Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

PUBLISHED in the Denver Post, 7/24/07
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_6444996

re "Colorado Democrats move up presidential caucuses" (Denver Post, 7/21/07)
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_6432885

To the Editor:

Although Colorado does not have many electoral votes, that is not the best reason to oppose moving our caucuses or primaries earlier in the year. After all, New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada all have fewer electoral votes than Colorado.

The best reason to resist moving these events up is simply to stop the madness of the nationwide rush to do just that. Florida and California have moved their primaries, understandable given the huge number of electoral votes they carry. But similar moves by smaller states will just encourage other small states to do the same. The end result will be no increase in political importance for states like Colorado but a huge increase in the amount of time that we’ll have to spend hearing about and from politicians.

Political seasons basically bring citizens two things: Incessant requests for money (by phone, mail, email, carrier pigeon, or any other way they can think of) and the brain damage of having to hear candidates for far too long. No, Colorado, let’s keep our political seasons as short as we can. Even for this political junkie there’s more to life than politics, especially in a place as beautiful as our state.