Hello, and welcome to the first installment of the New Blue Review, a name that for children of the 1970s such as myself that recalls a weird old TV show (check out this clip) but is also intended to be a reference to the new, more liberal west. It's the discussion of this region and this sentiment -- and the future direction of both -- that will be the focus of this blog. Well, that and trying to make this an entertaining read each week.
I suppose every endeavor should begin with a mission statement, but before we get to that let me tell you about myself so that you will have a better idea of where my thoughts are coming from. This might help before you decide to either agree with my ideas or refute them, and then hopefully join me and others in a civil discussion of the issues.
My name is Todd Hartley, and I live in Basalt, Colorado. I'm a married father of one, a homeowner and a semi-employed writer/comedian/bartender. I'm originally from an affluent town back east, but I went to college in Colorado Springs starting in 1988 and have been a Colorado resident basically ever since. I'm like that old lame bumper sticker: "Not Native, but got here as soon as I could." I don't feel that this gives me any more or less of a right to an opinion than anyone else, regardless of how long their family has lived out here.
I write a weekly humor column for The Aspen Times called "I'm With Stupid," for which I received a 2008 Colorado Press Association award for "Best Humor Column." I had a weekly sports column, "Cheap Shots," that ran in the Aspen Times from 1998-2004, a time during which I was also a sports reporter for said newspaper. I'm a blogger, obviously, and an infrequent freelance writer, and I do standup comedy whenever I get the chance. For more of my writing, plus some standup clips and short films I made, you can take a look at my site: Todd Hartley's World.Now, on to the mission statement: The New Blue Review, ideally, will seek to define and perhaps refine new Western liberalism -- manifested in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada voting for Obama in 2008 -- through informed and researched opinion on my part, followed by rational and well thought-out discussion on the part of you, the readers, if indeed you exist. That's the dream, anyway. We'll see if I or this blog ever actually reach those heights.Before you go thinking that I plan to just be some mouthpiece for the left wing, however -- sort of a minor-league Keith Olbermann -- bear in mind that I don't necessarily agree with the Democratic Party on everything, and I don't think I'm alone. That, to me, is the gist of what separates Western liberalism from its more urban counterparts.
• We don't necessarily think that bailouts and vague stimulus packages are the best use of our money, but we're pretty sure that costly wars are not.
• We think as much land as possible should be preserved for future generations, but we think things like ski areas and golf courses and snowmobiles and ATVs and mountain bikes are pretty cool, too.
• We believe law-abiding citizens should be allowed to own guns for hunting and home protection and self defense, but we don't think anyone needs an AK-47 or an Uzi to do it.
• We agree that lower taxes and less government would be great, but we recognize that all 12 of the countries ahead of us on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a standard measure of well-being, have some form of universal health care. This makes us wonder why Iraq and Afghanistan both have universal health care that we as a nation are paying for. That's what I believe. Some of what I believe, anyway. I can assure you there's more. I realize it may be a little presumptuous of me to use the word "we," as everyone else might completely disagree with me, but I'd love to know what other folks have to say. Let's start by throwing this out there for debate: How would you define Western liberalism? Leave a spell-checked, edited and rational comment, and I promise I'll do my best to respond.
Cheers.