Ask most folks about our elected leaders and chances are quite good that there will be a general outcry of disappointment and anger. The US congress has a current approval rating of near 20%, or so, and roughly two-thirds of respondents hold a negative opinion. There have certainly been times when those low numbers have been well earned. But if you’ve followed my musings at all, you have seen that several times I have leapt atop my rickety soapbox of idealism to talk about the good stuff our elected are doing, and how they work quite hard. And almost always their work is carried out far from the bright lights of public attention.

As an old political science professor at the Air Force Academy, I often taught about the workhorses and the show horses that get elected. My old boss – the remarkable Sen. Michael Bennet – is the quintessential work horse, working nearly endless hours far from media attention. The opposite is Sen. Ted Cruz, who seeks the spotlight so relentlessly that he apparently doesn’t have time to do much legislative work.

But even the least capable member (cough…Cruz…cough) of the US Senate gets far more media attention than the average member of a state legislature. And yet, as I’ve avowed before, the legislative work that most directly impacts your daily life is created at the state and local levels. And that is why I found a couple of recent Colorado Politics articles so instructive about how things actually work in governance and how most state-level elected are working quite hard on your behalf.

The first story I want to draw to your attention involves what many folks might think is a tedious and perhaps even unnecessary reediting of old state laws. In this particular case, the bill – House Bill 1169 – would simply add the word “consent” to the laws dealing with sexual assault. The goal is to make the language in existing sexual assault laws less “archaic” and “confusing.”

As the legislation that stated what instructions judges must give to juries in such cases was written back in the 1970s, it has become, well, dated and dangerous. Back then, under the existing law only women could be victims of sexual assault and you could not be assaulted by your spouse. Clearly times have changed, and the laws desperately need updating. The hope is that by adding the word “consent” to jury instructions jurors will be less confused and more able to render justice. And so, far from any significant media attention (except here at CP, of course) dedicated legislators are working hard to create a more just world.

Another decidedly unsexy bit of legislative work involves a bill recently moved along by the state legislature’s transportation committee. Now, before we go any farther, I must confess that I am, well, not a car guy. I have no interest in cars beyond their ability to take me where I want to go. In my family, my wife is the car person. Heck, she can even tell the difference between a Camaro and a Corvette (although personally, I think they are the same thing).

Nonetheless, at least some folks in the state senate know enough about cars to work on legislation that will seek to curb the ridiculously high rate of theft of catalytic converters from cars; often from dealer lots. These gizmos (too technical?) are vital to modern cars, as they convert nasty toxins that would otherwise go out the tailpipe into far less dangerous stuff like water vapor and carbon monoxide.

And how do they do this?

Wait, didn’t you read that part above about me knowing nothing about cars? No worries, the Google will help us.

These catalytic converter gizmos do their work by employing various precious metals, such as palladium, rhodium and platinum which, through a catalytic process (He! I bet that’s where they get the name), make bad stuff far less bad. These metals are quite valuable and can be sold to scrap yards for upwards of $300 per stolen unit.

The legislation, Senate Bill 9, would try to make it much harder to sell stolen converters to scrap dealers and auto parts recyclers. Under the new law, such people would be required to check with the national motor vehicle title information system to see if the part was stolen. As noted in the CP story, catalytic converter thefts have soared dramatically, increasing in Colorado by more than 5,000% (from 189 in 2019 to 9,811 in 2021). In Denver alone, the theft rate has increased by 15,000% during the same time. Thieves that know their business can crawl under a car, remove the bolts that hold the converter in place, and be gone with their ill-gotten goods in fewer than two minutes.

I’m guessing that not too many folks are going to actively disagree with either of these proposed bits of legislation. And, yet, even though both bills directly impact a relatively small number of people, compared to the population as a whole, both will make Colorado a better place to live.

Once again, the workhorses are at work and are making the world a better place. They don’t get much attention, but our lives are a bit better for their passion.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.