Granted, you’re supposed to be thankful this weekend, but I confess to feeling disappointment, rather than gratitude, after reading the “2010 Platform for Prosperity” recently issued by Colorado’s leading Republicans.
Where was the announcement that life begins at fertilization, and that all miscarriages will be investigated as homicides? The pledge to protect children from accidentally glancing at racy magazine covers? The promise to protect us from the horrors of gay marriage? A 12-step program to require prayer in government schools?
The state GOP did refer to “the Democrat Party,” in keeping with its dialect of Official English, but the manifesto first focused on “Jobs, jobs, jobs: Returning Colorado to Prosperity.”
Let’s look at the unemployment rates from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics for this October. The national figure was 10.2 percent. Colorado was significantly lower at 6.9 percent. That would indicate that Colorado is doing something right, despite the burden of a Democratic governor and legislature.
But is there a relationship between a state’s unemployment rate and its dominant political party? That is, do Republican states have lower unemployment than Democratic states, or vice versa? I looked at the data for our neighboring states.
Wyoming has a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature; its unemployment rate is 7.4 percent, a little higher than ours. New Mexico, with Democrats in control, has even higher unemployment at 7.9 percent. Utah, at 6.5 percent, is a little lower than ours, and Republicans run everything there.
But Oklahoma, another Republican domain, has 7.1 percent unemployment, higher than ours. Arizona suffers from 9.3 percent unemployment, the highest of our neighbors, and it has a Republican legislature and a Republican governor, Jan Brewer, who replaced Democrat Janet Napolitano after she resigned to be the federal Secretary of Homeland Security.
Kansas is another neighbor that elected a Democratic governor who resigned for a Cabinet post. It’s very close to our unemployment rate, at 6.8 percent. The Sunflower State legislature is about as Republican as you can get, this side of a country-club membership committee. Gov. Mark Parkinson is a Democrat, although he spent most of his political career as a Republican.
No pattern emerges. Now we get to our neighbor Nebraska, which has the lowest unemployment rate in America at 4.9 percent. Its legislature has no House of Representatives or Senate — it’s the only state with a one-house legislature (members are called “senators”).
One argument, back in 1934 when the state constitution was amended for this, was that it was a waste of time and money to have two chambers devoted to the same purpose. The story I heard (from Nebraska relatives when I was a kid) was that the Union Pacific owned the House, and the Burlington owned the Senate, and the railroads wanted to save money on the purchase of legislation.
Anyway, there are officially no Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature, or Democrats, either — legislative elections are legally non-partisan. In practice, of course, the parties endorse and support candidates, and the unofficial breakdown is 32-17 for the Republicans, with a Republican governor.
So Nebraska offers a tested formula for those “jobs, jobs, jobs” in Colorado. Eliminate the Colorado House of Representatives, change the name of the state Senate to “Colorado Legislature,” and don’t let anyone run for the legislature as a Republican or a Democrat.
But I didn’t see that sensible proposal in our GOP’s “Platform for Prosperity,” and so it’s hard to believe they’re serious about finding jobs for anyone — except their own candidates.
Ed Quillen (ekquillen@gmail.com) of Salida is a freelance writer and history buff, and a frequent contributor to The Post.
