As Colorado Democrats and Republicans head for caucus meetings tonight, it’s invigorating to again see so much energy and interest infusing the process.
In key races, neither party can expect business-as-usual establishment politics to hold sway, a development that creates a fertile environment for the kind of thought-provoking debate that’s good for democracy.
It was just two years ago voters were so enthused about the presidential race that lines of people formed outside of overcrowded caucus locations. Now, the remarkable rise of the Tea Party movement, which continues to grow despite its many factions and its overall fractious nature, has Republican candidates for the governor’s office and the U.S. Senate scrambling to demonstrate conservative bona fides.
Former Congressman Scott McInnis seemed a lock for the Republican nomination after challenger Josh Penry dropped out early, but Tea Party enthusiasm could make the once- overlooked businessman Dan Maes more of a threat.
In an interview with The Denver Post’s Nancy Lofholm, Maes sums up the Tea Party phenomenon by admitting he initially doubted the movement’s momentum. Some 50,000 miles of personal travel to Tea Party meet-ups later, Maes said: “I believe that these people are going to storm the caucuses. I think that will be the first indication of just how strong this movement is.”
Likewise, progressives are preventing appointed Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet from an easy primary, forcing him to articulate positions he was loath to address during his first several months in office.
The energy on both sides is forcing establishment candidates like Bennet and former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, who enjoy the backing of party heavyweights — including even President Obama, in Bennet’s case — to argue their positions more specifically than they might have.
Any time a political beauty contest can be interrupted with talk about policies, it’s good for voters who want clues about how the candidates might lead.
Even more significantly, activists are demanding that the idea of contemporary government itself be redefined. Those copies of the Constitution that thousands of Tea Partiers are hauling around aren’t merely for show. At the core of their various arguments and agendas, the activists are calling for a more limited government, as they believe was set forth by the founders.
Conversely, some progressives pushing for health-care restructuring and a transformational approach to America’s energy use would like to see a more active role for government.
Coloradans benefit in having those debates now, in caucus meetings and beyond, more then eight months before Election Day. Arguing policy over and above politics is healthy — even if you have to endure some of the anger and contention that often accompanies the process.
But grappling with the notion of what kind of government best suits us in 2010 is an argument well worth having, and we hope to see a vibrant, active populace at work tonight.
