Aspen Rotary Club's best and brightest showed up at the Thursday meeting for some political talk. Not the usual fare for Rotary, but speaker Ken Adelman laid down a few rules. No harsh words. No rants. No judgment. Don't be mad. Let's have a calm, rational dialogue. It worked! Here are a few of the thoughtful comments and concerns of Aspen Rotarians:
Jim DeFrancia: Is the Republican move on holding up the Supreme Court nominee a tit-for-tat?
Ken: Republicans feel confirming now could tilt the balance. The counter argument? If you're a strict constitutionalist (Scalia and many Republicans are strict constitutionalists), the President nominates and the Senate acts.
DeFrancia: There seems to be a deep seated frustration with a dysfunction of government which the Republicans aren't playing right and it contributes to frustrations on both sides.
Ken: Our government was set up to be dysfunctional – see Madison’s Federalist Papers. In a democracy, emotions run away with people; you have interest groups which try to get you to do what they want. But you need a government that doesn’t respond right away, so you expand government and have lots of interest groups, but that means not much happens. So, then you have lots of lobbyists. We pride ourselves in having the longest running Democracy, yet no other country has modeled itself after the US because it's complicated. There's a perception of dysfunctionality because people think government should run like a business, but it doesn’t and never has.
Roger Nicholson: What would it take to get the attitude & approach during the Reagan years back?
Rick Newton: My biggest concern isn’t the most outrageous things Trump is saying, but the kind of following he has. That's much scarier. The rise of authoritarianism is a great cause for concern.
Norm Bacheldor: Bernie has thr same authoritarianism, but it's softer.
Bill Small: It seems our culture suffers with little educational focus in K-12 on our political system. Ken – Sandra Day O'Connor is leading a movement to deal with that.
DeFrancia: Pugh research poll in June on confidence in and respect for government institutions -- White House = 12%; Military = 59%, so we're no different than many countries; we have the basis for a military coup.
John Ward: Regarding the acrimony – you need to pick and choose where you get your news.
Peter Waanders: How did the Republican party end up with a populist nominee of a party that doesn’t seem to be in control of itself? It seems the party system is falling apart, but also seems we need a 3rd party, yet that would do more to destroy our political system.
Mike Hoffman: We're in an echo chamber so we become convinced we’re right – a fundamental problem.
Bill Small: The strength lies in our system – it’s a vetting process that weeds out what shouldn’t be there.
Ernie Frywald: With the national debt growing so fast - $20 trillion in the near term – I keep wondering what do we do? When does this fall?
Susan Gomes: My concerns-- Are we going to have to start selling off our assets (e.g., national parks) that make us great in order to pay our debt?
Maurice Emmer: The established IBM, who invented personal computer, didn’t see it coming so they hired Microsoft. It's like the political parties are the establishment and they didn't see the disruption coming. The people who are driving this are the voters. It's because of the failures of the establishment for many years?
John Sarpa: We’re asking ourselves "what do we stand for and who are we as a country?". What do we do to make sure our values are reflected in the leadership of our country? I think its all healthy and cathartic. Step back and reflect on it in the people we put in office.
Paul Benton: We are the greatest and we're the most dysfunctional. We can’t be both. We are blind to other options and it’s part of our puzzle. There is no place for these people to let off their steam in this country because we only have two choices (political parties). So why are we so blind to what rest of world is doing?
DeFrancia: On Benson's comment – Our country doesn’t allow a vent to a disaffected minority. In other countries, those folks would have seats in a parliament, but in our system, that can’t happen.
Mike Taets: We have a two-party system because Americans want to be on the winning team and don’t want to be part of a system where they are in a minority.
Michael Miracle: This is all rooted in problem decades in the making. People think they’ll be able to affect such change.
Jeanette Darnauer: What about our image and what this dysfunction says to other nations? The rest of the world thinks we're crazy!
Ken on "The Values of Trump”. "The most mind boggling aspect is how the charismatic Christians can support him. What of the seven deadly sins doesn’t he commit every day?"
Ken -- A few answers:
- The best people in the US don’t go into government. It's always downplayed as place of real talent, but what makes us a shining city on the hill is that the country has worked so well. Why is it that so many people still want to be Americans? Freedom, opportunity, personal rights.
- The theory behind a two-party system is that the parties are broad outlines of philosophy, which would be better than fracturing the system.
- The amount of our debt is very high although the budget deficit is going down every year, so that part is reassuring.
- Looking at entitlements is the only option. They = 75% of government spending. During Nixon's era, 60% was military; Social Security was 15%.
- Everything about the constitution was a compromise, so it's strange when strict constitutionalists say they won’t compromise.
- What’s historically important - there will be a fundamental change in the Republican party regardless of who wins. The Republican convention will be hair raising - like the '68 Democratic Convention, but hopefully without violence. The Republican Party missed the boat – tax cuts for rich, internal trade, and entitlements – and the basic white, blue collar worker didn’t feel the Republican party was reflecting their values. Trade was killing them; tax cuts where killing them. They paid into entitlements and don’t want any cuts. Trump sensed those three issues.
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