Why the West Must Be Won
Starting about 35 years ago, I've argued the political importance of the Western United States, especially in my own Democratic party. After the South shifted from Democratic to Republican in the Nixon years following Democratic leadership on civil rights, East Coast punditry continued to ask how the Democrats could regain the South. As a somewhat lonely Western voice in those days, and then as a national candidate, I tried to preach an East-West strategy to replace the old North-South coalition.
Even more important than party political, however, was the dominant feeling in the Rocky Mountain West particularly that no one in Washington really cared about the area. National parks, recreation areas, dams and reservoirs, forests, and wilderness areas represented vast acreages, but the ownership too often seemed remote. Demands for energy on the one hand and concurrent demands for environmental protection on the other during the 1970s and 1980s began to focus attention on the region. And the emergence of the new information economy, largely centered in the coastal West shifted economic attention.
And then, finally, the Democratic party held its 2008 convention in Denver and the political pendulum swung. Candidate Obama's strength in the West demonstrated as much as anything that this entire region was politically in play and increasingly important.
The Huffington Post, a flagship of the "new media", has very wisely opened a regional center in Denver. This is very important because the West is rising again.
For more news and commentary from Colorado, check out HuffPost's just-launched Denver section.
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I looked at HP's Denver page. It is patently clear the Denver still is fly over country. The action is on the coasts, the Atlantic & Pacific. There is nothing interesting or important in Denver. Even the Gulf coast has more action than Denver has. HP could have decided to tap into Denver's ad revenue.
Keeping Democrats in power no longer interests me. There are only marginal differences between the Democratic agenda and the extremist right wing.
Yeah. Just think what the Dems could do if they got a 60 vote majority in the Senate. Oh wait.
Democrats will have more than the West to worry about if they continue to coddle the corporate elite at the expense of the Working Class. Most Democrats I know will be voting Third Party if we do not get a very, very healthy Public Option.
After 200 years, it's time to shift from the outdated agrarian/industrial politics that set this nation on a North-South path that even Washington warned against in his inaugural address. We fought the Civil War to a large extent over this. Anyone who has watched the news coverage over the summer, and listens as a Southern Senator yells at the President can see how close we are again.
It may be time for the West to rise. However, rise again presumes its dominance in the past. Before Dems go looking for new lands to conquer they better be sure no ones burning down the House.
Democrat Party strategy: Flood the west with illegals, give them id cards, drivers licenses, SS #, bank accounts, and "free health care all paid for by U.S. citizens in exchange for their votes which Democrats take and then block any attempt to verify the legal status of voters. You all are suckers! Meanwhile states like California spend billions educating, housing, providing health care and welfare to non-U.S. citizens--not to mention the billions spent to imprison illegals here. Duped again!
There are a lot more legal latinos in the US than illegals, but your statement explains why the Republicans won't have a prayer at getting that vote.
Obama won 43% of the white vote and won the presidency. Future Democrats may only need 35% or less...
I'm really sick and tired of the way Republicans demonize Hispanics.
But -- hey -- you never interfere when the enemy is cutting its own throat.
The Pacific Coast (excluding Alaska) is solidly Democratic, and it looks as though Nevada and Colorado are now leaning that way (New Mexico did for the most part). I read that if we can get the Hispanic vote out in Arizona and Texas, it might be possible to turn those states blue.
Six mountain states have Hispanic American population of at least 20%. After all the demonization of Hispanics and the Spanish language by the GOP's loco psychotic wing, the GOP should kiss those states goodbye in 2012. The "brass ring" for Hispanic Americans is Texas turning blue in 2012. At that point, the GOP will have no choice but to give conservative Hispanic Americans a veto vote on all material GOP positions. The current GOP leadership has forgotten that Hispanics gave Dubya the Whitehouse in 2000 and 2004.
As to 2012, the only candidate the GOP has that is still respected and trusted by conservative Hispanics is Jeb Bush..
Jeb is ONLY florida (cuban ex-patriots who are getting really old)....and the bush name...well...W's daugher didn't keep it as a hypen...nope...busy dynasty...gone with the invasion of Iraq, and torture...
true. this north south stuff must end.
It will end when the Confederates put down their flags and become Americans instead.
In other words, it's going to happen around the 12th of Never.
Or when a few states in the south secede.
Maybe we could convince the current TX governor to challenge Lincoln's actions as unconstitutional? If the Supreme court agreed then the south would be free to set up their "free market paridise," with the weak government they crave, and the rest of us could build a strong united states.
Until the right-coast biased media decides that we on the left coast actually matter, nothing much will change as to how the west is looked at in our USA. That we may be more left leaning in our politics, the current democratic leadership/party is doing nothing to keep us that way by not sticking together after we've given them such a majority. The so called blue dogs are really red dogs in a democratic mask and sell themselves to any entity that shows them the money, health insurance companies being the latest. I too am starting to lean more to independant thinking just because the dems have shown no back bone to fight for what is plainly needed and is being asked for. President Obama needs to bring out the big guns and declare war on our political scene instead of worrying about some rock strewn god-forsaken country overseas.
Mr Hart -
You know as well as anyone that Colorado is the true "battleground" state in play for 2010.
Glad to see you blogging here, but would be much happier seeing you out in the streets before Nov. 2010.
You know and I know Colorado could swing back into the red next year if everyone doesn't lay it on the line.
Hope to see you there, and frankly, will be extremely disappointed if I don't.
I agree up to this point. Now, President Obama may lose it all because of his hiring of the Goldman Sachs
bros., Geithner and Summers.
I fear this will sink everything and everyone.
If states in the West, Washington and Oregon come to mind, were to embrace the progressive mandate, they could become the best examples, test cases, for what is possible when education, health care and balanced trade policies are prioritized over defense and privatization and are allowed to flourish.
I keep thinking that a state creating a real health care reform would do a lot to push the nation in that direction. Could Oregon set up a public option and prove that it is a good thing?
I can imagine folks just over the border in Idaho complaining on one hand about the evil socialism, and on the other hand about how unfair it is that their health insurance is so much more expensive than Oregon insurance...
Gary Hart 9/11 quote "Now is the time to establish the new world order"
Gary Hart lectures union audiences telling them how much terrorists will ruin Americas future.
Thanks for this hopeful agenda for the West, but it is glaringly apparent that the intellectually challenged populations of the USA are residing in the South East, the Plains from the Dakotas to Texas as well as pockets of redness in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona with Nevada and Colorado flashing from red to blue. Moving the Democratic National Convention to Denver was a good move, but hardly all that needs to be done. Much more must be done by the people of the West themselves - many of whom are victims of right-wing media and talk-radio pundits. A new media needs to emerge in the West. While it is great the HP is now based in Denver that is merely one small step instead of a quantum leap on what will be a rocky road to recovery.
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