Wow, there is so much to not talk about this week.

Part of me wants to go on a tirade against certain tourists in our national parks. A recent news report found a certain unnamed gentleman (it’s pretty much always men, right?) decided his visit to Yellowstone National Park wouldn’t be complete without, well, petting a bison. Citing pictures from an Instagram account that tracks dumb tourists, Yahoo News reported the bison was not amused and knocked the man down. I’m on Team Bison on this one.

But I’m not going to talk about that.

I’m also not going to talk about the newly elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, elected after three weeks of Republican infighting and incompetence, which was still somehow Joe Biden’s fault. But after running the first speaker of the session out of office, the GOP then rejected multiple nominees for the post before setting on Louisiana U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson. My first thought was that of Denver’s new mayor, and how he and the new speaker may find themselves getting each other’s mail for a while, until folks remember that Mayor Mike Johnston has a “t” in his name.

In electing Johnson, the GOP picked the least experienced speaker since they elected a guy from Kentucky named John Carlisle back in 1883. Johnson was only elected in 2016 but has steadily risen in Republican congressional circles. Ironically, this supposed “compromise” candidate is far from the moderate center. Rather, he is a very far-right representative who at least one commentator called “Jim Jordan with a jacket and a smile.”

Johnson, for example, was one of the 90 Republicans who voted, essentially, to shut down the government by voting against the stopgap bill that continued government funding until Nov. 17. We’ll see what happens as we approach that date, as Johnson might well be willing – or even eager – to just shut the place down. Oh, and he was also one of the GOPers who voted to decertify the 2020 election, and he was the author of an amicus (friend of the court) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, in support of tossing the votes of the good people of Georgia, Michigan (go Blue!), Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, giving the election to a certain now-indicted former president. The Supreme Court rejected the claims, part of the 60-plus failures of the losing campaign to subvert the election in court. I would think getting tossed out of court 60 times would be humiliating or at least humbling, but apparently not so much.

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Anyway, Johnson is now the speaker. Oh, and he’s been equivocal on aid to Ukraine – you know, the people that are at war with Russia, the country that used to be the adversary of the U.S. back when Republicans were anti-communist?

But I’m not going to talk about that either.

Instead, I’d like to draw your attention to a Colorado Politics story I found fascinating. Take a moment to read it, I’ll wait here… All set?

Back when I was teaching political science at the Air Force Academy, I’d often talk with the cadets about the fact most people focus whatever level of political interest they have at the highest levels of government, especially the presidency. All the while, in fact, the level of government that most often and most directly impacts our lives are the lower levels of government, especially local government.

As you saw when you read the story, the Chaussees, a prominent family in the lovely eastern El Paso County town of Calhan, has been deeply involved with local government, with several of them serving as elected officials or in other roles. The family also owns an RV park, one of two in the town. I’ve driven past it many times, it looks like a nice establishment.

Well, there was another person in Calhan, Thoams Brierton, who wanted to take part of his existing mobile home park and convert it for use by visiting RVers. After his intentions were known, the town board began taking votes on new restrictions and rules for any “new” RV parks, but those new rules would not apply to the family’s existing RV park. Those rules rendered Brierton unable finish his proposed RV park, and the property sits vacant to this day.

None of the Chaussee family members who voted, either as part of the town board or as part of the planning and development committee, recused themselves from voting on placing regulations on a direct business competitor. Heck, as reported in CoPo, two of the three votes needed on the town board to put the new rules in place were provided by two members of the Chaussee family.

I’ve often talked about the challenge in our republic about when rights seem to come into conflict with each other, and this seems to be another great example. That is because the 10th Circuit Court found the Local Government Antitrust Act gave the Chaussee family immunity when acting in their roles as local elected officials, even though the matter dealt directly with their own personal business interests. The court did note, “By not recusing themselves under the state’s ethics code, “it appears on the record… that at least some of the town defendants did engage in some misconduct, but the claims at issue are antitrust claims.”

And you know what? I agree with the court.

The larger issue of local officials being immune from the countless potential lawsuits that would otherwise result from their public actions is, well, more important than a particular RV park not getting approved.

And that is correct. If our elected officials, at all levels of government, had to worry about getting sued all the time, governance would be impossible. And I can almost hear my kindly readers shouting, “but that’s not fair!” And they are correct. The ruling offered by the court was the least unfair option, not the fully just option. But how willing, say, would firefighters be to run into burning buildings to save lives if they had to worry that they might get sued for breaking a lamp inside the home? How about cops having to worry that every drunk they arrest might file a suit over the handcuffs being too tight?

Sometimes the least bad is the best we can hope for.

And though that’s a pity, it is also reality in a republic.

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.