Liberty's the answer, year-round

It’s not hard to love Independence Day. There are fireworks, picnics, baseball games, and a long weekend. What’s more, the air is filled with patriotism. On the Fourth, it seems everyone is thankful for freedom and proud to be an American. My Fourth of July wish is for this attitude to last all year long. Our public dialogue these days seems to focus on pragmatic questions, like “How much will taxes go up?” or “Can government spend enough money fast enough to mitigate unemployment?” That sort of talk is a missed opportunity for those who believe in both America’s greatness and its founding principles.

Today we are celebrating the act, two hundred and thirty-three years ago today, of fifty-six courageous patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence. Together with the framers of the Constitution, signed some eleven years later, these founding fathers birthed a nation based on individual freedom and its corollary, a strictly limited government.

This risky experiment was a tremendous success. The freedoms built into the American system led individuals here to create the world’s leading society – the most innovative, the wealthiest, the most charitable, and arguably the most moral. While other countries labor to keep their citizens from leaving, America is a beacon of hope for immigrants around the world who want the freedom to make their dreams into reality. America rebuilt Japan and Europe after World War II. Millions around the world, in places like France, South Korea, Bosnia and Iraq, owe their freedom from tyranny to the U.S. We provide 60% of the world’s food aid, and we are spending $15 billion fighting AIDs in Africa.

There is a sentence in the Declaration that we all know by heart: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This stirring sentence is, of course, an ideal. While at times, our nation has fallen short, striving for this ideal has made America the world’s greatest country. I’m proud to be an American, and if you’re an American you should be proud, too. So let’s talk about it!

Even on the other 364 days of the year, let’s remind others what’s special about this country and push to preserve it. Whether we’re talking about health care, taxation, or environmental policy, let’s remember to ask what’s consistent with America’s tradition of liberty. When my father fled Communism and came to the United States in the 1940s, he was not seeking someone to pay his dental bill – he was seeking freedom. When the subject is foreign policy, let’s bring up America’s special role in the world. If we’re talking about regulating what a Cheerios box says, or about campaign finance laws, let’s talk about freedom of speech and what our founding fathers endured so that we would have the protections of the Bill of Rights hundreds of years later.

Let’s change our public dialogue – whatever the question, make the answer, “liberty.”

May God watch over our uniformed men and women, fighting for our freedom this Independence Day, and may God bless America.

Manual shows up the bureaucrats

There is lots of demand these days for government to “create” results. But policies pandering to that are misguided. Whether it's jobs, health care, or even successful schools, the idea that people in government, no matter how talented, well-meaning, and well-funded can create sound, sustainable, scalable improvement in the lives of Americans has been proven wrong time and time again. Our government’s attempt to “create” financial security for seniors instead created a Social Security system racing towards bankruptcy. A sustained attempt to “create” widespread homeownership – a bipartisan folly to be sure – instead destroyed the world’s greatest financial institutions. And, public school systems – an attempt to “create” a well-educated public – is a national catastrophe and disgrace, depriving particularly our most disadvantaged children of the opportunities everyone deserves.

That government policies and programs cannot create these things on their own should not be discouraging. Americans can have them, but they must be created through the initiative, motivation, and ingenuity of Americans themselves. What government policy can and should do is remove barriers to success created by government itself – establishing an environment where progress, rather than frustration, is a natural result.

This morning I visited Manual High School in Denver. Manual is an inner-city high school serving a challenged community – more than 80% of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. Nearly the entire student body is composed of minority children. In 2006, the school was closed for chronic failure – only 15% of students were proficient in reading. The school reopened in 2007 under an “autonomy” arrangement that provided new principal Rob Stein with relief from a handful of union and district rules including those regarding school schedules, hiring processes, and teacher compensation. Also, the school board reached an agreement with Stein to permit him to make key budgeting decisions at the school level rather than at the district level.

Stein describes himself as a “culture guy,” and he took advantage of the unusual autonomy to assemble a highly motivated staff and create a school culture of accountability and professionalism. At a twice-weekly school-wide meeting, the school-polo-shirt clad kids hear colleagues who’ve excelled or contributed in the past week receive ”shout-out” recognition (in one case accompanied by a $5 Burger King gift card); and at the same meeting noting that all seventy-one students who had been tardy during the week were required to attend detention that Friday evening. During “advisory,” small group classes meeting three times per week, the students follow a curriculum of social and life skills (e.g., constructive ways to deal with confrontation) – many of which kids from more privileged backgrounds may learn from their parents.

Today, Manual is tied for fourth-best-performing non-charter high school in the Denver Public Schools. It’s easy to imagine a well-intentioned “reformer” drawing the wrong conclusions from the Manual experience. “Let’s require shout-outs and logo polo shirts in all of the schools,” they might say, “and we can improve like Manual.” That would, of course, be missing the point. The terrific progress at Manual was not born of the particular tactics Stein employs, but of the autonomy that has permitted Stein and his dedicated team to implement their own innovative approach to serving the unique needs of children in Manual’s community.

By freeing the Manual team of district and union red tape, the autonomy agreements did not create success – that’s not possible to do from headquarters – but created the circumstances where success could flourish on its own. Freedom to succeed – that’s what American’s need in this challenging time.

Primer: Repeat after me

It is not the government’s responsibility to save Chrysler, GM, or Ford. Looking back, it was not the government’s responsibility to save AIG, Citigroup, or any other financial institution. Looking ahead, it is not the government’s responsibility to save coal companies, homebuilders, retailers, manufacturers, or hot dog carts. It is not the government’s responsibility to “protect” jobs – even when those jobs are held by member of politically powerful labor unions.

It is not the government’s responsibility to “create” jobs – the only jobs the government has the power to create are government jobs, and the world doesn’t need more bureaucrats.

It is not the government’s responsibility to prevent foreclosures, where people took out loans they cannot afford to pay back.

It is not the government’s responsibility to make sure that everyone has high-speed internet and cable TV. For that matter, it is not the government’s responsibility to pay for anyone’s personal expenses, be they medical costs, gasoline, or pedicures.

It is not the government’s responsibility to address “income inequality.”

To be clear, it IS the government’s responsibility to provide an environment where people and businesses can – through innovation, effort, and personal responsibility – achieve success, be self-reliant, and have the opportunity to strive for ever-greater achievement.

The ingredients are a fair, predictable legal system; dependable property rights; low taxes; and light regulation. That’s all.

To win on blue, think anew

Democratic chairman Howard Dean was ridiculed for his 50-state strategy, but who's laughing now? Dems just made big gains in states that had been red for many years. Here in Colorado, there are clearly red and blue legislative districts. For instance, in 2008, my district (House District 10 in Boulder) voted 75% for the Democratic candidate. The operative question for Colorado Republicans is, what should we do about blue districts? For instance, is it a good idea to nominate a liberal Republican in a blue district?

Matching candidates to districts is a tough issue. I think the GOP is a big tent in many ways. While social conservatives are an extremely important part of the GOP coalition, I believe it is perfectly reasonable to match a social moderate candidate to a socially moderate district. What we can’t do is nominate RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) – this dilutes the message of mainstream Republicans in other districts. Aren’t you embarrassed by what some GOP congressmen have said and done, all while claiming to be a conservative?

The key quality for candidates in blue geographies is the ability to articulate why and how freedom-centered policies benefit different audiences. For instance, school choice should sell well to parents in failing school districts; and anyone should be able to see how reining in the runaway tort system would make health care more affordable. I would prefer that candidates in these long-shot districts take courageous stands on big-picture policy ideas, and not seek to pander with small ideas. Make it clear, make it fresh, and make it relevant. We offer a common sense approach to problems real people face. We are not the tired old Republicans of years past – we are New Republicans: grounded in applying principals of freedom for a more civil, more prosperous, and freer society.

Most Coloradans don’t care what team a potential representative is on – they care that their representative understands their challenges, can articulate policy solutions to help, and act with integrity and character to enact those policies. We win the greatest number of races not by sounding like imitation Democrats, but by candidate’s articulating in both intellectual and emotional language why our principals are better for the people of their district.