Joe Klein visits the West The Big Strategy

One of the weird things about the Western Democrat... uh... thing... is that there isn't a "platform" per se. You don't have Sen. Jon Tester, former Gov. John Kitzhaber, and Gov. Bill Ritter all agreeing on one set of ideas. But, yet in some way, they represent their constituents well and they're all Western Dems.

Joe Klein covers this particular phenomena early in his piece on Western Dems in Time:

I asked Barbara O'Brien, the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, about the rampant individuality in the room, and she said, "I doubt you'd find a Democratic ticket like us anywhere else in the country. Bill [Ritter] is pro-life, and I'm not even a politician. I ran a children's advocacy group and took positions that upset Democrats in the past--like, I testified in favor of a limited, targeted school-voucher program. But that's the way it is out here in the West. People like their politicians independent."

Even later in the article, where he tries to back into a "a distinct Rocky Mountain Democratic agenda," that covers energy issues, pragmatism, and fiscal responsibility, he quickly follows up with "given the traditional Western aversion to lockstep conformity, none of the above are hard-and-fast rules."

Yes, the West isn't all one place or all one political region that has a 15 point plan for Democratic dominance. Its a bit deeper than that.

Other than the notes on style, there was one thing that struck me about Kleins article that we don't write enough about here. The meritocracy that the West is. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper noting that "no one cares who your grandparents are" (unless you're a Udall of course) points to a crisper political culture here than back there. That if you're good, Democrats will support you. And, no matter who you are, who you're married to, if you suck, well you suck.

Emmett O'Connell | January 25, 2007 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) Permalink: Joe Klein visits the West The Big Strategy

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