Gardner should not put his career to pasture, writes columnist Krista Kafer
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
Confession: I like to read and memorize poetry. It’s weird, I know. I borrow others’ words when I have none. These lines are from Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses.” In them, Odysseus of Homer’s epic poem has returned home from the shores of Troy after a harrowing journey by sea. He is with his wife reunited and king. Yet he longs to sail again.
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This poem has been fixed in my mind for a week. With it I have a message to my friend Sen. Cory Gardner. We’ve known each other for almost two decades. He worked for Sen. Wayne Allard, I for Congressman Bob Schaffer. We were young and optimistic. His broad smile remains but, to paraphrase George Washington, he has grown gray in service to his country. I’ve grown cynical, but I’ve got hair dye covering the silver.
I’m proud of the work Gardner has done. Thank you, senator, not just for being an effective member of Congress but for being a statesman. That’s a rare quality these days. Too many elected officials on both sides of the aisle vie to be the smallest.
I was waiting to go on television and perusing South Dakota real estate listings when I heard Gardner give his concession speech. His optimism and graciousness shined through what must have been one of the toughest moments of his life.
Being a statesman is more than just having dignity and class; it’s about setting the right priorities.
Nineteenth Century writer James Freeman Clarke observed, “A politician thinks of the next election; a statement of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country.”
A number of nonpartisan organizations commended you for being bipartisan and effective in Congress. I’ll add this: you worked with elected officials from both parties and the president while maintaining your principles. That’s not an easy thing to do — to compromise without being compromised.
Our state has grown by 3.5 million residents since I was born at Denver’s Mercy Hospital. Colorado has gone from reddish to purplish to blue and it feels like the political pendulum has gone still. Maybe it has. Or maybe no victory or loss is final. Ask Democrats in bluest Maryland and Massachusetts who holds the governorship. Things can change.
Like the law of gravity, the law of economics is unforgiving. Punitive regulations on energy production; big, unaffordable government programs; job- killing shutdowns, and tax increases have consequences. Empty pocketbooks open minds. Without boorish tweets to aggravate, the Colorado electorate may reevaluate.
Some work of noble note may yet be done
Many former members of Congress go to work for D. C. lobbying firms. Make no mistake: They’re not going to greener pastures; they’re going out to pasture. They have left the fight. Gardner was made for greater things.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.