BackboneAmerica

(Denver Post, March 27) A useful new verb was coined the other day when Republicans joined Democrats to propose higher pension contributions by public employees and a union boss called it a “blatant attempt to Wisconsinize the Colorado budget process.” What a great idea, thought many a tired and worried taxpayer. Wisconsinize away, legislators – what took you so long?
Statewide unemployment is record-awful, and metro Denver unemployment worse still. Why shouldn’t these job-secure teachers and state workers kick in a little more (more…)

Taxes in Colorado at this time of record unemployment should be reduced, not increased, says John Andrews in the March round of Head On TV debates. Maybe you’d prefer no taxes at all, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt satirically. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)

(Denver Post, Feb. 27) So Facebook brought down the Egyptian regime. Until now, the only thing I knew it had brought down was my productivity – and that of many other Republicans old enough to know better, after we all stampeded there upon hearing how Democrats rode it to victory in 2008. Obama in, Mubarak out, Zuckerberg to megawealth, and “Social Network” to the Oscars. Such is the Facebook scorecard so far, and there is 90% of the human race yet to be tapped – er, “friended.” Well, call me a dinosaur, but I still believe the front line of self-government in a free society is citizens reading newspapers. (more…)

Activist courts are at it again, this time siding with the right to strike down Obamacare, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the February round of Head On TV debates. No, says John Andrews, Judge Vinson ruled as the founding fathers would have, and the Supreme Court may well agree with him. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)

(Denver Post, Jan. 23) The indignation was feverish. Teacher-union partisans trembled. Elaine Berman, a State Board of Education member from Denver, boycotted. Mary Johnson, an education consultant from Colorado Springs, raged. “A person known for nearly total lack of support for public education” was “bamboozling” Coloradans. The miscreant was William Moloney, our state’s past Education Commissioner (more…)

The assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is proof we need more gun control, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the January round of Head On TV debates. Wrong, says John Andrews: gun rights enhance public safety, and the liberties of all shouldn’t be curtailed to deter a few lunatics. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)

Republicans in the state Senate and House huddled with Tea Party leaders on Jan. 6, just hours after my column (more…)

(Denver Post, Jan. 9) “Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d go away.” The little poem from a century ago should haunt Colorado’s new governor and legislature as they climb the Capitol steps and set to work this week. John Hickenlooper is shrewdly adding Republicans as well as fellow Democrats to his cabinet, but no one has been appointed from the Tea Party. Speaker Frank McNulty, reclaiming a GOP majority (more…)

Bob McConnell, who twice in the past five months told Republicans in western Colorado he was their man for high office, today set some kind of record by quitting the party (more…)

(Denver Post, Dec. 25) Senator John was a political man, a driven man, some would say a hard man. At dusk on Christmas Eve, he squinted from his office window through falling snow toward the Capitol, and grumbled to his assistant about the latest Bill Ritter gimmick: low-energy holiday lights. His clock struck five. “I suppose you’ll want all day tomorrow,” the aging conservative barked. “If you please, sir,” Joyce whimpered. “It’s only one day a year.” Back came the senatorial snort: “One day less for this office to defend faith, family, and the flag, (more…)

John Andrews writes: My comrade-in-arms Kevin Miller, the former CCU business dean who is now a Centennial Institute Fellow, has brought out a book-length treatment of his landmark essay on freedom and virtue

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As Head On starts its 15th year on TV, there’s a friendly disagreement about whether Nancy Pelosi is one of the winners or sinners of 2010, but something closer to unanimity on Gov. John Hickenlooper’s continued quirkiness in 2011. Reviewing the old year in the December round of mini-debates, John Andrews lauds the American worker while Susan Barnes-Gelt pans the Tea Party. (more…)

(Denver Post, Dec. 5) What is CoDA? If you said a rock group, a wonder drug, or a state agency, you’re wrong. It’s the Colorado Democracy Alliance, today’s smartphone successor to the old dialup state Democratic Party. CoDA’s coup in turning Colorado blue is related in this year’s most important political book, “The Blueprint,” by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer. What is infrastructure? If you said the streets and sewers in our cities, or the shovel-ready projects in Obama’s imagination, wrong again. It’s the stealthy political network of message groups, ethics watchdogs, litigators, voter registration cadres, and money conduits (more…)

(Denver Post, Nov. 21) America has a memory problem. Most of us couldn’t tell you who our great-grandparents were. Most people who live in Denver, Parker, Thornton, or Greeley couldn’t tell you who their hometown was named after.
Most of us couldn’t possibly remember who the days of the week were named for either. And as the years pass, it seems that fewer and fewer Americans remember who we’re supposed to be thanking on Thanksgiving Day. (more…)

My amicable collaboration with noncommercial radio in Colorado since the 1980s, and with noncommercial television since the 1990s (more…)