Is the Glass Half Full: Are Colorado Dems Doing Themselves In?

As I listen to talk radio, grab tid-bits of local news on TV and read the local and even the national news, Colorado it is the spot light.  Our state is getting a lot of attention right now.  The topic? Guns. I don't like the battle or the direction is it going but I took a moment to think about what it might mean in the long run. What might the unintended consequences look like?

Colorado for the first time in its history has a democratic House, Senate and they have the Governor's office.  It has never been this blue. The cities love it; the majority of the land mass, which is rugged, rural and independent, hates it.  Of course in the mountain towns, the affluent hamlets where the motel maid must commute an hour and a half because she cannot afford to live in the town where she works, the very rich come to play.  With the advent of high speed internet some of these mountain towns are places that working people can now call home with no need to commute. There was a time when Boulder was referred to as the California of the Rockies -- it was that different. 

The Californication has oozed into the Denver metro area and bled into the multitude of urban areas that form the apron around the Capital.  In the 2010 Census, the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield Metropolitan Statistical area held 50.7% of the entire state's population, up over 14% from the 2000 census.  This statistical area has a land mass of a mere 8,102 square miles in a state of 104,100 square miles. Almost 51% of the state’s population lives on less than 8% of its land. The remainder of the population is focused on the Front Range and scattered about the western slope, the mountains and the eastern plains; they have similar needs, desires and aspirations. City-folk tend to be more like-minded than those in the rural areas.  A rancher on the eastern plains might focus on water issues when the mountain man in the Sangre de Cristos might be more concerned with beetle-killed forest and the fire danger. In cities it is far easier to build powerful coalitions than it is to unify the scattered people of the plains or the out-lying edges of the mountain counties.

The concentrations of social liberalism from the city now dominate the climate of the once burly, fiercely independent western state. First settled by miners and fortune seekers who had grit if not brains, Colorado's storied past is filled with a cast of characters plucked from a Twain novel then married with some Zane Grey and Louis L'amour: prostitutes, politicians, gun fighters, cannibals and cowboys. Now populated by more modern transplants and college students, the shift from red to blue was inevitable.  With the temperate climate, the stunning scenery and activities of all sorts only a stone's throw away who wouldn't want to live here?  The metro areas are also doing fairly well in this horrific economy. Heck you can even get a degree for brewing beer and it would be considered a marketable skill!  And you and Mary Jane can cavort legally.  Civil Unions are being fast tracked too.  There is talk of Denver becoming the Amsterdam of the West.  Blue, blue so very blue.

But back to guns.  In the wake of the recent, and some not so recent, tragedies in Newtown, Aurora and even going back to Columbine, guns and gun control have taken control of all state politics here in Colorado; the rest of the nation is watching.  It is a heated debate.  However there is little real debate going on. What seems to be happening is the elected leaders are forging ahead with what they, as individuals, seem to think is the best idea and listening to what other elected officials and even the Vice President is telling them they should do.  The fact that they were elected to represent people whether they are red, blue, purple or some other shade of the rainbow has been lost.  The public testimony has be stacked in their favor with deliberation and elected leaders from far away have been openly calling Colorado representatives and "suggesting" what they should do.  The Colorado Senate was not elected by these out-of-state people who are calling…they were elected by us, for us.

Nearly every elected Colorado County Sheriff made the trek to the Capitol to testify before the Senate hearing committees and few were heard. All came to testify that the "gun control" laws being debated would do little, if anything to curb gun violence.  The new legislation would only add yet another law that was impossible to enforce. They wanted to tell the omnipotent Democratic leaders that they were missing the point. There is now talk of the Colorado State Legislature trying to strong-arm our County Sheriff's by reminding them that the State Legislature has the power to affect their salaries and their department budgets…it will be interesting to see how this story develops but that is a rabbit I would rather not chase right now.

What makes me think that the glass is half full is this.  The Colorado legislature has become so myopic about gun control and has become drunk on their power that they don't realize they may be their own undoing.  The people -- regardless of political affiliation are not feeling heard nor are they happy about gun control being the #1 topic at the state level there are several things that rank higher to most Colorado residents including, the economy, public education and taxes. While the State Senate and now the House debate and rant about how bad guns are the people of the state are feeling disregarded.

A new poll measuring public opinion of gun control measures being considered in Colorado finds the issue could be politically dangerous for Democrats. Most Coloradoans don’t think “sweeping gun control measures will make them any safer,” according to the pollster.

While pro gun and anti-gun sentiment falls, as expected, along party and ideological lines, there are some political dangers that Democratic leaders should be paying attention to,” writes pollster Rob Autry, of Public Opinion Strategies, in a memo detailing the poll’s findings.

Autry went on to write, “Democratic legislators also have to be mindful that even members of their own partisan coalition are conflicted about this proposed legislation.  While only 8% of Democrats oppose all of the gun control measures we tested, 70% of Democratic voters oppose one or some combination of the proposals (either the comprehensive package, the background checks, the liability claim, or the high-capacity magazine ban).”

 “These poll numbers prove that Governor Hickenlooper and the Democrats are listening to Bloomberg and Biden instead of Coloradans,” commented state Senator Greg Brophy, responding to the poll, in an email to Weekly Standard blogger, Daniel Halper.

From Halper's blog:

                "The fact of the matter is, Autry writes, most Coloradans don’t think the legislation will make them “safer.” “Importantly, Colorado voters do not believe these sweeping gun control measures will make them any safer.  Two out three Coloradans (65%) say these new gun control laws won’t reduce crime or make the state any safer, while just a third say they will (32%).”"

                And there “very well could be political repercussions for supporting this legislation, as well.  Nearly half (48%) of voters say they would be less likely to vote for their State Senator in the  next election if he or she supports these gun control bills (40% more likely).  There is strong intensity behind this as well – thirty-seven percent (37%) of voters overall say they would be much less likely to vote for him or her.”

 The biggest shift in this future voting sentiment comes from independent voters -- the "chosen ones", the highly prized voting bloc of both parties. The Independents oppose the key gun control measures tested in this survey.  A solid 69% of them oppose passing the comprehensive legislation (33% oppose outright, 36% think it goes too far) a whopping 84% oppose holding manufacturers and sellers liable, and 55% oppose the high-capacity magazine ban when presented with both sides.

I oppose the gun legislation that is careening its way into becoming state law.  None of them affect me too much but the erosion of constitutional rights and the sense that my government is trying to disarm me one regulation at a time rubs me wrong.  I will now have to pay for my background check the next time I purchase a firearm.  I have issue with parameters and restrictions being attached to my exercising my constitutional rights – it is not my fault or yours that lawmakers have attached costly barriers to my constitutional right.  We have heard the argument against voter ID and that it is tantamount to a poll-tax.  So what makes this different?  The dems want zero barriers to voting, the republicans want to reduce voter fraud.  The dems want to charge for background checks the republicans believe it is a constitutional violation of rights. It is always interesting how willing pots are to call the kettle black.

In summary -- I am a "glass half full" sort of person; I try to look for the good in everything.  I exercised my right to vote and avoid exactly what is happening now. I tried to elect leaders who would better represent me and what I thought was good for Colorado and the Nation.  My people lost.  So now I see the leaders elected by others doing things that the very people who voted FOR them do not even like.  So I will focus on how this current situation might be of benefit when considering the "big picture".  It would seem that some of the state democrats have not only woven their own hemp rope, they have fashioned their own nooses and are quite possibly sizing it for their own political necks.  I for one am not going to counsel them on the ramifications of their actions -- let them hang themselves. After all it might just be good in the long run!