My letter re midterms published today in the Boulder Colorado Daily Camera
Young and diverse not enough
Chuck Wibby, one of the Camera's editorial advisory board members, writes about the midterm elections in Colorado and his other home state South Carolina: "Based on the results, and we Republicans are results-oriented, you can also compare which state is more progressive. If you measure progressiveness by who elected a young, African-American U.S. senator and an Indian-American woman governor, and which state ran tired, old male Caucasians for governor, you'd have to vote for South Carolina.... this year the Republican party won in part because they ran numerous young, vibrant and diverse candidates."
(That sound comes from many Boulder progressives smacking their foreheads at the same time.) Who among us would ever vote for a Republican deep South governor whatever their ethnicity or age? Or for any Republican like Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Bobby Jindal, Allen West, or Ben Carson no matter their background. Anymore than we would ever vote for Cory Gardner, Bob Beauprez, Gordon Klingenschmitt, Tom Tancredo, Douglas Bruce, Joe Coors, or George Bush even if they were "young and diverse." None of them has ever done anything for their states, the nation, or for people of "diversity," except try to suppress their votes and keep them at minimum wage. South Carolina, which has the eighth-highest poverty rate, is seventh in income inequality, has high unemployment, high infant mortality, no unions supporting workers, a huge number of persons without health insurance, right up there with Louisiana and Mississippi. Undoubtedly there are good people in South Carolina and Louisiana, just as in Colorado Springs, but not enough to elect representatives who will put people's needs ahead of dark money from billionaires like the Koch brothers.
In six years, even those who disagreed with him know that Mark Udall never once embarrassed Colorado or the nation by sponsoring legislation like "personhood" or privatizing social security. He worked tirelessly for the people of Colorado no matter their color, age, sexual orientation, gender or income to make our lives better, for more training and jobs, to bring health care to all, to educate our children, for honest government, to guarantee our right to privacy, against income inequality and the corporations, for responsible gun control, for equal pay and women's health rights, for clean energy, and to protect the environment of our beautiful state and the planet. That's why Boulder voted for him.
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