Our View - Thursday

The Colorado model: Cash
The left's magnificent new machine

The right could learn a lot from the left. This year will dramatically change politics in the United States. It's the year old façades come crashing down. Regardless of who wins the presidency, or the majority of congressional seats, this election will change perceptions.

Until now, Democrats have been the party of egalitarianism. The party has appeared as champion of the working class and the poor.

Until now, Republicans have been the party of the country club elite. It has been the well-funded party of successful people who had earned or inherited wealth and desired to keep it. It wasn't the party most characterized as fighting for average, working citizens.

The oversimplified stereotypes were never fully accurate, but now they're obviously upside down and inside out. Democrats want gourmet, expensive, organic food at their convention. No cheap grease. Big money in politics comes from the left, from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros. In Colorado, the so-called fab four - billionaire Pat Stryker, and multi-millionaires Tim Gill, Rutt Bridges, and Jared Polis - are using their fortunes in a philanthropic and successful effort to change the political landscape.

They're impassioned largely by a desire to defeat conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage and other rights for homosexuals. Gill and Polis are openly gay, as is Stryker's brother Jon, who along with his sister contributes millions to promote homosexual rights and various Democratic causes. It's new money, earned the old fashioned way by innovative entrepreneurs who know how to invent, manage, invest and succeed.

Big money on the left is why Barack Obama was able to do what other politicians should do - he just said "no" to public funding of his campaign.

Nowhere is the funding of politics by the big money left more apparent than in Colorado. In a cover story for the current Weekly Standard, author Fred Barnes explains what has become known nationally as "The Colorado Model" - a well-orchestrated plan by Democrats to spend heavily in red states and make them blue. Barnes explained a confidential memo written by a Democratic consultant in January that outlined plans for Democrats to spend $11.7 million this year to crush Colorado Republicans. The plan involved spending $5.1 million to defeat Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer and $2.6 million to defeat Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. Both oppose same-sex marriage.

But the bluing of Colorado involves more than throwing money at Democratic wins and Republican losses. In his article, Barnes explains seven "capacities" for a successful, large-scale political strategy: generate intellectual ammunition; pursue investigations of opponents; mobilize for elections; fight opposing media bias; pursue strategic litigation; train new leaders; and sustain a presence in the new media. And Barnes, with the help of Independence Institute president Jon Caldara, explains how seven new liberal political organizations in Colorado cover all relevant bases. They are: ProgressNowAction.org, similar to the national MoveOn.org; Bighorn and Bell, a think tank; Colorado Media Matters, a local version of the national Media Matters; Colorado Ethics Watch; Colorado Independent; the Center for Progressive Leadership Colorado; ColoradoPols.com; and SquareState.net.

"That covers all seven capacities," Barnes wrote.

In the old days, it was called a political machine. Some circumstances can help an underdog take on the powers of even a finely tuned, well-oiled political machine. Take, for example, Colorado's United States Senate Race. Conventional wisdom early on held the race wouldn't be close. Democrat Mark Udall would win in a landslide against Republican Schaffer, who began taking on Goliath and with a bungled ad.

A Washington Post/Quinnipiac University/Wall Street Journal poll in late July, however, showed that Schaffer had pulled forward to run neck-and-neck with Udall at 44 percent. By a solid margin, likely voters said they were more concerned with a candidate's energy policy than anything else. Schaffer wants more oil. Udall wants wind and solar and hybrid cars - luxuries only the rich can afford for now.

In other words, the just plain ordinary average working class people of Colorado may want to elect someone who favors fuel that will work for the homes and cars they already have. Comparing Schaffer and Udall, Schaffer emerges the populist.

Regardless, the Colorado Model is the example of how it should be done. It's bright, shiny and new, and it's something the right should covet. It's not dissimilar from what drove conservative victories in the '80s and '90s, when the right had cohesive organizations, a clear ideology, a spirit of unity, and loads of cash. It's ethical, it's fair, and it's the American political way.

The right has a machine, but it predates fuel injection and badly needs servicing. Costly fuel may provide it a needed break, but an overhaul must begin soon if the right wants to compete long term.

Something for everyone

There was this far-far-off-Broadway play (we simply cannot remember the name) that stereotyped Colorado Springs as a bastion of evangelical, fundamentalist Christian hypocrisy. We think it was called "Cheap Shot," or something like that.

It was one of those mean-spirited attacks on Christians, and it didn't treat our city too kindly, either. It premiered at some theater in Washington, where many in the audience claimed to have never heard of Colorado Springs - one of the 50 largest cities in the United States, for crying out loud! These people can't possibly travel, or read.

The enlightened people of Colorado Springs, however, know this diverse city has something for everyone. They know that high-profile fundamentalists like it here because everyone likes it here. Perhaps it's the enviable climate, the breathtaking scenery, and the unlimited opportunities for outdoor recreation. For whatever reason, this city brings them in from every walk of life and every segment of the globe.

So it's no surprise that two of the numerous great schools in the Springs ranked in the top 10 of this year's Princeton Review of Colleges. They ranked in opposing categories - sort of.

The Review tells us the Air Force Academy and Colorado College are known for radical evangelical Christian activism. OK, not quite. Rather, they're both known for dope. Colorado College ranked No. 7 for most marijuana use among students, among all colleges in the United States. The Air Force Academy ranked No. 4 for the least use of marijuana, among all colleges in the United States. This is a city that stands for something most of those Christians, maligned by the nasty play, know lots about. It's called free will.

When it comes to pot smoking, Colorado College falls only four places behind the University of Colorado-Boulder, where thousands of students gather to boldly smoke dope in front of cops as an annual rite of spring. Colorado College ranked 13th for "Birkenstockwearing, tree-hugging, clove-smoking vegetarians." It was also ranked ninth for participation in intramural sports.

So there you have it. This beautiful city has something for all - evangelical fundamentalists, potheads, and sober-minded cadets alike.