I’ve often droned on and on about the “inside baseball” aspects of governance. While the big and grand actions of our elected officials often garner the most attention, it is in the minutiae of governmental action that most of the, well, actual governance takes place. The devil, and, frankly, the good stuff, is in the details. A recent Colorado Politics story highlighted that fact recently, when we learned about Governor Polis’s recent executive order regarding rental protections during the pandemic.

Polis (whom I know a bit and generally support) has had an incredibly difficult job over the last, well, how long has the pandemic been going on, 40 years or so? And he has done a terrific, albeit not flawless, job. 

The history we can glean from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic teaches us that quick and decisive actions by government officials are the key to preventing widespread outbreaks of bad stuff. The best option, of course, would be a population that has been already vaccinated against the contagion. That is why, for example, parents no longer fear the coming of the warm summer months, as my parents did, because of seemingly annual arrival of the polio virus. Vaccines kicked polio’s butt, and other vaccines that took out measles, mumps, rubella, and more. Heck, when I was a young second lieutenant in the Air Force back in the early 1980s, I had to get a typhoid shot, but today’s military folks don’t need that shot unless they are deploying to certain areas because, well, vaccines. 

So, Polis was bold early on, and he was attacked for those brave actions by those who for some reason (cough…trumployalty…cough) decided the COVID virus was a hoax and the vaccine didn’t work, or had a tracking chip, or horse de-wormer was better. But Polis pressed on and did the right things. 

A perhaps equally challenging set of actions, which are likely just as apt to be attacked by those with no scientifically valid counter position, is deciding when and how to roll back the virus-beating steps that were enacted. Some things, like not needing masks outdoors or in certain settings when you are fully vaccinated are somewhat easy calls to make. Others, however, are difficult, as the economic implications of the pandemic continue to rear their ugly and perhaps infected heads. 

One of these, in the story noted above, is the governor’s decision to roll back some protections against eviction for renters. Protections such as these have been controversial from the start. Landlords, after all, must pay their bills and make their mortgage payments too. The rules laid out by Polis in his executive order last July required the “warning time” for tenants behind on their rent and facing eviction to be extended from 10 days to 30 days. Landlords also had to let the Department of Local Affairs know before they kicked anyone out of their rental property.  Like so many of the actions taken by all the various levels of government during the pandemic, this new rule was one of what might be called the “least bad” options available. While it hurt some property owners, it also gave many people who live paycheck to paycheck a break that hopefully would let them get back on their feet. 

Those temporary measures are now in the past, as Colorado has been a leading state in bouncing back from the COVID crisis. While the road remains bumpy, at least there is light at the end of the tunnel (Ed: what did I say about mixing your metaphors?). And with that light comes a further rollback of the pandemic rules. So, it appears the Gov did the right thing for about the right amount of time, but we won’t be completely sure for several years at least, when we can look back at the totality of the crisis.

One other fun fact that has recently come to light has to deal with the anti-vax people and how deep their commitment is to living lives of dangerous science denial. Polis is also making it clear (as he should!) that if you want to work for the state of Colorado, you need to get vaccinated. Being safe to be around other people is now a listed and documented requirement of holding a state job, as it should be. 

You likely saw news stories over the last few months about people announcing they are going to remain proudly foolish and that they would rather quit their jobs than get the vaccine. Interestingly, as it turns out, most of that was bluster. Various recent news reports show that when faced with actually quitting their jobs or getting the vaccine, people are getting the vaccine. Airlines, hospitals, and other key industries are reporting actual quitting rates of 1%-3%, as it turns out, because apparently people like to keep their jobs.

And so we are now in a healthier place and Polis’s actions seem to make sense. He must balance the needs of property owners with the real-world implications of the pandemic. While there will never be a single and obviously correct way to decide such things, it appears that Polis is working hard to strike the right middle ground between overreacting and doing too little. 

History will offer a final verdict, but Polis seems to be on the right side of that debate.