Post-Election Thoughts

Dawn of the Rockycrats

By Richard Martin, 11-09-06

	That's Ritter in the middle.

The best post-election line I've heard so far: "What's a gay pot smoker supposed to do in this state?"

That's because both Ref. I, to legitimize domestic partnerships, and Amendment 44, to legalize marijuana, were soundly defeated on Tuesday. Meanwhile Amendment 43, which defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, passed handily. Bans on homosexual marriages also passed in Virginia and Wisconsin, while losing, oddly enough, in Arizona -- normally one of the most conservative states in the union.

So, on a night when Coloradoans swept Democrats into power in both houses of the state legislature and the governor's mansion, they also voted for traditional values on social issues.

Therein, I think, lies the message of the 2006 mid-term elections.

Consider newly elected governor Bill Ritter. A lifelong Catholic and a former missionary worker in Africa, Ritter says he's anti-abortion, even though he respects Roe v. Wade as the law of the land and has no plans to introduce legislation outlawing abortion. That's a somewhat evasive formula that many centrist Democrats have adopted to win over single-issue voters.

A longtime prosecutor, Ritter introduced "drug courts," which avoid sentencing first-time petty drug offenders to jail in favor of rehab programs. But he also never prosecuted any of the 70 or so policemen who were involved in shootings or excessive-force incidents during his time as a D.A.

Ritter grew up on farm, and, like Bill Clinton, is the son of an alcoholic father who abandoned the family when he was young. He worked construction to pay his way through Colorado State and CU law school.

In other words, he's an archetypal moderate Democrat who appeals to centrist, independent voters without adopting the cowboy persona of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Ritter's acceptance speech on Tuesday night was a model of centrism, all about erasing the partisan divide and "governing a united, unified Colorado."

Automatically, Ritter -- who is just 50, articulate, and progressive without being stereotypically "liberal," and who led a Democratic sweep in a Western state -- becomes a rising star in the national Democratic party. He has more in common with Arnold Schwarzenegger than with John Kerry. And he joins Schweitzer as a leader of the newly vibrant, moderate, Western wing of the Democratic Party -- the Rockycrats, let's call them.

For new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and new Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Ritter's election underlines the message of the voters this week, particularly in the West: We're tired of polarization, particularly when it prevents government from doing its job. We're tired of negative campaigns, and we don't want single-issue elected officials anymore -- whether the issue is abortion, guns, or the war in Iraq. We want "fair and balanced" to define the American way of life, not serve as a slogan for right-wing demagogues. We have not lurched to the left; we're still right here in the center, where the Bush Administration has ignored us for six years. We care about educating our kids, preserving our livelihoods, insuring the uninsured, protecting the environment and restoring America's prestige in the world. And we're not going anywhere.

This is the new Silent Majority. And they spoke loudly on Nov. 7.

The best line of Ritter's acceptance speech was "We will intersect with the places where people struggle." Clearly, that doesn't mean restoring the welfare state. But it doesn't mean abandoning the middle class in favor of the wealthiest 1 percent, or letting large corporations direct environmental policy, either.

Also interesting was the fact that Ritter's first address as the governor-elect had not a word in it about immigration, the hottest of hot-button issues today. Partly, that's because Ritter is a bit of a slippery fish, with the ambitious politician's gift for avoiding controversy. Partly, though, I'd like to believe that it's because he see immigration an issue that only the 10 percent of voters at the far left and the 10 percent at the far right really see as in the Top 5 issues facing the country. And that's not where Ritter, or the majority of voters in the West, want to go.

Five years after 9/11, and three years after the start of the war in Iraq, America desperately needs what President Bush once called himself: "Uniters, not dividers." Here's hoping that Bill Ritter, and the other Rockycrats elected on Tuesday, can be so.

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