How can you tell the virulent anti-tax fervor still dominates American politics in a genuinely bipartisan way? Look no further than Colorado. In a state facing a historic budget deficit - a state that now ranks 40th out of 50 in its funding of education - we get this from the Democratic Party's standard-bearer:
Hick: No new money for education
Education funding will remain tight, Democrat John Hickenlooper warned today as he unveiled his plans for education if he's elected governor."We're not going to throw money at the problem," the Denver mayor said during a news conference at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton with running mate Joe Garcia, president of Colorado State University-Pueblo. "There is no appetite" among the public for new taxes, Hickenlooper said.
Remember, Hickenlooper is making this no-new-education-money stand at the same time he is campaigning on a promise to cut taxes (see this video starting at 1:19). Also remember that he effectively faces token opposition in his run for governor, thanks to the Republican vote being split by GOP nominee Dan Maes and Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo. So he is taking this stand in a political vacuum - that is, he's saying this on his own with no real external political/electoral pressure.
Knowing that - knowing that this is an unvarnished, pure expression of principle rather than forced political calculation - only reiterates the fact that the anti-tax, anti-government ideology is alive and well in both parties, especially when you consider the abrasive "throwing money at the problem" language being employed.
It would be one thing to use that kind of rhetoric in a state that was at the top of the heap in education funding. At least then a politician could claim that a state had already been spending lots on education. But to use that kind of language in a state near the bottom suggests - well, it shows that this is a matter of deep conviction at least for Hickenlooper, if not for the larger national conservative faction that still calls the shots in the Democratic Party.
As I've said before, it's particularly sad to watch Hickenlooper engage in this kind of campaign, considering his previous admirable record of leveling with voters on tax and budget questions. This is a guy who deserves a lot of credit for going to Denver voters and requesting some pragmatic tax increases to preserve some basic public priorities. However, now that he's running statewide and is surrounded by national Democratic Party hacks, he's turned into a rather typical Republican-parroting conservadem on economics.
That might not be such a big idea if this was some kind of anomaly. But, as anyone who follows politics knows, Hickenlooper's trajectory on economics is far more the rule than the exception in modern Democratic politics. And in representing that rule, Hickenlooper proves that the anti-tax, anti-government zeitgeist is still alive and well - even at a time of a historic budget crisis.
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But there's also some truth to Hick's perspective. In Washington, DC, money has been thrown at "the problem" of public education for many years, without ever realizing any improvement. New strategy and tactics need to happen, in DC and perhaps even in Colorado. And as for speaking to the public's lack of appetite for new taxes, well, there is no politician anywhere in America that is going to realize success by advocating tax increases (even when they know this needs to happen in their heart of hearts.) Hickenlooper will be a good governor, and I hope you'll be able to lend him some solid progressive advice. You'll find he will listen, and even act if given sage suggestions.
He won't get a single voter from Maes or Nut-Boy-Tom; there is just no way those folks are voting for a "Dem." But if he tacks far enough to right, and alienates enough moderates, and independents, and Progressives, he'll be left w/ the Dem Party true-believers, and they won't be enough for him to win!!
(And if he does win, it will be SOLELY because it is a 3-way race, so all he needs is one vote more than either of the other two clowns.)
He'll then follow the same guidance Rahm and crew is giving Obama, and so go the way of Obama, and the Dem majority in the House and Senate! Except Hick won't ever even get to be the Governor!
He won't have won, and then p*sses it away being foolish, and cowardly, and unprincipled. He just looses!
Hick, being a beer guy, ought to know: if you take a crappy tasting beer, and then dilute it 50%-50% with water, what you end up with is NOT a great tasting beer! You end up w/ watered-down crap!!
If he tacks far enough to the right, he might well end back up in the beer business, again ...
. . . because there is really only one party establishment.