In an age marked by cynics and charlatans, authentic leaders with backbone command attention.

Let us take note, then, of former Colorado Senate President John Andrews, who has published a new memoir to mark his 80th year. “Front Row: Eight Grateful Decades at the Political Parade” would make a great stocking-stuffer this Christmas for your favorite Colorado political junkie. 

The best history goes deeper than stale names and dates. It’s the tale of the interaction of people, ideas and hard work — the flow of successes and frustrations, ups and downs, wise decisions and whopping mistakes. And the most compelling history is told through the candid stories and experiences of compelling leaders.

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This memoir is strikingly modest in sharing a life of great and lasting impact that has changed lives and created fruitful frontiers for families who will never meet my friend John Andrews. 

Here’s what you learn about life, and about Colorado politics, in the pages of Front Row. 

Wrapped up in Sen. Andrews is an increasingly rare combination of thoughtful idealism, quiet persuasion, purposeful pragmatism and a successful, energetic commitment to building lasting institutions.

What’s the indispensable ingredient?

Backbone.  

In fact, Andrews has long used the mythical “little mountain town of Backbone, Colorado USA” as the metaphor for the “ridgeline between what is right and true and what isn’t.” 

He has been a consistent warrior for preserving, and reviving, the fundamental values that are the stuff of the nation’s backbone and have been for 250 years. Decades ago, Andrews knew exactly where the country was slouching toward without a course correction. 

He caught a lot of political javelins, including from his own side of the aisle, for urging the legislature to, for example, require the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in all public schools and the display of the Ten Commandments in all public buildings — including schools. More recently, he sparked a politically correct wildfire by publicly warning of the threat from radical Islam. 

You can’t say Sen. Andrews wasn’t fashion forward. 

The Andrews agenda also successfully protected seedling reforms in fiscal and education policies, giving them the ability to grow into strong oaks treasured by Colorado voters across the political spectrum — and increasingly safe from progressives buzzsaws. 

Take our state constitution’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) — and liberals have tried to for decades. 

Many Colorado leaders were appalled, on a bipartisan basis, at the idea voters would want to put enforceable limits on state government — and require a vote on tax increases. The unwashed took up residence in Colorado’s fiscal palace. But Andrews the think-tank advocate, constantly on the side of the less powerful who don’t have special-interest groups, helped make it an untouchable “third rail” that today’s legislators are increasingly politically petrified to dismantle. 

The same is true of public school choice and charter schools, which drive the teacher unions nuts but have benefited millions of Colorado families over the years — especially in Black and Latino communities. Andrews and his fellow idea warriors around the country helped launch these reforms.   

Andrews’ most important achievement may be the creation of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, an institution that teaches, empowers and inspires young conservatives motivated by a love for God and country. Much like the young John Andrews we meet in the pages of Front Row. 

Being a public policy entrepreneur and an elected politician is not an easy calling, as Andrews shares in his warts-and-all memoir. It takes more than just pushing out bland policy papers. It takes wise, tireless and creative leadership to ensure one’s work is more than a passing headline or one more bullet point in an esoteric news release.

It takes a leader who is smart, tough and possessed of a steel backbone.   

Conservative pioneer William F. Buckley said many decades ago: “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so.”

John Andrews has spent decades working to stop bad things and start good things. We’re lucky he got a seat in Colorado’s political front row. 

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.