Ken Gordon was term-limited out of the Colorado Senate in 2008 -- but he's not going quietly. In fact, he's started a new blog, where he offers this thesis: "I believe that the American people fundamentally misunderstand their form of government and their place in it."
As proof, he offers this story:
"When I was elected to be the Minority Leader in the Colorado House, I took the office staff and interns to lunch at a restaurant in a nearby shopping mall. I was feeling proud of my recent election to leadership and I wanted to confirm my importance in the world, so I asked all of the people I was with to fan out in the mall, and ask 25 people who their State Representative was, before they got to the restaurant.
"During lunch we added up the results. We had talked to a total of 108 people and 9 of them correctly gave the name of a State Representative. We didn't ask where they lived so if they named a Representative we gave them full credit regardless of whether it was actually theirs. Some people had given the name of a U.S. Congressperson or Senator. Some had named the Mayor of Denver."
And today, five months after Gordon's replacement was sworn in, people no doubt would still name Gordon, who took on plenty of sticky issues in the legislature. "Most people feel that public policy is someone else's job," he writes. "They feel that the people in office are the adults. They are the children, and they are comfortable letting the adults make the decisions. Or if they are not comfortable, their lack of comfort does not translate into any useful action."
Gordon's out to change that with This Matters, where he's starting the "necessary conversation."
Don't leave Ken talking to himself. Join in.
