Author: Hal Bidlack

Hal Bidlack It’s been 247 years since the most remarkable document in secular human history was crafted by Thomas Jefferson. His amazing Declaration of Independence contained not a single new idea invented by Jefferson, but rather represents a brilliant collection of the key ideas of the enlightenment era, all crafted as a “Dear King George”…

Hal Bidlack Before I begin today’s rant, I mean bombast, I mean column, I need to clear up a bit of confusion I created in my last one. Colorado Politics ace reporter Ernest Luning emailed me to point out that I had been unclear and at least a bit confusing when I was trying to…

Hal Bidlack As is so often the case, I’d love to be writing today about national issues. In particular, I’d love to write about the recent shameful behaviors we’ve seen at the United States Supreme Court. We could start with the fact that the three Trump appointees, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett all stressed the importance…

Hal Bidlack So, my kindly and forgiving editors here at Colorado Politics have this odd obsession with Colorado politics. And they really like it when I eschew national political news and focus on things happening here in the Centennial State. And I will, therefore, write about Colorado politics. In a minute… But first, I return…

Hal Bidlack Back when I was teaching the intro American government class to my students at the Air Force Academy, one concept I admit I worked hard to make sure cadets understood was that in almost every case of conflict requiring policy makers to make a decision, there was no simple and obvious right or…

Hal Bidlack Did you ever wonder why so much of the space program is based in Houston, Texas? Well, back in the Apollo days, the folks at the actual launch site in the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral controlled the launch of spacecraft until the launching rocket cleared the launch tower. At that point,…

Hal Bidlack If you are of a certain age, you may remember the name Abe Fortas. He was a lawyer and eventually a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) who became rather well known for the manner in which he left the nation’s highest court, but he was a remarkable man.…

Hal Bidlack Back in 2010, when I was the chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, I told people that this deepest dark-red county might change, one day, but not very soon. My own 38% or so in my congressional election of 2008 was, at the time, the most votes any Democrat had ever…

Hal Bidlack Do any of my kind and forgiving readers recall my column of last December, wherein I stated my belief that President Joe Biden would not, in fact, run for a second term? No one? Oh good (Editor: let me help, here it is…). While I was then, and remain now, a strong supporter…

Hal Bidlack My regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will recall I’ve often leapt atop my soapbox of idealism to offer my thoughts on gun control. And if there is one issue that shows James Madison might have been wrong – when he wrote The Federalist No. 10 back when Madison, Hamilton, Washington, and the other Federalists…