No, our system was built to run on tension. Sen Fenberg apparently had enough discussion, SB24-157 snuck out of committee yesterday. Would you trade less crime for a move toward a surveillance state?
No, our system was built to run on tension. If you want to see the horrors of undivided government, look no further than what we have here in Colorado.
Caitlyn Kim's "article" below, well, more a chance for Colorado's Democrat Federal Representatives to weigh in on what they think of the state of the Republican House members--spoiler alert, they don't think the Republicans are doing a good job--is linked below and it got me thinking.
Thinking about how we define what it is that we want from our government. In other words, if you look at Congress, what do you think success looks like?
I know what success is to me. Successful Congresses protect my country, they protect my rights, they spend my money responsibly, they pay their debts.
I don't judge them by their ability to pass continuing resolutions. I don't judge them by their ability to squeeze out legislation. Like I tell some of my wordier students, I ain't grading by the pound here.
Not so with Ms. Kim or the Democrats at the Federal level apparently. Over and over in her "reporting", we see the same media narrative (see here for my thoughts on media narratives) which the Democrats then gleefully pick up and run with: that the Republicans are chaotic and can't govern.
I'm not going to say that the House Republicans are doing a swell job here. Good God, no. But reality is a little subtler than the Democrats and their colleagues at CPR would have it. There are reasons for their concerns and wanting debate.
May not be reasons we'd all agree with, but there are reasons.
And that brings me to my last point. Tension, and the lack of legislative output it can bring, is a FEATURE of our system of government, not a bug. This is how things are supposed to go.
Without tension you get, well, Colorado. You get legislators that shut their colleagues down and don't bother even with the pretense of seeking consensus. You get legislators that blatantly ignore the basics of policymaking in Colorado like making sure the public gets its due ability to weigh in on bills.
You get policy that makes a some groups in one geographic area of the state happy, and many others outside that area angry. You get policy that works well for that same geographically-centered group, but not so much for the rest of us.
You might get lots of policy made, but does10 lbs of manure have more value than a pound of steak to you?
We should have tension in our legislative bodies. Tension means compromise. Tension means policy that's more centrist because that's all that can pass.
If the House is not putting out tons of legislation, if it's stymieing the efforts of the President and/or Democrat-controlled Senate, so be it. If the alternative were a Federal system that mirrored Colorado's one-party hegemony, I'd rather have shutdowns and some chaos.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/02/21/can-118th-congress-get-work-done-amid-dysfunction/
Just when you thought it was dead ....
Senator Fenberg's bill (SB24-157 linked first below) was, I thought, dead or at least waiting significant overhaul. At the hearing last week, in his LENGTHY preamble the good senator said he was putting it on hold.
Well, golly, one wonders if that hold was less about considering changes to the bill than it was about letting the heat from the press and others blow off because just yesterday the bill was passed out of committee by all members (except Senator Baisley, R-Woodland Park).
Frankly, the arrogance of the legislators display both here and by their vote allowing themselves a raise in per diem pay is staggering to me, and this is a bipartisan thing, as some Republicans have participated in both.
Voters have repeatedly made their will clear to the legislature and the legislature has repeatedly gone over the heads of voters, a problem made worse in the last few years of complete one-party dominance.
This is not okay and it's something I hope to point out again in future committee hearings on this bill. I added it to my watchlist.
In the meantime, I took the time this afternoon to call each and every senator that voted yes in committee and President Fenberg to ask them why they voted yes, what possible changes were in the bill since last Wednesday, and who was involved in the "discussion" Senator Fenberg mentioned.
Doubt I'll hear back, but they can't say no one spoke up against it.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-157
https://coloradofoic.org/senators-advance-bill-that-lets-lawmakers-communicate-by-email-text-message-without-violating-the-colorado-open-meetings-law/
Would you trade less crime for a move toward a surveillance state?
Yeah, Elbert made the right call here. I would rather have the risk of a little more crime than a surveillance state.
I wrote back in Nov 2022 about Flock Safety's cameras going up in Pueblo, CO. See the first link for some context on that.
I was then, and remain now, against it. I don't care how much the Flock camera people tell me about how safe their systems are and how they'll never be able to be used for ill. The fact that the cameras exist and that data is kept for any length of time, make it possible for this to be used in ways that are not in keeping with a free society and/or in keeping with our constitution.
Apparently, I'm not alone because the Elbert County Commissioners recently voted to take down their Flock cameras, cameras which at least one commissioner voted to install not that long ago.**
Whatever the past history was on them, whatever it was that spurred the previous authorization, the commissioners bowed to concerns among some in the public (and common decency about what the government should do) and voted to remove the cameras.
Would that other areas would follow suit.
I already know that I live in an area without those cameras, but if you're concerned, I urge you to contact your local city/county officials and ask about where you live.
I wish I could have offered you a list of who has the cameras here in Colorado, but the Flock company, in a fit of transparency, wouldn't allow it.
**One of the commissioners who voted yes in the past explained his previous vote as due to a misunderstanding. According to the article, he thought he was authorizing dashcams for police.
https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/license-plate-cameras-coming-to-pueblo
https://denvergazette.com/news/elbert-county-license-plate-reader-cameras-coming-down/article_521d798c-caac-11ee-a37b-7b0672ff5019.html