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Students of various forms of American political corruption might examine Denver's approach toward landing the 2000 national Democratic Convention.
Rather than make a reasoned proposal based on the city's ability to import, accommodate and export the hordes of reporters, camera crews, sound technicians, commentators, spin doctors, media liaisons, consultants, directors, producers, bagmen, fixers and occasional delegates -- the powers of Denver have resorted to bribery.
Or so I read, what with all these gifts to the selection
committee: fleece vests, evergreen saplings, binoculars,
All-Star Beanie Babies, along with World Champion Bronco
jerseys with the number 58,
representing the number
of electoral votes in the Mountain West.
Somewhere around this point, the promotion goes from silly to absurd. There are more people in Southern California than in our whole time zone, and California alone has 54 electoral votes.
Whoever is going to win in 2000 needs to embrace the
West,
according to Denver attorney Norm Brownstein.
Sure. Jimmy Carter got elected in 1976 without carrying a
single state in the West -- the national Democratic party
is essentially a bicoastal organization.
This has been so for a long time -- the Mountain West was fabricated by the Republican Party in the 19th century as a collection of reliable rotten boroughs.
Nevada's state constitution was telegraphed to Washington, at great expense, in 1864, so that the territory could get into the Union in time to re-elect the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. His poll standing, if there had been polls that summer before Sherman took Atlanta, was so low that every new state might help.
Colorado came into the Union in 1876 -- just in time to provide the three electoral votes that gave Republican Rutherford B. Hayes a 185-184 victory over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.
The Republicans arranged this with laws like the Homestead Act, the General Mining Law and the Pacific Railroad Act -- the territories would be populated with certain types of people who could generally be relied on to vote the proper way.
Every time the voters get restive, the GOP dispatches
orators who promise to end the Democrat War on the
West
or to restore the traditional family values and
individual opportunity that won the West.
Western voters have swallowed this mythology with a spoon -- three-quarters of the Western congressional delegation is Republican.
But surely that's changing, right? Isn't Denver the dynamic capital of the vibrant New West, as opposed to that dreary Old West?
As Leadville writer Steve Voynick observed on these pages last spring, it's pretty difficult to tell the difference between Old West and New. We could try, though.
Old West: Relied on cheap, exploited immigrant labor from Ireland, China, Greece, Italy and the Balkans.
New West: Relies on cheap, exploited immigrant labor from Mexico and West Africa.
Old West: Relied on exploiting public land for minerals, timber and forage.
New West: Relies on exploiting public land for guidebook publishers, mountain bike tours, hiking treks and four-season world-class destination resorts.
Old West: Commodity transportation dominated by monopoly railroads like the Union Pacific, which gave money to congressmen and senators.
New West: Commodity transportation dominated by monopoly railroads like the Union Pacific, which gives money to congressional and senatorial campaign funds.
Old West: Townsite promoters lobbied the government to subsidize their transportation requirements with publicly-financed wagon roads.
New West: Vail Resorts wants you to help build a bigger Interstate 70.
Old West: One or more breweries in every sizable town.
New West: One or more brew-pubs in every sizable town.
Old West: Ride-by shootings, open prostitution and gambling, widespread use of opium and other drugs.
New West: Drive-by shootings, clandestine prostitution, open gambling, widespread use of many drugs.
It takes a better eye than mine or Steve's to discern much difference between Old West and New, and so Denver has a tough row to hoe if it wants to use this bait to reel in the Democrats.
Nonetheless, I'd like Denver to get the convention. My children are in their 20s now and they've had the opportunity to meet prominent politicians like Ben Campbell and Roy Romer. And I'd really like for them to see a Democrat someday before I pass on.
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