Colorado throws a life- line to the nation
Colorado knows where it stands after sending a strong rebuke to President Donald Trump and making it clear that we are a solidly blue state in terms of both representation and policy matters. But as a nation, we are in crisis — drowning in division and floundering for a way forward. Colorado’s rejection of Trump, and the installation of a second moderate senator, could be a lifeline if we’d only grab it.
Former Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in Colorado by a 14% margin, a 9% increase over Clinton’s margin in 2016. In what was once pegged as the top Senate race in the country, former Gov. John Hickenlooper flipped an important Senate seat after decisively defeating Sen. Cory Gardner by 10 points.
Democrats expanded their majority in the state Senate to 20 seats of out 35 and held their 41- seat majority out of 65 seats in the House. The Senate majority could reach 22 seats before all races are settled.
Progressive statewide ballot measures were adopted as well. Colorado passed an amendment to create a new state- run paid family medical leave program in Colorado funded by employee and employer contributions by 14%, repealed the Gallagher Amendment and became the latest state to adopt an agreement among states to elect the president by a national popular vote. And, they soundly defeated a 22- week abortion ban amendment by 18%.
Republicans’ sole bright spot in Colorado was with the narrow victory of political newcomer Lauren Boebert in the hotly contested 3rd Congressional District, which was previously a Republican seat held by Congressman Scott Tipton.
Regardless of the clear- cut Colorado outcome, the most important question remains: will our democracy and institutions be structurally sound in the aftermath of the election results? We have seen the spoiled fruits of this division play out in Washington and in every corner of our great country.
The close election outcome reflects a country deeply divided with the outcome is already being litigated as Trump has begun filing lawsuits in order to obtain an electoral advantage and victory.
If the system was working, Congress would have negotiated and passed a much- needed stimulus package instead of rushing through a partisan Supreme Court justice nomination, whose vote could potentially decide the outcome of our presidential election and do Trump’s business to overturn Roe and the Affordable Care Act.
If the system was working, our leaders would be working to address systemic racism, social justice reform and pass a police reform accountability package, much like Colorado’s.
If the system was working, we wouldn’t be playing pandemic politics with people’s lives.
America is a powder keg waiting to explode.
This is the reason why stores across the country boarded- up doors and windows and hired extra security as cities brace for election unrest. This is a moment of great uncertainty and deep divisions. Politics is a blood sport, but governing should not be. Americans are tired of the knife fight in the alley. Our country desperately needs to heal these wounds and find a workable path forward. We have been here before. One hundred and fifty- five years ago, the Civil War was coming to an end. Abraham Lincoln, a statesman for the ages, delivered his six- minute second inaugural address aimed at healing a divided nation. Lincoln talked about slavery as the true cause of the Civil War and how both the North and South were complicit for this moral offense.
Lincoln then called on America’s better angels for reunification. “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
America will survive this election, but if we are going to heal
our national wounds we need to channel Lincoln through strong, principled leadership from Democrats and Republicans alike.
In Colorado, our state Democratic leaders, who control every branch of government, must not forget about the huge portions of Colorado that are disenfranchised from them and who do not feel represented by state government.
In Washington, our leaders are out of touch with what’s best for Americans. Senator- elect Hickenlooper will have an important role to play alongside his once and future colleague, Sen. Michael Bennet. Bennet, who once served as Denver Mayor Hickenlooper’s chief of staff and played a significant role in persuading Hickenlooper to run for the U. S. Senate.
Bennet was part of a bipartisan Gang of 8 senators who collaborated on immigration reform; he understands the importance of working across the aisle.
Hickenlooper doesn’t just talk the talk about collaboration; he brought cities together that didn’t get along when he became mayor, and worked to build the nation’s best economy by collaborating with the public and private sector, moving us from 40th to 1st in job creation.
In his second inaugural address as governor, Hickenlooper aptly summed up his style of governing when he said, “I believe there is no margin in making enemies. I believe that if we are willing to compromise and collaborate on what may seem like an imperfect solution, it is far better than if we cling to entrenched positions and work against one another in pursuit of different, allegedly perfect solutions. Progress, even if incremental, is better than gridlock.”
There won’t be surprises with Hickenlooper. He has always said that no one party has all of the answers and that he will follow the facts and science, while consulting his heart and conscience to look for solutions that will benefit the most Coloradans. That recipe has served us well and can be an important bridge to building a powerful legacy in Washington.
For this dynamic duo to bind up the nation’s wounds of our day, we voters need to let the representatives we’ve elected know that the partisan blood sport is over; we now expect them to do the governing that we elected them to do and place country over party.
To fail to do so is to lose track of the entire point of democracy — that we can self- govern because we can listen and compromise. Lincoln understood that the fight only mattered if it was followed by healing. Do we?