Sheriff Heap is good for Elbert County and should be retained.

Also, term limits are a necessity in today’s electoral politics.

Therefore voters should support a measure that would temporarily waive the imposition of a term limit requirement for the office of sheriff, with the proviso that the measure would sunset shortly after the election and thereby reinstate the term limit requirement for the office of sheriff for future elections.

It’s entrenched politicians calling for the elimination of term limits. The people, however, are more protected from political overreach if they use waivers as required, and leave the hard-won default term limit in place.

After noticing that Citizens United received a judgment in their favor last week to be treated as a media outlet to release and promote their new film Rocky Mountain Heist, I sent an email to them requesting a copy of the film for posting to YouTube. I expected they would grant my request given the short time until the election and my presumption that they would appreciate any additional exposure for the ideas in the film.

In response I received an invitation to attend a Denver premier showing of the film Wednesday night at the Hyatt Regency. See http://youtu.be/JvSfl2FXfP4 to get a flavor of the evening. While most of the conservative movement in America seemed to be there last night, there was not a single Leftist in sight. No signs, no bullhorns, no shoving, no cops, no litter, no bodyguards blocked the way. Just a roomful of conservative luminaries completely open, walking the walk, talking the talk, unthreatened and unafraid, completely accessible. Cool.

David Bossie, Citizens United

I had a chance to meet David Bossie so I asked him if I could publish the film on YouTube. He turned me down and explained it was necessary in order to defend Citizens United’s copyright to the film – certainly a reasonable position since, upon further inspection, I found that Citizens United publishes their films for a fee on their website. My mistake was to presume their only interest was partisan when in fact they’re also in the business of selling views of their documentary films. I was naïve to think they made films solely for the greater good. People have to make money too and good for them that they’ve found a way to profitably work in conjunction with serving society by resisting encroaching totalitarianism.

Michelle Malkin

Rocky Mountain Heist had its genesis in The Blueprint, published in 2010, which I finally got around to reading last week. It is a beyond-eye-opening education in todays American politics.

From Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer, The Blueprint – How the Democrats Won Colorado, 2010.

“After Amendment 27, campaign spending in meaningful quantities could only be accomplished through the “independent sector”–a collection of nonprofit organizations that stepped into the role once occupied by political parties. . . a garden of think tanks, political 527s, 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations, new media outlets, progressive watchdog groups, and assorted activist organizations. . .” p 40-41

“. . .while nonprofits were no longer allowed to coordinate their activities with candidates or political parties, they were perfectly free to coordinate among themselves. And coordinate they did.” p 71

The poetic phrase from one leader I spoke with last night was, “Political parties have become eunuchs.” Another leader explained to me that coordination between financial politics and party politics still exists, albeit informally where no tweets, no emails, no texts, and no communications that leave an audit trail can follow.

While some probably think political parties received karmic justice in campaign finance reform, my guess is that the majority of Americans don’t yet appreciate the financial separation of political money from political parties.

Americans who watch TV see the thousands of political ads produced by organizations “not paid for by a candidate and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee,” that spend hundreds of millions to produce and deliver political content to the electorate. He who pays the piper calls the tune and it’s the profit-motivated, “independent sector” paying the piper today. It’s fair to assume they’re calling the tunes too.

Prior to campaign finance reform when political parties themselves received the bulk of political funding, the case for corruption was that politicians could be directly bought. If the electorate came to dislike the politician, however, the first stop on the complaint trail was the politician. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing.

Today, candidates are disclaimed from responsibility in much of the TV advertising. This pulls the legal restraints off political spending, an arguably good thing for 1st Am. free speech advocates. It, however, relieves candidates from responsibility for the message, a bad thing for the electorate. And the “independent sector” is empowered to issue national-grade political media, insulated from the political restraints that the electorate can exercise over politicians.

This appears to be a systemic disconnect between political content producers and the electorate. And though I’ve seen no evidence of misrepresentation in the political content produced by Citizens United, the Leftist “independent sector” groups don’t seem up to that same standard. Big Leftist money can make big misrepresentations without direct consequences, and that’s what The Blueprint and Rocky Mountain Heist accurately document.

I applaud the exposure Rocky Mountain Heist gives to Colorado’s “Gang Of Four” and their political corruptions, but the analysis stops short of a systemic cure. The Blueprint and Rocky Mountain Heist present de facto evidence of a broken campaign finance environment. The fact that the system equally burdens both parties doesn’t save it in my view, since the electorate still comes out shorted from voting accountability.

It appears that dividing the interests between politicians and political message organizations led to veiled power structures beyond the reach of the electorate. This division seems repugnant to the idea of an informed citizenry exercising electoral control of a constitutional republic. It certainly opens the door to corruption by encouraging off-the-record illegal coordination between financial organizations and candidates.

Perhaps more public disclosures can cure this situation. In addition, perhaps a change in the relative legal status of candidates and the independent sector could work. For example a legal requirement that a political messaging organization must obtain a candidate’s endorsement before releasing media involving that candidate might indirectly restore some control to the electorate.

Cast of Rocky Mountain Heist

For us visual learners, Elbert County had some great scenes last night. I opened my eyes from an après dîné catnap about 6:00 p.m. when the Cards still had hope from their lead off double against the Giants, and one of those spectacular Colorado sunsets began to carve the sky into a giant jack-o-lantern. It would have been more than enough to just take those pictures and call it an evening but my lovely spouse kicked me out the door. Smart woman.

At 60, the Halloween costumes most people wear no longer frighten me, even the everyday ones. You just see right through all that makeup to the personality. What’s inside is usually a good person, an earnest person, a whole gamut of persons. No one who comes out stays hidden for long. So the gamut pageant came out to do political business under a sharp sunset.

I visited the two Elizabeth political scenes. There was a third one in Kiowa but I rolled it. A fair number of cars on Main Street in Elizabeth reflected highlights from the warm glow escaping the upstairs windows at the Falcon Lounge. Climbing the stairs, I heard the full-throated intensity of a speakeasy just around the corner, and I wondered if the cops knew this place existed and how would I slip out the back door unnoticed when the vice squad came crashing in with nightsticks swinging. I’m not as nimble on the stairs as I once was.

Sliding past the end of the bar, Cathy and Denise’s space transports you into the center of attention. It was loud and the runway is short. I could only sort out words from people right in front of me though the room is small enough, close enough, and warm enough to make eye contact with everyone else. There was a political purpose on the table, but everyone I spoke with was informal.

I suppose some people do business in a bar, or a golf course, using genteel mediums to lubricate their deals. I didn’t see any of that. It was just a decompressing and rich adult time, and who could ask for more.

Moving on over a couple blocks to the Left’s conclave, I should have had my camera ready to capture the looks on many of their faces as I entered that sanctuary of all matters governmental. What a picture! – no mistaking their shocked looks for playful Halloween horror.

Elbert County’s Left, in person, for the most part, treat me with kindness and sometimes even sympathy, kind of like a stray dog I suppose. While I wouldn’t trust a couple of them to walk behind me in a dark alley, most of them aren’t too bad.

Unlike the scene at the Falcon Lounge with its hair letting down and masks coming off, in the brilliantly lit foyer of Frontier High School it was all business. I may have corrupted the sanctuary through the introduction of a politically alien macrobody, may have unavoidably changed the experiment through my observation, but not having been there before I arrived, I’ll never know.

What I heard were people very concerned about things gone wrong in Elbert County. And their certainty that things had gone terribly wrong in Elbert County matched their certainty that they could and should wield governmental power to “rule with kindness” and “bring all citizens to the table” to correct those wrongs. It was a very egalitarian vision, designed to invest voters, though in practice the playground environment of citizen councils seems to turn out more Darwinians than democrats.

I don’t know how one possibly sustains their rose colored impression of governmental power, particularly nowadays with all the internet transparency about things. Moreover, I don’t know how these folks got into such a state of Panacea, ruled by the goddess of universal remedy. When has that ever happened?

But for this room full of Leftists in that foyer, quantum improbabilities presented no bar. A mathematician might infer such an event through a harmonic string vibrating into a parallel universe, but I don’t hold with such fictions. I think this universe is all we have. I’m virtually sure the portal to the Frontier High School foyer is not a worm hole.

And call me an unfaithful conservative, but I don’t dislike most of these Leftists, except for the few haters. I respect their good intentions. How could you not respect utopia? That would be like disrespecting heaven. I respect their intensity, misguided though it may be. And they didn’t eject me from their sanctuary, though if shunning looks from Jerry and Sue Bishop could kill, I’m a rotting corpse today.

But standing out, naked in the harsh fluorescent light, the words of Dorman’s unequivocal promise to immediately reopen the Elbert County Oil & Gas zoning regulation deliberation with an intent to change the law back to something akin to what the current commission rejected two summers ago – kind of a back-to-the-future version of progressivism – captured my attention.

A legal tussle with the State of Colorado over the ownership and control of expensive, income-producing private property in Elbert County would be much more serious than a trip to court with a meadowlark. I know Dorman wasn’t sick that day of zoning denouement two summers ago because I have him on tape. Maybe he doesn’t listen as well as he thinks he does.

Though no one can predict the future with certainty, Dorman’s recent written statement that his election “can change the balance on the Board of County Commissioners,” suggests he’s already worked a new balance out with a partner on the BOCC.

Given the quasi-judicial nature of the job of county commissioner, now that Dorman has promised to form a new majority to pass a law before even seeing a legal zoning proposal, one should reasonably expect him to recuse himself on such future decisions on this subject matter since, you know, he’s already compromised his judicial objectivity.

Nah. That ain’t gonna’ happen in Elbert County.

Well, that was the big impression for me. The Left wrapped it up and I made good my exit before the brawling got started. One more thing about that event. It never had a chance at being a balanced room with people from a spectrum of political opinions looking for real debate. There was only one right answer to every question, and everyone in the room already knew it. I didn’t see any cheat sheets passed around, but my spidey sense was tingling. Conservatives were right to avoid the setup.

I went back to the speakeasy for a drink and a friendly bartender. Politics of a more limited nature still flowed there. And I think that is best. Humility first. Things are complicated enough. And no one sees the future, except those crazy mathematicians.

2014 Republican Governor State Assembly Results:

Sylvester ————  1.59%
House ————— 12.81%
Brophy ————– 18.89%
Gessler ————- 33.11%
Kopp —————- 33.60%

2014 Republican Governor Primary Results:

Kopp —————- 19.83%
Gessler ————- 23.21%
Tancredo ———– 26.72%
Beauprez ———– 30.24%

Evidently the Colorado Republicans who self-select by showing up at precinct caucuses to volunteer for county and state assemblies do not accurately represent the cohort of Republicans voting in the primary. In 2010 the caucus system gave us Dan Maes, and everyone knows how well that worked out.

It’s time to thank the delegates for their service, retire the broken caucus system, and move to a petition process more representative of the electorate.

What is Groupthink?

Groupthink, a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment” (p. 9).  Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups.  A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.

References

Janis, Irving L.  (1972).  Victims of Groupthink.  New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Janis, Irving L.  (1982).  Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes.  Second Edition.  New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Symptoms of Groupthink

Janis has documented eight symptoms of groupthink:

1. Illusion of invulnerability –Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.
2. Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.
3. Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.
4. Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.
5. Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.
6. Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.
7. Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.
8. Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

When the above symptoms exist in a group that is trying to make a decision, there is a reasonable chance that groupthink will happen, although it is not necessarily so.  Groupthink occurs when groups are highly cohesive and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision.  When pressures for unanimity seem overwhelming, members are less motivated to realistically appraise the alternative courses of action available to them.  These group pressures lead to carelessness and irrational thinking since groups experiencing groupthink fail to consider all alternatives and seek to maintain unanimity.  Decisions shaped by groupthink have low probability of achieving successful outcomes.

Remedies for Groupthink

Decision experts have determined that groupthink may be prevented by adopting some of the following measures:

a) The leader should assign the role of critical evaluator to each member
b) The leader should avoid stating preferences and expectations at the outset
c) Each member of the group should routinely discuss the groups’ deliberations with a trusted associate and report back to the group on the associate’s reactions
d) One or more experts should be invited to each meeting on a staggered basis.  The outside experts should be encouraged to challenge views of the members.
e) At least one articulate and knowledgeable member should be given the role of devil’s advocate (to question assumptions and plans)
f) The leader should make sure that a sizeable block of time is set aside to survey warning signals from rivals; leader and group construct alternative scenarios of rivals’ intentions.

Source: http://www.psysr.org/about/pubs_resources/groupthink%20overview.htm

Caucus is coming up on March 4th.  Since the precincts were renumbered many Republicans will have to figure out their new caucus meeting locations.  Caucus locations used to also be voting locations, but mail-in ballots have evidently made polling places obsolete, at least for the time being.

So, caucus meetings are the last remaining face-to-face official political event for the small minority of average voters who don’t operate the machineries of the political parties, but who like to get out one evening every two years and do something political.

After the last Colorado governor’s race and the guy who Republicans now dare-not-speak-his-name, the near loss of Republican majority party status in the state, the experience of being had by the Democrat “Blueprint,” and the effect of new-media sunshine in that at any instant a broadcast publication on social media could launch from any room, there’s definitely a caution in the air.  Speakers are more careful about creating an inconvenient sound bite.  Some seem less spontaneous and more scripted.

With the exposure of the Left’s Blueprint for Colorado and the revelation that large sums of money wait in the wings to exploit any spinnable factoid for political advantage, a certain amount of caution is warranted.  A couple candidates are taking it to the point of closing off debate forums entirely, under the theory that the reality of their meaning will be spun by adverse political and media forces no matter what they say, so they’re just not going to say anything.

This represents an imposed caucus disempowerment.  Caucuses can’t function without discussable content.

I’m sure that once the candidates get into true two-party debates and the playing field is levelled, political disclosures will come fast and furious from all sides.

Also, consider that the historical manipulability of candidate selections by caucus party insiders may have run its course to some extent.  Technological evolution forces adaptations.  If the cloaks and cloak rooms of the past no longer shelter participants from scrutiny, then those folks must adapt to operate in a new reality.

The right questions directed toward leadership can bring out some good analysis if the leaders are honest with themselves and with their audiences.  Candor is always appreciated and I’m seeing much more of it.  Those speakers uncomfortable with candor may stand out more.  Must not make eye contact, must not.  .  .  Too much!  But it’s all good fun, at least until the polls close and you find out what harmful edicts the opposition will be shoving down your throat for the next two years.  Hopefully the tide will turn this year and we won’t experience those revelations once again.

Elbert County Republicans have never advanced caucus resolutions to the state party for further action.  Either they just never got around to it, or perhaps the resolutions were never sufficiently cleaned up to make them worth advancing.  This year could be different.

Caucuses have a right to pass resolutions for consideration at the County Assembly on March 29th.  In the past those resolutions have not been rationalized at the assembly.  Conflicting resolutions were allowed to stand, and the whole resolutions business came at the end of the assembly day when everyone was tired and disinterested.  The necessary assembly discussions did not occur.

This year, resolutions are scheduled for assembly discussion and approval, in detail, from 10:00 – 12:00 a.m., prior to commencement of the remaining assembly business.  This opportunity should give Elbert County Republicans a chance to pass a set of harmonized, non-contradictory resolutions that can be sent up the party chain of command.

More importantly, out of this process, resolutions concerning local matters should carry more persuasive weight with county leadership.

If you don’t like how much of our local media constantly push an opposition agenda designed to shift  debate to the left, the Republican caucus resolution process presents a great opportunity to voice some leadership direction to Elbert County in an authoritative manner.   Republican caucus attendees, who show up to act in the capacity of representing the big majority of Elbert County voters, should bring that language to their caucuses.   Don’t waste the opportunity!  Make those resolutions persuasively, get them passed, debate them at the county assembly on the 29th, and give some real direction to this county.

Republicans can stop reacting to the leftist juggernaut and get out in front of it.  We have the tools and we have the numbers, if we’d just use them.

(click map to enlarge)

Republican Caucus Meeting locations – Tuesday March 4, 2014, 7:00 P.M.

• Precincts 1-5 at Running Creek Elementary
• Precincts 6-10 at Singing Hills Elementary
• Precinct 11 at Elbert School
• Precinct 12 at Sun Country
• Precincts 13-14 at Kiowa School
• Precinct 15 at Simla School