Category Archives: Alan’s Politics

Election day thoughts 2014

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Election day 2014 is tomorrow. I voted early but not casting my ballot until tomorrow – election day.

Based on all the “too extreme” for Colorado ads still running on TV, apparently there is still too much money flowing and voters still haven’t made up their minds.

I find it amazing that there are voters out there who are so uninformed they are actually swayed by the nonsensical mudslinging messages. If you’re one who hasn’t made up your mind, I want to know who you are and get your information from TV ads, I want to know who you are!

Who has the most toys doesn’t translate into victory. House majority leader Eric Cantor spent $168,000 at three restaurants while eventual winner David Brat spent $123,000 on his entire campaign. At the end, Cantor spent 40 times more money than Brat and lost by 10 points.

Here’s how I voted on issues and candidates this year. I follow politics in Wyoming and Colorado where I have stakes. I tend to support people with whom I have some sort of connection and that bears out this election cycle.

US Senate Colorado – Back in the mid 1970s, I went to Washington DC for a student political science institute. I befriended over a couple days Morris Udall. He’s the father of Senator Mark Udall, who is in a neck and neck race with Cory Gardner. I got to know Mo Udall, however briefly during the conference. I met Mark Udall when he moved to Colorado to run for Congress. He’s a career politician and that reputation is catching up with him. i voted for Udall mostly for the good of the order of keeping the federal system split. I think Udall will prevail, much like Senator Bennett did when he defeated Ken Buck.

US Congressional District 2 – I’ve known incumbent Jared Polis for a number of years, mostly through non-profit organization circles when I worked for Assets for Colorado Youth and he was on the Colorado Board of Education. Since he was elected to the US House, I don’t run into him as much as I once did. I voted for Jared again. His opponent is a Chinese guy named George Leing – he pronounces his name in Anglicized fashion “Lang”. He’ll get votes in east and north Boulder County, Weld and Gilpin counties.

Colorado Governor – John Hickenlooper was one of the first people I met when I came to Colorado. He and I served on the Chinook Fund board of directors for a number of years. He’s had to govern to the middle and “Both Ways Beauprez” has had to grasp at straws to find issues that would make John look bad. Recently, Beauprez played the “soft on murderers” card, which I don’t think have played very well. I voted for John again.

68 – I voted for gambling expansion at the Arapahoe County horse track. Not because I want to fund education, but to encourage more gaming.

105 – I voted for the GMO labeling. The proponents came up with a little over $500,000 while the opposition raised over $12 million from multinational corporations like Monsanto, Pepsi Cola, Kraft, Coca Cola. With a cast of characters like that I pretty much had to vote for it.

In Wyoming, competitive elections went away in the mid 1990s when the Democratic main stays were all soundly trounced and never resurfaced – former Governor Mike Sullivan, former Secretary of State Kathy Karpan; former state Senator John Vinich. Since then, the laws were changed to suppress voter registration and voting. In a red state like Wyoming, there end up being various shades of red. I don’t know how long it will take for Wyoming to become competitive again – maybe never.

US Senate Wyoming – My first job out of school was with the city government of Gillette. I was in a class at the University of Wyoming called the Human Services Project. Multidisciplinary students worked together to solve problems arising from rapid population growth during the coal boom there. I worked for then Mayor Mike Enzi and City Administrator Flip McConnaughy – now Senator Enzi’s Chief of Staff. Mike’s wife Diana and I were both members of the Wyoming Private Industry Council charged with administering federal job funds. Mke is running against a former Catholic priest, Charlie Hardy, who’s been logging a lot of road miles in Wyoming and has become a bit of a media darling. Enzi will win this one big. I’ll be surprised if he runs for a 5th term after this.

US Congressional District Wyoming At Large – The incumbent is Cynthia Lummis. She and I, as well as her siblings, all grew up together. Cynthia’s husband, Al Wiederspahn passed away suddenly last week. I don’t even know who is running against her, but she’ll win in another landslide, maybe getting 90 percent of the vote.

Wyoming Governor – I’ve gotten to know Matt Mead and his family over the past four years,  He’s been in a couple videos I’ve made for his art’s awards celebration and for the 75th anniversary of the Wyoming state parks system. It’s election season, but nonetheless, he’s had to govern to the middle, which means something totally different than other places. He’s running against a guy from Pinedale, Pete Gosar. I think he’s the Wyoming State Democratic Party chairman. Matt Mead should win with no problem.

State House District 21 – A friend of mine, Albert Sommers is running for reelection. He’s a level headed and thoughtful guy who should win again. His wife, Sue, is quite the graphic artist. He funds his own campaign and refuses contributions from others.

Lander Mayor – former mayor and state legislator Del McOmie is running for Mayor again.  My second job was working for the city of Lander as Del’s assistant before I worked for the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Indian Reservation. I don’t know who he’s against, but he should win this one.
There you have it, I’m not trying to influence you, since my opinions are clearly too extreme to help anyone change their minds and I approve of this message

Election Tag

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There’s been a facebook game of tag going around encouraging early voting. My pal Tad Leeper tagged me and I’m supposed to keep the chain going by tagging five others. There are so many interesting contests happening around the country I don’t know who to bug about this. In fact, I’m not much of tagger, so if you’re so inclined, post a pix of your early vote and tag others in you are so inclined.

Take a pix of yourself with your early voting ballot and scrawl "I voted" on your arm. Tag five of your pals.

Take a pix of yourself with your early voting ballot and scrawl “I voted” on your arm. Tag five of your pals.

 

Take a pix of yourself getting your early voting ballots ready to be cast and then tag five more. This isn’t catching on like the ALS ice bucket challenge.

I filed out my ballot but won’t vote until election day. It’s cheaper and more convenient to mail it, but for me, at least, there’s something about going down to the polls and casting my vote that gets my serotonin rising. The postage stamp is a de facto “poll tax” but probably cheaper than hopping in the car, driving to the polls and voting.

I haven’t missed an election since my first one in 1972. I voted for Nixon.  I’ve not been a very good party man. I remember when I was in grad school at the University of Wyoming. I volunteered with the College Republicans. I did what I could to help out Larry Hart who was running for Congress in 1976, but voted for Teno Roncalio.

In 1980 I supported John Anderson, the third party guy from Illinois, in 1984 I voted for political criminal Lyndon Larouche because he was the initial whistle blower on Iran Contra.  I was drummed out of the Republican Party for supporting John Vinich for US Senate in 1988. Even though I voted for Ross Perot in 1992, I attended Clinton’s inauguration.

Theoretically, a person’s vote is secret, but in reality, there are no secrets.

Are you honest with yourself and with others ALL THE TIME or blame everything on Obama?

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I was at the Conference on World Affairs today and the topic of one of the lecture panels was about spin doctoring and little lies and artful truth-stretching. I think that spin doctoring is most closely associated with politicians and public relations strategies, but the panel discussants made the topic more personal through their own stories and experiences.

The guy on the right is a columnist for the Chicago Sun and gave examples on how his outlandish claims were actually true. The next speaker from Down Under had rationalized working for Shell Environmental after knowing Shell Oil was a major polluter in Nigeria. The third panelist is a rock musician who told the story about his father who finally fessed up that he was a co-pilot and not a pilot during WWII. The final speaker from Hollywood is a show runner for reality TV in LA and explained that everyone in Tinseltown are liars.

The guy on the right is a columnist for the Chicago Sun and gave examples on how his outlandish claims were actually true. The next speaker from Down Under had rationalized working for Shell Environmental after knowing Shell Oil was a major polluter in Nigeria. The third panelist is a rock musician who told the story about his father who finally fessed up that he was a co-pilot and not a pilot during WWII. The final speaker from Hollywood is a show runner for reality TV in LA and explained that everyone in Tinseltown are liars.

 

For most of you out there, you’ve probably never heard of CWA.

This is a week-long conclave with a bunch of talking heads of various academic disciplines who come together to lecture to an audience about current topics. The topics are mundane in nature, but the panels can get very heady.

I tend to go to the sessions that have some practical applications in my day-to-day world. I suppose it’s because I still work and try to gain some new insight into how to conduct my business.

There are lots of retired people who seem to go for the more heady sessions about war and peace in the middle east, etc. etc.

Stuff that I think the average Joe or Joette, really have no control over, but are interesting to talk about and there’s little personal risk in doing so.

Anyway, this spin doctoring panel about the art of rationalized lying fit in with one I heard earlier in the day about the future of communication. I was also interested since my recent illness, I’ve started to get a lot off my mind to relieve stress.

Turns out, being frank and honest may add more to my stress, than I imagined, which I’ll explain later.

What did I learn?

Like Jack Nicholson says in “A Few Good Men” – “You can’t handle the truth.”

In our daily lives as we meet our neighbors, go to work, interact with friends of various ilks, I’ve learned that people can’t handle the truth, unless they’ve concocted their rationalizations or come to grips with their truths.

The session earlier in the day I attended about the future of communication had a big discussion about the “filter bubble” of internet searches.

As the search engines become better at “dialing in” the words and phrases of our searches, if a person relies too heavily on the search results, the narrow results put us in our own artificial realities that only reinforce what we think, rather than providing a broader perspective.

The example used by one of the presenters, if a political extremist only googles obama, guns, 2nd amendment, the only results that will come up will be those that have come up time and time again, thereby leading the activist to think that “everyone” holds the same views.

Since my flirt with death, I’ve had a big attitude adjustment that life is too short to “beat around the bush” and have become more forthright in my comments and approach to people. Based on reactions I get from people, this isn’t an acceptable cultural norm.

People aren’t interested in hearing frank and unfiltered opinions, especially if they concern them. So far, folks get defensive, push back, and jump to conclusions. I may have to return to my wicked ways and join the crowd, since others aren’t willing to face their big and little demons openly.

I’ll be more selective in my battles, for sure.

I’m figuring out that most people like telling the little lies and concocting stories backing them up; rationalizing their questionable actions as being positive choices.

By the way, if anyone posts that Obama is a liar or Congress members are liars, your comments will be nixed. Those targets are too easy.

This is about you and I coming to grips with our own behaviors before knocking anyone for theirs. Now that I think about it, if we only surround ourselves with people and media accounts that only bolster our own perspectives, we are enabling the status quo liars in Washington D.C.