My editor really likes it, as far as I know, when I ramble on about the tedious goings on that make up most of American governance (Ed: well…) And so today I want to again dive into how our government actually works, rather than the flashy stuff and vacuous nonsense that seems to get the most attention from the media (but enough about Representative Boebert).

As I taught my cadet students at the Air Force Academy, the work of government is mostly done — at all levels — by people we call “workhorses.” These are good people who believe their job is not to leap in front of any available news camera, but rather to get down to doing the actual work of the people. Sometimes those folks are our elected representatives and sometimes they are the staffers who support the work. 

I’ll give you an example of the later: one of my old college roommates back at the University of Michigan also found his way to Colorado after law school. He took a job with the state government in the office that does the actual writing of most of the legislative proposals our state legislators come up with. In this particular case, my roomie was the guy who wrote the actual text of what became Colorado’s Do Not Call law. In the “before time” of that legislation, lots of folks had lots of meals interrupted by lots of callers trying to sell us stuff. And while those calls seem to have picked up in recent times, there are still far fewer than before. So, next time you are driving past the state capitol, just yell out “Thanks Duane” and I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.

Happily, that same passion for getting actual work done is seen in quite a few of Colorado’s elected officials. I have been quite impressed, for example, with Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who managed quite a few challenging programs during a pandemic. And three that deserve special call-outs (because they just don’t toot their own horns very much) are our governor, Jared Polis, who has been a ball of energy shepherding our state through COVID with remarkable skill; and, as pointed out in a recent Colorado Politics article, our two U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, who have also been hard at work.

Bennet, for example, is championing a relatively unknown but very important bill called the “Military Childcare Expansion Act” that will allow the military to create a subsidy program to aid in providing critically needed childcare for military families. All too often the base child care office simply doesn’t have the space, staff, or tools, to provide all the childcare that is truly needed. And as a military father myself, I could tell you stories about military colleagues who struggled finding the care they needed for their kids. And frankly, if there is any group of people you want to be able to concentrate on their jobs without distraction, it would be the folks controlling nukes, bombers, aircraft carriers, and such. 

In my 25+ years of active duty, I never met a military day-care provider who wasn’t a hardworking and dedicated professional, but oft times, the workload would simply be too high. Bennet’s bill, embracing the private sector, could be an important step forward in giving military families greater peace of mind regarding their kids.

Hickenlooper has also been hard at work, away from the cameras (congressional tip: if you find yourself wondering where the media cameras are, just look for Ted Cruz. He’ll be the guy jumping in front of as many of them as he can find). I’ve previously written on Hick’s efforts, as a former small businessman himself, to promote Colorado small business. Recently, as reported in CP, Hick dropped (as we cool kid political junkies call it) four bills designed to make it easier for small businesses to get federal dollars to prop up and then to grow their businesses. These are good ideas, and they come from Hick’s own experience running small businesses. Hick’s proposals would also make it easier for women and minorities to become investment managers in the Small Business Administration’s eye, easing the path to federal support. Now, if I were to announce loudly that a new Hick proposal would, say, “give customer-owned co-ops more access to SBA loans” you might well find yourself yawning. But this tedious language is exactly what we want our elected folks to do. 

Proposals such as these by Bennet and Hickenlooper are, in today’s political world, precisely the type of work we want from our electeds, while also being the kind of boring stuff that doesn’t really get you re-elected. We are fortunate to have senators who can resist the siren’s song of publicity that people like Cruz cannot. Heck, I’ll even say nice things in this area about Hick’s predecessor, Cory Gardner, who was also a workhorse, before he kind of went full-Trump. 

So, yell thanks to Duane, and please also remember that if your elected representative is spending nearly all of his or her time not engaging in self-promotion, you just might have a good representative there. 

Oh, and be glad you are not in Texas, because of Cruz, and well, lots of other reasons…(Ed: oh, good, that shouldn’t irritate too many folks, sheesh…)