The “Dan Maes” situation has put an interesting twist on the notion that we’d all be better off if we selected our government leaders randomly from the phone book or voter registration list.
Although the concept seems silly on its face, it has at least crossed the minds of an increasing number of conservatives since Nancy Pelosi’s troops have fallen into line to vote for health care, cap and trade, stimulus, stimulus, and stimulus, despite the overwhelming opposition of their constituents. Then they come home, run away from their records, receive vast party and union contributions and campaign operatives, get endorsements and favorable press coverage, and have very good chances of reelection.
Random selection would have little impact on our society if our traditional system resulted in a trade off of political philosophies – that the hacks of one party voted for conservative principles and the hacks of the other party voted for liberal ones.
But, the climate in Washington and many state houses these days, pretty much assures that generally the elected officials advocate policies much more liberal than their constituents.
George Bush and his cronies pushed “No Child Left Behind,” prescription drug coverage and a liberal immigration policy, going against the wishes of a vast majority of their conservative backers. Except for maybe war, which some deem a liberal/conservative issue, it’s hard to think of a policy of which a majority of elected Congressional Republicans were to the right of their base.
If this wasn’t the case, or at least perceived as such by many conservatives, Dan Maes would still be running around trying to garner mortgage payments from ATMs. Social and economic conservatives feel abandoned and betrayed by the elites of both parties.
For years I felt particularly blessed that I was represented by Tom Tancredo. I was sure he was a man of principle, who would never cave in to the powers that be. Then, just as he was about to leave office, he voted for TARP. The only explanation I heard was that he lost money with Lehman Brothers, which later turned out to be Bernie Madoff.
We all lost money, so what! I know some conservatives who believe that TARP was necessary to save our economic system. While I don’t agree with that analysis, and think some were hoodwinked by Paulson, I respect those who truly think it was necessary to save our way of life.
But, it seems to me that Tom let a personal money problem affect perhaps the most important vote of his career: A vote to use taxpayer funds to bail out those who caused the financial disaster, not only private American financial institutions, but foreign banks, and Fannie and Freddie, and their chief policy architects, Frank and Dodd.
The attempt of political neophyte Tea Party folks to find an untainted candidate for governor is admirable, but their innocence and naiveté is playing into the hands of those whose goals are inimical to smaller more responsible government.
Dan Maes is not electable to a statewide office. His lack of credibility has been widely reported. Just because the facts are reported by those who don’t share our values, doesn’t mean they aren’t true. The ATM fiasco with Freda Poundstone would be an interesting he said, she said, in a typical political race, but in this case it is definitely the nail in the coffin. Freda is now supporting Tom Tancredo, and may have a political agenda of her own, but she doesn’t lie. The responses from Dan Maes and his staff indicate a very troubling situation.
I commend those who tried to find an outside gubernatorial candidate to represent the conservative ideals of many in Colorado, and hope they don’t get disillusioned by the whole Maes fiasco. At the very least we all learned a valuable lesson: there must be some sort of vetting process even among the grass roots.
Unless there is a major scandal or weird happenstance, Mayor Hickenlooper will be our next governor. I urge the backers of Dan Maes to try to work with the Republican vacancy committee to come up with a consensus candidate.
At this late stage it will be difficult at best, but maybe a Hank Brown or Bill Armstrong might be persuaded to serve the state one last time. Maybe Dan Maes would then do the right thing and bow out. This would certainly engender much good will among the state’s conservatives; if he gets his act together he could even have a bright political future.
Barring this, I would encourage the Maes supporters to get behind conservative candidates for local, state, and federal office who actually have a chance of election, which this year includes just about every Republican candidate, except Dan Maes.
It seems a random selection among Republican voters would produce a far better candidate this year for governor. Random selection of our leaders might not produce a Ronald Reagan, but probably wouldn’t produce a Dan Maes either.
Dale Anema lives in Littleton. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
