When I sat down to write today’s missive, I first thought I might wish our terrific governor a quick recovery from what I assumed must be a nasty case of carpal tunnel syndrome after I checked my inbox and found a large number of gubernatorial press releases talking about all the bills he has signed into law.

But given the governor is likely fine, if a tad sore in his signing hand, I wanted to bring another Colorado Politics story to your attention. It seems some of our state legislators, as the session wore on, got, well, a bit testy, and they took to social media to attack fellow legislators.

And I think that is a problem.

Back when I was teaching political science and American government at the AF Academy, I often asked my students why, in their minds, politics had become so nasty and personal? And that was back before I retired in 2006. In today’s climate, with a GOP that has become a cult of personality to a megalomaniac, it is far worse. You’d have to go back to 1850 to find us this divided.

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But anyway, my students would posit different theories and noted such animas ebbs and flows, especially around the time of the Civil War. But for modern times, I would offer an idea no student ever came up with, ironic given it was the Air Force Academy. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. That and jets.

As I noted in an earlier column, prior to roughly 1960, most members of the U.S. House and Senate did not come home every weekend, and it wasn’t expected by constituents. Travel by train or car made it essentially impossible for all but those who lived close to D.C. to get home. As a result, the members hung around on weekends, and often interacted. The longest tenured House Speaker, Sam Rayburn, who was speaker off and on in the 1940s and 1950s (in three different terms, as control of the House went back and forth from Dem to GOP) served as speaker for 17 years.

And for many of those years, he held a famous poker party on Friday nights. Once you crossed the threshold of the poker room, no politics was discussed, and lots of male bonding (it was the 1950s and 1960s) took place. These poker games were seen as a way to become an insider, something devoutly wished for by lots of House and Senate members. They worked hard to get an invitation. As a result, the members got to know each other personally, and those personal friendships made it much harder to become vituperative and vindictive toward those on the other side of the aisle when everyone got back to politics the next Monday.

Then came jets.

With jet travel, even folks representing Hawaii could make it home over weekends, especially when the schedules of the House and Senate often did not include Fridays and Mondays as full session workdays. Representatives went home regularly, and that behavior then became expected by the folks back home. As a result, in today’s legislatures (certainly national and I suspect in states), the members of opposite parties don’t have the opportunity to get to know each other very well, and it is much easier to be, well, mean to people you don’t interact with.

Cut to Denver and a recent CoPo story.

Now, there was a time when I was a reasonably tech-savvy guy, with my Commodore computer. But I admit social media has never really appealed to me. I am on Facebook, as I’m told people of advanced ages often are, but I don’t tweet, or post on Instagram, or any other social media platform. I’m reminded of the words of the late, great Betty White, who, when presenting her opening monologue the one time she served as host of Saturday Night Live remarked that that whole show seemed like a colossal waste of time. That is my view of most social media, though I do enjoy YouTube’s reruns of “What’s My Line” from the 1950s.

But like a certain famous fellow now on trial, it appears a number of our state representatives are way into social media. And by that, I mean they use Twitter — sorry — X (so dumb) and other such platforms to bash opponents, saying things they very likely would not have the courage to say to their opponent’s face.  I’ve never respected such actions, even from those I might agree with politically.

Short of Gov. Jared Polis throwing poker parties, I’m not sure there is a solution to this very modern problem that divides and enrages, rather than seeking middle ground. As noted in the CoPo story, a lawmaker today is more likely to post on social media than to introduce a bill. That seems way off to me.

Let me give you a terrible example of the kind of vitriol being spewed. The CoPo story even notes how some legislators are deliberately avoiding contact with each other, preferring to use social media to attack. I’m sorry, that’s shameful and not what you were elected to do.

A truly vile example, which I understand is likely part of an ongoing feud, came from Republican Rep. Brandy Bradley, apparently one who often attacks on social media. She attacked Democrat Rep. Jenny Willford, saying on X, “she fights for pedophiles, trans felons to hide behind name changes, kids to change their names behind parents’ backs, no parental rights, stripping all of your TABOR refunds, increased property taxes, taking away 2A rights, stripping first amendment rights, and criminals getting decreased penalties.”

I’m sorry, but to say someone “fights for pedophiles,” is among other outrageous statements one can make, and is, well, despicable. And she posted that apparently without shame. Willford’s response was “I suppose that when you have zero power, the only thing you can do is be a bully and tear other people down. My mom used to tell me that a person who wants to hurt you with their words — is hurting inside. Be well, Rep.”  Pretty spot on, I think.

I had a dear rather famous friend, now passed, who, upon receiving an email with such viciousness would reply “Dear Sir or Ma’am, It appears a three-year-old got access to your computer. I thought you should know.”

Not to suggest anyone’s hands are completely clean in politic invective, but I will note that in my failed 2008 congressional run, I said in every speech Doug Lamborn is a good and decent man doing what he thinks is right. He is just wrong about everything, and I hope he feels the same way about me.” ReP. Lamborn would later tell me he respected my tone.

Clearly it is far too late for a rule to prohibit our elected officials from using social media, and of course that would be a bad idea, as such channels are regularly used to communicate important things and to do good work, plus there is that whole First Amendment thing.  

But perhaps we could find a way, at the ballot box most likely, to reward those who act with civility and punish those who, well, spew venom. And perhaps the real media could bring posts such as the vile one noted above, to the greater public’s attention.

It’s a long shot, of course, In the meantime, let’s at least be sure to keep track of which elected officials are using social media for the good, even if partisan, and which are using it to behave like petty and hurtful teenagers.

Fingers crossed.

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.