December 20, 2008 01:53 AM UTC

Why I support Perlmutter for Senate

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• by: TakeBackTheHouse

(Progressives and Moderates united for a common purpose – promoted by redstateblues)

An anecdote, slightly filtered…

So, on election night I was standing in a room with Rep. Perlmutter, Sen-elect Udall, and Secretary-designate Salazar.

Ed was holding forth on his vision for the post-election future, and said exactly the things that would normally make me cringe (even if it was awesome for my ego that I got to stand next to a cheese tray with such heavy hitters.)

Perlmutter said that now we held the levers of power, we had to show that we could build coalitions, work across the aisle, and embrace a more centrist agenda. He poked me in the chest with his index finger and said (in a slightly more colorful way)

“Even though there are ~some people~ who will [object to me] for doing it every step of the way, it is what we have to do.”

People throwing Progressives under the bus pisses me off, and I will [object to them] doing it every step of the way. Usually it betrays an ignorance of what Progressive values really are. When polled on nearly every topic, the vast majority of Americans outside of the DC power circles hold Progressive values. When people try to ‘balance’ the needs of millions of citizens with the desires of the wealthiest fraction, and when they think that the ‘center’ is a place where we give up half our rights in order give the wealthiest double what they ask, it raises my indignation.

But here’s the thing; Perlmutter is not just another weak valued ‘Centrist’ who thinks capitulation is compromise. He is an actual Moderate who, much more often than not, represents the real middle of Colorado. For years the Bush-dogs have called the ‘center’ the territory between the extreme Right and sanity, and have called ‘moderation’ voting with their party the 85% of the time when it doesn’t matter. Perlmutter reclaims the rhetoric of Centerism for ~gasp~ the actual middle. He supports our troops by actually protecting and providing for the soldiers and veterans. He supports working families by actually supporting workers.

He is the real moderate representative of a moderate district in a moderate state. Sure, that puts him well to the Right of me, and he is not always a paragon of perfect virtue*, but he rarely strays too far from the best interests of his constituents, and he never does anything without input from all stakeholders and real reflection.

It reminds me of the case of Morgan Carroll. Despite being an unapologetic progressive, she garnered a lot of crossover votes by showing the Republicans of her district that her positions were not just knee-jerk responses, or sold to highest bidders, but that they were reached through a process of engaged deliberation. She met with them, listened to them, and when she had an opinion of her own she voiced it. Her voters might not agree with her on many issues, but they trusted her to deal rationally with the future issues that nobody saw coming.

That is where I am on Perlmutter. He doesn’t always vote the way I want him to, but he approaches most votes in a way I trust and respect. He stays available to his district, he asks questions, and when the time comes he is unafraid to express his leadership. I don’t know what odds he has in the horse race of appointments, but I can go on record right now to say that any world where I can be a critic of Sen. Perlmutter’s choices is already a better world than the one where we are now.

Go Ed!

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* – On imperfect virtue: Retro-active immunity was a lawless pander to cover the asses of a corrupt administration, unaccountable executives, and complicit Democrats on important committees. By design, we will never know how poisonous that law is. I question who Perlmutter represented on that vote and consider it an act, not of conscience, but of raw political calculation. It burned the Constitution and abused the judicial process for the narrowest and worst constituency imaginable. (See Ed, I love ya, but will still call them as I see them.)

[crossposted as a comment at SquareState.net]