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Whenever the powers of the cosmos get around to
assigning places in Hell for political consultants, the
worst section ought to go to the one who devised the
values
hustle.
When they talk about traditional values
or
family values
or some combination or variation
thereof, all candidates beyond the county level are
lying.
At that level and below, a successful candidate might
well hold office and spend time with the family -- which is
what family values
ought to mean.
But candidates for statehouse positions, as well as for congress and the senate, spend the campaign season on the road, not at home with their families. If elected, they often have to maintain two residences -- one in Denver or Washington, and the other for the family.
And, face it, an office-holder who did spend substantial time with his or her family, rather than consorting with lobbyists and staff and campaign-fund donors, would probably be ineffective or worse.
The values horror extends beyond the family circle. I
don't know what happens in other states, but here, we get a
bellyful of sound Colorado values
or traditional
Western values
as opposed to the liberal Washington
values
allegedly held by the opposition candidate.
In this case, they're probably telling the truth, although it's still rather misleading.
Many of us think of Colorado values
as holding a
live-and-let-live attitude, leaving back-road gates the way
we found them, lending a hand to a neighbor in need,
enjoying the outdoors, that sort of thing.
But that's idealism, not reality. The values evident in the history of Colorado are somewhat different:
· Mass murder. There was the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, carried out by the state militia under the command of John Chivington, who was lionized by the locals. Granted, there was a court-martial conducted later by the regular Army -- based in Washington, and presumably under the thrall of those horrible liberal Washington values.
Or we could consider the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, again conducted by our state militia, this time manifesting the traditional Colorado values of keeping labor in its place and placing the machinery of state government under the control of some billionaire.
Again, the feds got involved -- those awful liberal Washington values produced some degree of peace in the coal fields, rather than the murder of women and children resulting from customary Colorado values.
· Racism. Did it start when Leadville expelled
Chinese miners? Or when Denver lynched them? When
Frederick Pitkin got elected governor in 1878 by
campaigning that the Utes must go
? Or even before
that, in territorial days when a proposed state
constitution was vetoed by a president (presumably under
the sway of those awful liberal Washington values) because
it denied African-American residents the right to vote?
· Exploitation. About a century ago, traditional Colorado values meant logging, grazing, mining and damming every possible resource.
Alas for Colorado's future happiness and prosperity, those horrible liberal Washington values appeared in the form of forest preserves, proclaimed to set aside parts of the public domain for the public, rather than for further destruction by various Delaware corporations.
So, when you hear a candidate talk about his
traditional Colorado values
as opposed to liberal
Washington values,
make sure you get him to specify
which Colorado values he has in mind, because it appears
that we have an abundance of values in this state.
I suspect that they're often talking about continuing racism and exploitation, rather than being helpful, tolerant and neighborly.
It's the same way they talk about expanding highways so that you won't get stuck in traffic, when the truth is that the expanded highway will be gridlocked in a couple of years anyway, on account of all the land development made possible by the expanded commuting zone that was facilitated by the expanded highway.
You might get a year or two of improved driving out of this, but the highway will soon be congested again, and the developer will be living in the Bahamas with few concerns about the quality of Colorado life.
My sense of public duty says I should not merely criticize, but should also offer a proposed improvement. And in the case of values, it's simple.
Forget about values. They're just a smokescreen. At its fundamental level, American politics is about who gets what -- that is, various competing interests rather than vague statements of values.
Figure out where your interests lie, and vote accordingly.
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