minority Leader Mark Waller (R-Colorado Springs) should forcefully advocate for them during the upcoming session.

The teachers-union agenda, for example, calls for raising taxes by a billion dollars and softening tests, while blocking vouchers and charter schools. But the center-right agenda for education, as reflected in CCU’s poll, finds parental choice prioritized by 42% and higher standards by another 27%, whereas more spending is favored by only 31%. Jam-downs from the left will backfire.

Culture warriors on both sides, meanwhile, should take pause from the survey finding on how best to ensure decent treatment of one another. A mere 7% of respondents said it’s up to laws and government. Eighty-three percent said they’d rather look to families, churches, and schools for keeping America morally strong.

Polls can mislead, of course. Remember the statistician who drowned while wading across a lake that was an average of 18 inches deep. Our center-right survey respondents were older, more religious, and more female than Coloradans overall. But they count as much as their leftist neighbors – and one day they’ll be in the majority again.

A lighter look back at 2012 and ahead to 2013

As 2012 departs with undeserved job security for Buffs' top brass, says John Andrews in the December round of Head On TV debates, 2013 may come in with bungee cords as Congress's consolation prize to Americans headed over the fiscal cliff. Secretary of State Scott Gessler's letter to Santa, adds Susan Barnes-Gelt, should request a new ethical compass -- and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's secret wish for the New Year may be a 2014 run for governor. John on the right, Susan on the left, this month whimsically nominate their Colorado winners and sinners for the old year, offer wacky predictions for the year ahead, and outline New Year's resolutions for politicos in both Denver and Washington, along with thoughts on the brave new world of legal marijuana. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for December: 1. WINNERS & SINNERS OF 2012

John: It’s John and Susan’s Colorado winners and sinners of 2012, 10th annual. Thumbs up for Jon Caldara, whose Freedom Embassy shook up Capitol Hill, and John Elway, who rebuilt the Broncos bigtime. Thumbs down for the RTD board, who can’t build light rail, and the PERA board, who can’t do math.

Susan: Gifts for my sinners: Secretary of State Scott Gessler, an ethical compass for his desk. A bigger bathtub for Grover Norquist in his quest to drown government. Copies of the 2010 census for Republican consultants. And a 2-year supply of TUMS for our Gov, facing Dem majorities in the lege.

John: More Colorado winners and sinners as the old year departs: Thumbs down for the anti-energy left with their false fears about fracking, and the top brass of Buffs and Rockies who keep their jobs despite hellacious losing records. Thumbs up for pension watchdog Walker Stapleton and Pentagon watchdog Mike Coffman.

Susan: A bag of coal for Denver DA Mitch Morrissey’s off-the-chart salary demands. Gold stars to Civic Center’s Conservancy’s revitalization of Denver’s most important public square; Metro State Pres Steve Jordan and trustees for lowering tuition for undocumented students. And a BIG bouquet of roses to the people of Colorado!

2. FEARLESS PREDICTIONS FOR 2013

John: It’s John and Susan’s fearless predictions for 2013, wildly wrong every year. Hickenlooper tries for president with a new home in Iowa. He’ll govern Colorado by Twitter. Perlmutter tries for bipartisanship with a new chief of staff: Joe Coors. Coffman tries his wife’s patience by volunteering in Afghanistan.

Susan: Hick and Ken Salazar swap jobs: Hick goes to DC. Salazar comes home as guv. Mayor Hancock attends to the City he leads, not the aerotropolis he dreams about. Denver School Board requires local residency for its superintendent. RTD hires a director who has actually built a transit system.

John: More predictions for a wacky 2013. Unable to avoid the fiscal cliff, Congress authorizes free bungee cords for every American. Grabbing for the Hispanic vote, Republicans offer to make Mexico the 51st state. To prove his foreign policy is no joke, Obama replaces Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Jon Stewart.

Susan: Uber-partisan talking heads become an endangered species. Good humor and sound judgment prevail: Al Franken replaces Harry Reid as the Senate majority leader. South Carolina Guv Haley appoints Steven Colbert to DeMint’s vacant Senate seat. 2013 inaugurates peace, health and optimism to Coloradans and the planet.

3. NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE GOLD DOME

John: The 2013 legislative session brings fresh faces and hot issues. Susan, I bet the members of your party and mine would love some help with New Year’s resolutions. House Republican leader Mark Waller: I’ll be calm and conciliatory on civil unions. Senate Republican leader Bill Cadman: I’ll pressure the Dems like Von Miller.

Susan: I’ll start with a resolution for Guv Hickenlooper. He’ll maneuver gracefully when the Dem-controlled legislature forces him to be partisan. Legislators from both parties will resolve to follow Aurora Dem Morgan Carroll in ignoring the pressure from lobbyists during official debate. Both D’s and R’s resolve courage and compassion.

John: More New Year’s resolutions recommended for the next Colorado General Assembly. Budget Committee Republicans Cheri Gerou and Kent Lambert: We resolve to scream bloody murder if Democrats propose reckless spending and tax increases disguised as fees. TABOR means what it says.

Susan: Both D’s & R’s – persuade voters to end the stranglehold of TABOR, Gallagher and Amendment 23, thus allowing Colorado’s economy to address the future. The Lege endorses CDOT Director Don Hunt’s solution to the I-70 viaduct expansion; bans hand-held cell phones in vehicles and mandates year-round K-12 education.

4. NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE BELTWAY

Susan: 2013 offers a new beginning for Federal government leaders. Resolutions to consider: Congressionals resolve to hear We The People . . . not just K Street lobbyists. The Supremes resolve that Corporations don’t breathe and reverse Citizens United. Obama resolves to enjoy the rough and tumble of political engagement.

John: More New Year’s resolutions recommended for the upcoming 113th Congress. Speaker John Boehner: I will relentlessly use the power of the purse to oppose Obama and the Senate in their crazy spending and expansion of government. The House has no less a mandate for conservatism than the President does for liberalism.

Susan: Democrats and Republicans work for the future of the country instead of their political parties and themselves. Congress reforms the entire tax code, Social Security and Medicare. Special interest and Super PACS reveal individual donors. The US Capitol moves to Lake Wobegon and . . . pigs fly!

John: At the risk of agreeing with you, I like the Lake Wobegon idea, because every congressmen and senator is above average – just ask them. But these are supposed to be achievable resolutions for the Beltway crowd. All of them should vow this year they’ll obey the constitution, for a change.

5. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF LEGAL MARIJUANA.

Susan: Colorado, along with Washington State approved the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Medical MJ is legal in several other states. Enter the conflict between local policy and federal – zero tolerance laws. The war on drugs was lost decades ago and it’s time the feds decriminalize and regulate drugs.

John: The message from voters seems to be that marijuana prohibition has failed as badly as alcohol prohibition, and a new approach is needed. But restraint and responsibility are needed as legislators draw up regulations. A pot parlor on every block, as some stoners have fantasized, is not the way to go.

Susan: Wow! We are pretty much in agreement on this issue, John. Legalizing and regulating drugs is the only way to put criminals and the drug cartels out of business. Comprehensive and unified Federal policy – including imposition of local, state and federal sales tax – must prevail.

John: Voters legalizing marijuana in two states and same-sex marriage in four states signal a new American attitude about using the law to enforce virtue. As a Christian, I believe the body is God’s temple. Don’t defile it with chemicals or promiscuity. But government can’t ultimately police that. It happens in the heart.