How Colorado funds its schools--a video series. How one party rule is not good for anyone (Democrats included).
How do we fund our schools--my first video series.
I am dipping my beak into making videos and I thought a good inagural one would be a series on school finance.
The first in the series is below. I welcome helpful feedback (whether that's a thing you liked or something that didn't work).
Please also ask questions as you have them. I will answer in future videos in the series.
Marriage, compromise, and groupthink in politics
You can have one of two things in life I find. You can have your way always and forever, or you can have deep and lasting relationship with another human (or group of humans). It is rare indeed to have both.
I've known about the difficulty of any sort of meaningful relationship with one-way people for some time now. I've shed my share of them.
The part that is new to me as I've aged (and after I got married), however, is the idea that being forced to compromise is beneficial to me. Like eating your vegetables, it's not pleasant, but having to deal with another human, having to work with them on something you may strongly disagree with is not just good for the relationship, it's good for your soul. In the end, too, it makes for better decisions.
For example, being forced to agree and uphold an agreement with regard to our child, has made me reckon with my own ideas about children. It's made me rethink how strongly I held to some things.
It's also meant that our child will, I hope, not end up warped because she gets parents that come up with strategies and rules that are reasonable--neither coddling nor rigid Prussian discipline.
Why am I writing about this? I have other outlets for confessionals besides this site, so I'm not here to tell you a truth I've learned in the personal sense, I'm here to tell you a truth that applies to politics in this state.
The Democrats in this state may pay lip service to the idea that all ideas and perspectives should be included (Polis--I'm looking in your direction), but they stop at lip service. Said another way, they are not bothering to compromise with the people they disagree with. They have not learned the lesson getting married and being forced to share authority has taught me, namely that compromise and being forced to reckon with opinions you don't share is good for EVERYONE.
And we the voters are going to be the ones who pay for the groupthink** policy that results.
Continue to speak up for the idea that the best results come about when we all have a place at the table. Continue to speak up for sharing power among groups in this state. Continue to speak up for the necessary tension that keeps our government on a reasonable, even keel.
And vote accordingly.
**Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform or the belief that dissent is impossible. The problematic or premature consensus that is characteristic of groupthink may be fueled by a particular agenda—or it may be due to group members valuing harmony and coherence above critical thought.
**Related:
Mr. Armstrong's take on the "moral limits of majority will".
Worth a read and keeping in your pocket for later.
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2023/05/16/armstrong-the-moral-limits-of-majority-will/