To paraphrase
Shakespeare’s Marc Anthony, I come to bury Gov. John Hickenlooper, not to
praise him. That said …
Hickenlooper is a rare bird these days: a Democrat who is not a doctrinaire Progressive. In the July 19 Democratic debate, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they thought “illegal border crossing should only be a misdemeanor.” The only persons who did not do so were Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennett. Both dropped out shortly thereafter, after persistently polling 1% or less. But an important point had been made: Not all Democrats are witless.
As we know, Hickenlooper
was the mayor of Denver, then a two-term governor. Before any of that, he was a
geologist and a craft brewer. Both trades stuck with him and served the state
of Colorado well during his governorship. He noted in his 2017 State of the
State message that Colorado had become “one
of the best states in the country for natural gas production, as indeed it
was before Gov. Jared “NIMBY” Polis took over. Similarly, his background as a
businessman gave him an ability to see multiple solutions to challenges, along
with willingness to address problems practically with due consideration to all
parties. Unfortunately, neither practicality nor win-win solutions cut much ice
in today’s Democratic Party. Last June at the California party convention, Hickenlooper
was booed
for his speech rejecting socialism as a cure for the nation’s minor economic
woes.
Democrats’
spurning of a successful governor from a purple state is something they may
well rue. Hickenlooper’s accomplishments included longstanding desiderata they
would not have achieved in Colorado without him: establishing a national model
for regulating recreational marijuana, despite thinking legalization was a
mistake, and successfully pushing for the expansion of Medicaid were two.
He also
addressed more conservative concerns. Wanting to ensure Colorado taxpayers were
getting their money’s worth, Hickenlooper created an online dashboard of goals
and metrics to measure how efficient state government was. He inherited a state
government $75 million in debt, but after eight years of careful management left
it well in the black.
It wasn’t all
joy. The governor signed a bill to establish civil unions prior to the U.S. Supreme
Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage and approved gun-control
legislation to establish universal background checks and limit magazines to 15
rounds. These two measures were done on a partisan basis, and they still rankle.
The former was apparently taken as a green light for the LGBT community’s
efforts to suppress the rights of religious Coloradans. Magazine limits drove
at least one company from the state. At least the governor was more circumspect
than Robert Francis O’Rourke, who publicly stated he just wants to snatch
everyone’s guns all up. As a Texas boy, he should know better.
I had issues
with many of Hickenlooper’s decisions in his two terms. That said, he was miles
better than any of the others in the Democrats’ torch-and-pitchfork
presidential candidate mob, howling for socialism and President Donald Trump’s
blood. That none in that contest sees the why of this is more a comment on the
current state of the party than on the character and qualities of Hickenlooper.
He is a fair-minded man who adhered to the radical center of political life,
and his departure from the presidential race is the Democrats’ great loss.
That said,
now that he is running for U.S. Senate, should Colorado elect him? No. Hickenlooper
has the great bad fortune to be running for Senate in an election that will
probably be decided on national, not state, issues — in particular, control of
the Senate for the upcoming farce of a presidential impeachment by a lynch mob
of House Democrats seething with rage and single-mindedly intent on reversing
the election of 2016 by any means necessary. Colorado’s replacement of Cory
Gardner’s “R” with Hickenlooper’s “D” would be problematic under these
circumstances. A shame, since both are good men with Colorado’s interests
chiefly at heart, but absolutely necessary by the rules of the game Democrats
themselves have established, rules that have at their core the Stalinist
directive of “not one inch.”
“I’ve always
said Washington was a lousy place for a guy like me who wants to get things
done — but this is no time to walk away from the table,” Hickenlooper has said.
He’s right: This is no time to walk away. And unfortunately, no time for Hickenlooper.
Morgan Liddick’s column “On Your Right” publishes Tuesdays in the Summit Daily News. Liddick spent 27 years working for the U.S. Foreign Service, primarily living abroad. He also spent 12 years teaching U.S. history and Western civilization at community colleges in Colorado and Texas. He lived in Summit County as recently as 2015. Contact him at mcliddick@hotmail.com.