2024 session marred by social media fights, Capitol incivility | BIDLACK | Opinion

When I sat down to write today’s missive, I first thought I might wish our fantastic governor a speedy recovery from what I assumed was a nasty case of carpal tunnel syndrome, after checking my inbox and finding a large number of communications government press talking about all the bills he signed into law.

But since the governor is probably fine, if you have a little pain in your signing hand, I’d like to draw your attention to another story in Colorado politics. It seems that some of our state legislators, as the session progressed, got, well, a little miffed and took to social media to attack other legislators.

And I think that’s a problem.

When I taught political science and American government at AF Academy, I often asked my students why, in their opinion, politics had become so unpleasant and personal. And that was before I retired in 2006. In the current climate, with a Republican Party that has become a personality cult of a megalomaniac, the situation is much worse. You would have to go back to 1850 to find us so divided.

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But anyway, my students postulated different theories and noticed these ebbs and flows of the animas, especially at the time of the Civil War. But for modern Sometimes I would come up with an idea that no student had ever come up with, which is ironic since it was the Air Force Academy. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. That’s it jets.

As I noted in a previous column, before about 1960, most members of the U.S. House and Senate did not return home every weekend, and this was not expected by constituents. Traveling by train or car made it essentially impossible for everyone except those who lived near DC to get home. As a result, members hung out on weekends and interacted frequently. The longest-serving Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, who was Speaker on and off in the 1940s and 1950s (in three different terms as control of the House went back and forth from the Democrat to the Republican Party) served as Speaker of the House for 17 years. years.

And for many of those years, he hosted a famous Friday night poker party. Once you crossed the threshold of the poker room, no politics were discussed and lots of male bonding took place (it was the 1950s and 1960s). These poker games were seen as a way to become an insider, something devotedly desired by many members of the House and Senate. They worked hard to get an invite. As a result, members got to know each other personally, and these personal friendships made it much more difficult to become vituperative and vengeful toward those on the other side of the aisle when everyone returned to politics the following Monday.

Then came the jets.

With jet travel, even Hawaii representatives could return home on weekends, especially when House and Senate schedules often did not include Fridays and Mondays as full-session business days. Representatives went home regularly, and this behavior then became expected by home staff. As a result, in today’s legislatures (certainly national and I suspect state ones), members of opposing parties don’t have the opportunity to get to know each other very well, and it’s much easier to be, well, to mean to people you don’t interact with.

Cut to Denver and recent CoPo history.

Well, there was a time when I was a reasonably tech-savvy guy, with my Commodore computer. But I admit that social media has never really appealed to me. I’m on Facebook, as I’ve been told older people tend to do, but I don’t tweet or post on Instagram or any other social media platform. I’m reminded of the words of the late, great Betty White, who, delivering her opening monologue the only time she served as host of Saturday Night Live, observed that the entire show seemed like a colossal waste of time. That’s my view of most social media, although I do enjoy reruns of “What’s My Line” from the 1950s on YouTube.

But, like a certain famous guy who is now on trial, it appears that several of our state representatives are path on the social networks. And by that I mean they use Twitter – sorry – I have never respected such actions, even from those with whom I may agree politically.

Short of Governor Jared Polis throwing poker parties, I’m not sure there is a solution to this very modern problem that divides and infuriates rather than seeks middle ground. As noted in the CoPo story, a legislator today is more likely to post on social media than introduce a bill. This seems very strange to me.

Let me give you a terrible example of the kind of vitriol being spewed. The CoPo story further notes how some legislators are deliberately avoiding contact with each other, preferring to use social media to attack. I’m sorry, this is shameful and this is not what you were elected to do.

A truly vile example, which I understand is likely part of an ongoing feud, came from Republican Rep. Brandy Bradley, apparently someone who attacks frequently on social media. She attacked Democratic Rep. Jenny Willford, saying on increasing property taxes, taking away 2A rights, taking away First Amendment rights, and criminals getting reduced penalties.”

I’m sorry, but saying that someone “fights for pedophiles”, is among other outrageous statements that can be made, and it is, well, negligible. And she posted it seemingly shamelessly. Willford’s response was “I suppose when you don’t have power, the only thing you can do is be a bully and tear other people down. My mother used to tell me that a person who wants to hurt you with their words is suffering inside. Be well, deputy.” Very right, I think.

I had a dear and famous friend, now deceased, who, upon receiving such a nasty email, would respond “Dear Sir or Madam, It appears that a three-year-old child has gained access to your computer. I thought you should know.”

I don’t want to suggest that anyone’s hands are completely clean in political invective, but I note that in my failed run for Congress in 2008, I said in every speech that Doug Lamborn is a good and decent man who does what he thinks is right. He’s just wrong about everything and I hope he feels the same way about me.” Rep. Lamborn would later tell me that he respected my tone.

It is clearly too late for a rule to prohibit our elected representatives from using social media, and of course that would be a bad idea, as such channels are regularly used to communicate important things and to do good work, and of there being this whole First Amendment Thing.

But perhaps we could find a way, most likely at the ballot box, to reward those who act civilly and punish those who, well, spew venom. And maybe the real the media could bring posts like the vile one mentioned above to the attention of the general public.

It’s a shot in the dark, of course. In the meantime, let’s at least make sure we keep track of which elected officials are using social media for good, even partisan ones, and which are using it to behave like petty, offensive teenagers.

Fingers crossed.

Hal Bidlack is a retired political science professor and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught for more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.