Moloney’s World: Worst Form of Government?

Stowe VT, Dec. 31 - Somewhere near here, tramping through the snows of New Hampshire and probably wearing a wool cap with ear flaps to impress the natives, is the next President of the United States – ardently seeking to persuade taciturn Granite Staters that he (or I Hillary) is their best bet for leader of the Free World. While it’s fair to say that ordinary citizens in Iowa and New Hampshire seem to enjoy their quadrennial star turn, I think the rest of the country would be perfectly happy if this political version of "Survivor" didn’t begin until say, next August. Having lived in England for a number of years, I have fond memories of the expeditious character of national elections in what we used to call the “Mother Country” where they allow just six weeks of campaigning before you see a new Prime Minister lugging furniture into Number 10 Downing Street.

However, if you want the very latest in efficient electioneering, look to that new star in the east Vladimir Putin. In Vlad’s Russia they won’t even call an election until they’ve sorted out in advance who’s going to win, namely you know who. Putin’s new electoral techniques were a rousing success in the recent parliamentary elections, where his United Russia party won over two thirds of the seats. This result was much aided by locking up opposition leaders, canceling their rallies, and limiting their television time to after midnight and only available to cable subscribers (if there are any) in Eastern Siberia. The whole thing stunk so badly that even Jimmy Carter refused to be an election observer.

Stealing elections isn’t as easy as it looks. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez thought he’d followed the Putin playbook perfectly in his recent election to make himself President for Life. His thugs beat up opposition leaders, shut down rival newspapers, and seized the only free television station, but then Hugo made the rookie’s mistake of failing to decisively stuff the ballot boxes. When he lost one can imagine a phone call from his mentor Fidel Castro reminding him of the wit and wisdom of the Queen of Hearts: “Results first, lections later – maybe”.

Of course, Americans shouldn’t be too smug about all this, since we’ve had a few funny elections of our own.

Chicago was long famous for having “problems with voting machines” around midnight so that they could find out how many votes they’d have to manufacture to overcome downstate Republicans. John Kennedy, who probably owed his election to such Chicago shenanigans, at least had a sense of humor about it. On visiting the Windy City shortly after becoming President, he lamented the closeness of the election saying “my dad told me he wasn’t buying any more votes than absolutely necessary”.

In fairness, Chicago has no monopoly on slow counts, mysteriously appearing (and disappearing) ballot boxes, delayed poll closings, intervening judges, and who will ever forget “hanging chads”.

So, what lessons can we draw from this random tour of the world’s electoral horizons?

As regards our own elections, it’s been great to see that the pundits and the talking heads in the end didn’t know any more than the rest of us.

They told us that Huckabee had no chance, McCain was finished, Hillary was inevitable, and Obama was just a flash in the pan. Now in the next six weeks, We the People will tell the experts what’s really going to happen.

As regards the rest of the world, beyond what we used to call Western Civilization, much work is needed before elections and democracy can flower into their true splendor.

U.S. elections, like America itself, are imperfect models – but warts and all, we remain the grand example of what people striving to be free want to become. Even election-rigging tyrants implicitly acknowledge this.

So, as we follow CSPAN-2 into people’s living rooms, church basements, and school cafeterias to hear candidates try to make a connection with ordinary people, we are pulled back to a simpler time in our history. Critics may call this an odd manner of filling the most important political post on the planet, but Churchill still has the last best word: Democracy remains the “worst form of government save all the others the world has tried”.

Dr. William Moloney, a featured columnist on BackboneAmerica.net, was Colorado Education Commissioner from 1997-2007 and has done graduate work in Russian and world history at Oxford and the University of London. He admits to being a veteran of all too many political campaigns.

Gunfight at the DU Corral

Yours truly, blazing from the right, will face syndicated columnist David Sirota, firing lefthanded, in a University of Denver classroom on three Wednesday evenings starting Jan. 23. It's a noncredit course for adults, part of the enrichment program of DU's University College. "Politics 2008: The Battles from the Statehouse to the White House" is the title. David and I will team-teach one session on the presidential race, another on contests for the US House and Senate, and a third on state legislative races, all featuring the predictable liberal-conservative disagreements between us, but kept civil by our shared love and respect for the American political process.

The prolific Sirota has already invited signups for the course via two local blogs, Square State and Colorado Pols, as a well this Editor & Publisher item two weeks ago under a New York dateline (woo woo). I am hustling to catch up with him in the self-promo department, using the mighty platform of my radio show and this website, as well as the PoliticsWest.com site where we blog together..

If you enjoy a hot crossfire of ideas -- cooled by facts -- why not join us for the political preview course four weeks hence? Fee is nominal and some spaces remain; the limit is 50. Click for details and registration.

Flash: Santa is a conservative

The worst Christmas song I've heard this year has to be Bruce Springsteen's tuneless rendition of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Yet by forcing me to think about the lyrics, the Boss delivered a flash of insight: conservatives do the jolly old elf a grave wrong in calling him the patron saint of something-for-nothing Democrats. We should claim Santa as our own. Listing who's been bad and good, naughty and nice? Warning us not to cry (play the victim) or pout (cast blame and act entitled)? There's little difference, when you think about it, between St. Nick and St. Newt. George Will himself could hardly be more stern and judgmental. Santa Claus rightly understood is a far cry from the unearned redistribution of John Edwards or the syrupy hope of Obama.

Even if recast from the unnerving red-clad (red, Republican, get it?) bearded geezer of yore to the more kid-friendly persona of Mr. Rogers, as David Grimes recommended in Sunday's Denver Post, Father Christmas remains a no-nonsense apostle of good conduct, rigorous standards, and time-honored traditions. The "Santa's Coming" song, even when butchered by Springsteen, is just the opposite of that favorite left-liberal anthem, "Anything Goes."

Jeffrey Bell, writing in the Weekly Standard, offers a great Christmas gift for all of us on the right with this masterful summary of what the left really wants -- a total repudiation of St. Nicolas and his strictness, a hot revolution that would melt the North Pole faster than you can say Al Gore:

"The goal of the left is the liberation of mankind from traditional institutions and codes of behavior, especially moral codes. It seeks a restoration (or achievement) of a state of nature, one of absolute individual liberty--universal happiness without the need for laws. The proposed political way stations chosen by the left in its drive toward this vision have [included]: abolition of private property (socialism); prohibition of Christianity and/or propagation by the political elite of a new civil religion to replace it; confiscatory taxation, especially at death; regulation of political speech to limit the ability of certain individuals or classes to affect politics; the takeover of education to instill new values and moral habits in the population; confiscation of privately held firearms; gradual phasing out of the nation-state; displacement of the traditional family in favor of child-rearing by an enlightened governmental elite; and the inversion of sexual morality to elevate recreational sex and reduce the prestige of procreative sex."

Some agenda, huh? It adds up to the exact opposite of "be good for goodness' sake." And notice, by the way, that this injunction from Santa Claus, courtesy of songwriter Haven Gillespie, doesn't merely appeal to utilitarian self-interest. Rather it invokes a moral absolute which, when obeyed, is its own reward. A pitch-perfect echo of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" and "Theory of Moral Sentiments," in what you thought was just an empty Yuletide ditty. Mirabile dictu!

Lest we forget, however, the true reason for this season is neither St. Nick on the right nor Holiday Hillary on the left, but the baby born in Bethlehem. The Prince of Peace transcends liberal and conservative. He is a miracle even more mysterious than a large man ascending a small chimney. None of us is good enough to deserve His unspeakable gift, salvation and life eternal, yet none of us is so bad as to be disqualified from it. Here indeed is a present worth unwrapping. A merry and, yes, a holy Christmas to all.

Tancredo did 'Isaiah's job' well

Not only has Tom Tancredo exerted the greatest leverage of any Coloradan who ever ran for President. His endorsement of Mitt Romney is one of the most important the former Massachusetts governor has received, and it couldn't come at a better time for Romney's embattled campaign. Tom's backing will help Mitt say, "See, I'm your guy," to voters leaning toward all his major rivals in Iowa, New Hampshire, and the other early states. Against Huckabee, Romney can use the endorsement to show he's acceptable to a leading evangelical congressman and to heighten the contrast between his tough immigration position and Huck's mushy one. Ditto, as far as immigration is concerned, for Romney's urgent task of blunting the McCain surge in both Iowa and NH.

Thompson arguably has a purer hardline stance on securing the border than Romney does -- yet Mitt can now say that Mr. Immigration himself, Tancredo, looked the field over and picked him, not Fred. Likewise, Giuliani is unmatched in talking about taking the fight to the terrorists -- yet Tancredo, the most candid of them all in calling out radical Islam (think of his shopping-mall ad and his comments about bombing Mecca), didn't sign up with Rudy. No, the big Tank wheeled in alongside Romney's Rambler.

So there had to be joy in Mittville today. There should also be pride and gratitude in Tomtown. As many others have said, Tancredo put the illegal immigration crisis smack in the middle of this presidential campaign -- for both parties, no less -- when it was being ignored before he got in the race, and would likely still be ignored today had he not gotten in. He took on what Albert Jay Nock in a classic 1936 essay called "Isaiah's Job," the lonely prophetic task of saying what no one else will say at a critical time. As Nock imagines the Lord telling poor Isaiah back around 700 BC:

"There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it."

Tom Tancredo is my congressman and my friend. I hoped he would run for president, and wrote an early column predicting it. I've used this blog to cheer for him and sometimes to chide him. I sent him a biggish check, and Romney a smallish one, and they are the only two candidates I've donated to this year. On this day, his 62nd birthday, and on Tuesday, Christmas with his well-loved family, Tom deserves to feel much satisfaction that the battle -- this round of it, anyway -- is over for him, for now, and that it has sharply awakened our political elites, as he hoped it would, to what the preservation of nationhood requires. Job well done, Isaiah.

Congratulations, Rep. Bruce

"The name of Douglas Bruce is synonymous in Colorado with fidelity to the Constitution, protection of the taxpayer, and selfless dedication to the common good," a leading conservative wrote prior to Bruce's win on Dec. 1 for a state House vacancy appointment in Colorado Springs, adding: "Never have those qualities been more needed in state government than in these times of secular progressivism on the march." The endorsement letter, now posted at DouglasBruce.com, concludes: "You have my gratitude for two decades of heroic work in the cause of TABOR, and my best wishes in winning the HD-15 seat." It was signed by yours truly -- from which it will be obvious that my evaluation of Bruce's usefulness in the legislature differs sharply from the negative appraisal in David Harsanyi's recent column for the Denver Post.

I wish my friend David, in seeking quotes about Doug Bruce from ex-legislators, would have gone a few more clicks into his rolodex and called former Sen. John Andrews instead of, or in addition to, former Sen. Norma Anderson, who is the very essence of a big-government Republican, a bossy grandma closely allied to that nanny state which Harsanyi so dislikes, and herself a master of the same acid, superior tone which supposedly disqualifies Bruce from effective public service.

I could have topped all of Harsanyi's anecdotes about the off-putting Bruce style twice over, based on long personal experience back to my 1990 campaign for governor against Roy Romer, when the TABOR author was simultaneously my valuable ally and a frequent complication to my efforts. But I would have pointed out, bottom line, that TABOR did run 10 points ahead of me that year, barely losing, and that since its ultimate success on the ballot two years later, it has made more of a beneficial difference for liberty and limited government in Colorado than anybody (me included) who served, or hoped to serve, as governor.

Libertarian conservatives like David and me should make no mistake about it: much credit is due Douglas Bruce when the history of our state from 1980 to 2020 is finally written. The laws, made by legislators and governors, are where the government tells the people what to do. But the constitution is one level higher; it's where the people tell the government what to do. For his leadership in altering Colorado's constitution back toward the intent of our power-suspicious Founding Fathers, Representative-elect Bruce deserves the gratitude of all, even of those who don't happen to know it.

That said, why do I believe his influence as a member of the General Assembly will weigh more in the plus column than in the minus, for friends of freedom like Harsanyi and Andrews? Because I believe, as stated in my endorsement letter to Douglas Bruce, quoted above, that the times call for the telling of hard truths and the drawing of bright lines -- even when some of the resulting discomfort, mainly felt by Democrats, may also spill onto my fellow Republicans. And Mr. Bruce, while he's no cuddly Sudanese teddy bear, is one of the few who can and will take on that thankless role.

In his candidate speech to the GOP House District 15 vacancy committee last Saturday, Bruce argued he scores pretty well on a "five I" test of integrity, intellect, issues, impact, and image. I recommend you read the whole thing on his website (see pdf file partway down left column). But notice in particular the candid self-awareness, and sardonic self-deprecation, in these closing paragraphs:

"The last 'I' test is Image. Here's where I am faulted. When liberals push silly schemes, I disagree. The media magnifies conflicts, so I'm called 'disruptive' by those who resent dissent. They wish our side would be silent, meek, passive, asleep, invisible. Fighting Big Government is always risky business. The Left hates to lose, so it takes revenge, using the politics of personal destruction.

"Yes, I am serious, intense, idealistic, and goal-oriented. I want to help all God's children to be free. Yes, I'm still working on my charm deficit. I plan to invite each legislator to a meal, one-on-one, to explore possible points of agreement. With liberals, those areas may be few, but I will still make the offer....

"Merely challenging the status quo is not 'making trouble;' it is the first step towards reform. To blow the whistle on wasteful spending requires making a noise! As for social graces, I admit I prize candor over coyness, substance over style, political principles over personal popularity. Tact is not my strong suit, but I'm trying. (Some would say I'm very trying!)

"I've always followed the advice that, before criticizing anyone, you should walk a mile in his shoes. That way, your opponent is a mile away, and barefoot!"

Douglas Bruce in the Colorado House of Representatives is going to be quite a spectacle, no doubt about it. Stay tuned for the fireworks when he takes his seat and the session opens next month. Barefoot opponents won't be the half of it.

You can expect Rep. Bruce to proclaim at every opportunity that the left-liberal emperor has no clothes at all -- bare naked yet shameless about it. If we want to revive the constitution and save the Republic, somebody has to say that. I believe Doug is just the man.