Government is a core pillar of local, state, national and global society. We trust it to make and enforce rules and responsibly spend tax dollars. We rely on it to operate core functions for health, safety and finance. We ask it to provide additional services that enhance our quality of life. We elect representatives to oversee these core needs and additional requests, and to provide leadership to guide our future. When choosing our leaders as voters, there is a lot to unpack, and this column, running once a month until Election Day, is intended to help readers do just that.
True story: A friend recently coaxed me into doing a cold plunge in the North Atlantic, resulting in a couple hours of more than usual forgetfulness. After I finally snapped out of it, I realized I had experienced a mild case of amnesia — transient global amnesia (TGA) to be exact. I suspect America suffers a bit from amnesia and I wonder when we will snap out of it. America’s recent shock to the system has been the colossal changes in almost every corner of our lives and every corner of the world. And like TGA, I may not have understood it beforehand, but I now know to take America’s symptoms seriously.
Our collective amnesia seems to run in two-year cycles, when we are awakened by pundits and political parties reminding us that “this election is the most important ever.” This year, both parties are arguing that “our democracy is at stake.” If we dig a little deeper, we see that it isn’t just democracy at stake, but the very notion of liberalism, the very concept upon which America was born.
The term liberalism, also referred to as classical liberalism, warrants a definition given how the term “liberal” has become so derogatory. Liberalism has three core ideals: 1) the individual as the focus of society, with individual liberty as the primary political value; 2) beliefs that are chosen by the individual and debatable within society, rather than imposed by the government; and 3) suspicion of power, and thus the notion that government’s role is to protect individual freedoms rather than restrict them. The United States was the first republic founded on these ideals.
America’s recent amnesia is a strong undercurrent surging beneath the waves as storms brew in the distance, and unfortunately the lifeguards are busy building sandcastles. The “progressive” Democrats are like kids plugging their ears and closing their eyes to avoid thinking about these changes, the “conservative” Republicans are content with letting the bullies run the playground, and powerful elites on both sides just keep banking on voters focusing on what’s popular instead of what’s important.
Increasingly more people, and people in positions of power, are arguing that liberalism has failed. Postliberalism, a new ideology, espouses entirely different values and an approach to governance that upends the doctrines of both progressivism and conservatism. Postliberalism prioritizes a reduced reliance on free markets and globalization by giving government more control of economics. Think tariffs, worker protection policies and stronger anti-trust regulation. It proposes policies that favor family, community and tradition over individual freedoms. Think social conservatism and stricter immigration policies. It favors a stronger central government by prioritizing communal duties over self-expression and it rejects unrestricted free speech or pluralism.
This new ideology is a fundamental shift for America, and it’s causing chaos and conflict within both major political parties. And as the saying goes, “all politics is local,” so I genuinely want to understand what issues are important to the Republican and Democratic parties, and what they see as their roles during this election. Future columns will explore specific candidates and issues, but I started by interviewing the chairs of the Garfield County Republican and Democratic parties.
Mae Gray is the chair of the Garfield County Dems, and was a lifelong Republican until she became an independent in 2016. She is inspired to focus on “joy and hope” and recognizes that the party “needs to do better” by reaching out to bring forth “compassion and love” and “earn the trust” of voters. She said that “people are not being heard” and acknowledged a disconnect between party ideals and reality, even in Colorado which is controlled by Democrat leadership yet has more than 50% unaffiliated voters and growing.
Spencer Thomas, the Garfield County Republicans chair, has always been a conservative but was also an independent before becoming a Republican. He served in the military and returned to the area frustrated by “bad ideas,” largely a result of the “liberal policy failure.” He can see past party lines, citing former Democrat Governor Dick Lamm as a good example of “plain old common sense.” He thinks it’s good when local government focuses on the economy, but believes “private enterprise is always better.”
Nearly all levels of politics have been dominated by these two parties, but the growing unrest of political ideologies warrants greater scrutiny of candidates and issues. So rather than automatically checking your political party box this election, perhaps there are deeper questions to ponder. Do the candidates welcome dissenting viewpoints and do they seek them out when they deliberate on difficult issues? How would they hold themselves and others accountable? Do their ideals align more with liberal or postliberal ideals? How have they demonstrated courage, humility and curiosity in previous leadership roles?
So, while the biggest changes are national and global, it all trickles down. Political parties, including the local ones, have the unique ability to provide a platform for ideas, to flesh out policies and to truly listen to voters. Or they can simply focus on getting members of their party elected. Thomas said that “voters need to wake up” and Gray wants “people to be heard.” With voters fleeing both parties to unaffiliate and be independent, just as Thomas and Gray once were, it would appear both parties have some work to do to break the cycle of amnesia.