eric sondermann
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A cynical import Colorado doesn’t need | SONDERMANN
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“But mommy, he started it.” Every parent, definitely those with more than one kid, has heard this instinctively defensive reaction to the point of exhaustion. It is the ultimate deflection or shifting of the blame. A similar rationale, often about as juvenile, has overtaken our divisive, dysfunctional politics. All manner of bad behavior is excused…
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One small step for dialing back the partisanship | SONDERMANN
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Much ink, including a good deal of my own, has been spilled on the excesses of super-charged, toxic partisanship in this current era. Except for true believers along with those who profit from this all-consuming poison, there is broad agreement that it needs to be toned way down and dialed far back. The nearly 51%…
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Michael Bennet and ‘the question’ | SONDERMANN
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The train usually runs only one way. The route goes from the state Capitol to Washington, D.C. State legislators become members of Congress; governors become senators. See Hickenlooper, John. Including our junior senator, no matter his years, a total of 12 current U.S. senators arrived there after first serving stints as governors of their respective…
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The biggest accelerant of our political tribalism | SONDERMANN
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In years past, my go-to word in describing our political condition was “polarization.” I used it endlessly and still do on occasion. But as time has moved on, and the divide has only grown in depth and toxicity, polarization no longer seems to fully capture the magnitude of what has overtaken us. In its place,…
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A bit of positive thinking for the holidays | SONDERMANN
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These days, some out-and-out positivity is perhaps out of character for me. I tend to view our politics and the world more broadly with considerable alarm. My morning routine most often consists of reading for a solid 60 or 90 minutes, all online, all news and commentary from a variety of publications. As this period…
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Julie Gonzales’s long but not impossible odds | SONDERMANN
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Allow me to start with a flashback. It was Thanksgiving 2024, just over 12 months back. For the first time, our son Clarke hosted the family Thanksgiving near New York City. It is a sign of our aging when the kids start to step into the role of host and convenor. The occasion was lovely.…
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Dear Abby: A better answer to your question | SONDERMANN
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It was the beginning of October. I had been invited to speak to a class on political journalism at Colorado College, my old alma mater. The class was taught by none other than Vince Bzdek, the editor-in-chief of this paper and its sister publications. This was a relatively small seminar of perhaps a dozen undergraduate…
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The Colorado Lottery’s mega-bad idea | Sondermann
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There are plenty of lousy, miserable, misguided whims out there. Then, every so often, you come across a notion so wrong-headed that it qualifies as phenomenally bad. Or, in words the marketing whizzes at the Colorado Lottery might understand, let’s call this a mega-bad idea. The proposal in question, recently adopted by the Lottery Commission,…
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Mid-decade redistricting and the race to the bottom | SONDERMANN
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Per Merriam-Webster, one of the definitions of the word “politics” is, “The total complex of relations between people living in society.” Otherwise put, politics, when managed correctly, constitutes the organization of society for maximum peace, tranquility, prosperity and thriving. It is the art of how disparate people get along. Of course, the practice of politics…
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COLUMN: Significance of Democratic triumph still unknown
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Excuse the truism, but winning sure beats losing. Rarely has a political party needed a victory as badly as Democrats did in the off-year elections two weeks ago. Theirs was a party in despair, struggling to come to terms with how they were so thoroughly routed by Donald Trump and his partisans last November and…
