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You generally hear a familiar litany when the conversation turns to the woes of Colorado.
Our transportation system works well in one regard -- it transports money out of Colorado quite efficiently, since we're forced to buy cars and gasoline produced elsewhere. But there is the minor concern of getting people and goods from one place to another in an efficient manner, and that doesn't happen in Colorado.
In rural areas, railroad tracks sit idle while smoking trucks crawl up passes and careen down them, paying in taxes but a fraction of the cost of their damage to the highways. Drivers dodge potholes or find themselves in ski-traffic jams, and people who would prefer to spend their time productively discover that bus service is going the way of passenger trains.
In cities, while the air grows more opaque and the delays lengthen, the talk is always of building more freeways.
As for education, Colorado seems does a fine job of keeping up with the rest of the nation in turning out mediocre graduates at an ever-increasing cost.
Some universities may present a brighter picture at the moment; CU even has a Nobel laureate. That's marvelous, but it probably won't be enough to obscure the scandal. What scandal? I don't know of one yet, but I one will emerge. Any time a university football team does as well as the Buffaloes have this year, a recruiting or academic-standards scandal inevitably follows.
The dreary list could be extended indefinitely through the criminal justice system, the public health system, etc. But the curiosity of Colorado politics is that, despite these continuing horrors, the incumbent governor, Roy Romer, is widely regarded as unbeatable next year.
If a Republican candidate raises any of these issues, all Romer has to do is mention that he tried, but that his plans were shot down by the legislature -- which is controlled by Republicans who for some perverse reason delight in making Colorado more unlivable each session.
But that might not be a fair assessment of the Colorado GOP. There might be some high-minded people in that party who put the welfare of the state ahead of the interests of whoever hires them as consultants.
Next year, the Republicans have a golden opportunity to change the direction of Colorado politics, depending on which way they chose to lose the election. One route to defeat is to run a conventional campaign and say the conventional things.
The other is to be bold, and say the things some candidate ought to say. If you're going to lose anyway, why care how you stand in the polls? Why worry about attracting campaign contributions?
The Republican candidate could propose sensible transportation like passenger trains and streetcars, and to finance it with a $10-a-gallon tax on gasoline. He could promote an end to teacher certification and major changes in the tenure law, which currently protects not academic freedom, but incompetence. He could put our universities in their proper business of teaching and research, rather than providing Saturday-afternoon entertainment.
He would lose, but these issues would finally be out in front of the public, and in a few years, voters would come around. He might not be the one to benefit directly by gaining office, and the party might suffer for a while, but the political agenda would change and the party would eventually gain -- witness Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Ronald Reagan in 1980.
So in 1990, we should find out exactly what Colorado Republicans stand for. If they nominate a hack, we'll know what we've suspected all along -- it is the party of subdividers, insurance salesmen and water diverters who care not a farthing as to whether Colorado is fit to live in.
If they nominate someone with a vision, then there is hope for the party, and more importantly, for Colorado. And who knows? He might even win.
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