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The O. Zone: Commencement is no time to retreat to a thankfully bygone era
One of my three sons graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Colorado Boulder earlier this month, and I was disappointed.
Not in him. But in the job market he’s entering into. And in the overall attack on infrastructure, science and academic research coming out of Washington.
Once so promising and on a robustly recovering post-pandemic arc launched by the Biden administration passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill, CHIPS and Science Act and huge IRA clean-energy investments, that economy is now teetering on the brink of recession thanks to the Trump administration’s misguided tariff wars and efforts to roll back Biden bills.
I was also disappointed in CU’s timidity in the face of Trump’s anti-democratic authoritarianism. I’ve detailed on this site how CU has been complicit in undermining our representative republic by underwriting Trump’s Jan. 6 architect, John Eastman, and how the university is still playing footsie with fascism at the conservative Benson Center.
But on May 8 I was hoping for some redemption at a commencement where the state’s flagship university had a chance to deliver the same pushback as Harvard in resisting Trump’s assault on higher learning. Instead, CU played it safe with an Olympic athlete as a commencement speaker and milquetoast speeches passing the buck to graduates to stand up for democracy.
Where was former dean of the CU Law School and current Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who has sued or joined 20 lawsuits taking on Trump’s unconstitutional executive orders and moves to take the policymaking purse strings from Congress while defying the judiciary?
Weiser, a Democratic candidate for governor, has been a past commencement speaker at his alma mater and would have been an excellent choice in these tenuous times. He is standing up for Colorado’s environment, protecting our water, and fully understands what’s at stake. A former clerk for two different Supreme Court justices, he understands the need for reform.
Another great choice would have been U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat whose sprawling district includes Boulder, Fort Collins, Vail and most of Eagle County. Assistant Minority Leader to Hakeem Jeffries, Neguse is a former Trump impeachment manager and currently chairs the House Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group.
A CU grad and Colorado’s first African-American congressman, Neguse has never delivered CU’s main commencement address, but he would have been an obvious choice as he works to counteract an overtly lawless and racist regime that’s defiling the constitution in Washington.
So much of what I heard at CU’s May 8 commencement, from administrators and regents, amounted to, “So sorry we’re handing you this steaming pile of political poo, grads, but now it’s up to you to deal with the mess we made.” So very far from inspirational.
The only words of real wisdom came from the student council president at the end of the ceremony. Senior Class Council President Aaditya Pore, in his closing remarks, urged graduates to “move forward with a commitment to kindness and … empathy.” Pretty much the opposite of Trump’s America.
In my last column, I alluded to the generational change that needs to happen in this country politically – the change former President Joe Biden talked about but didn’t deliver on in his first term, waiting far too long to pass the baton to Kamala Harris and thereby heading off an open primary.
Biden, 82, was clearly diminished and too old to run for the White House again, and by failing to serve as a generational bridge and waiting too long to get out, Biden opened the door for the return of President Donald Trump, who is 78 and will be 79 on June 14. That also happens to be the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which Trump avoided serving in during the Vietnam War by receiving five draft deferments for bone spurs.
Trump will spend a whopping $45 million on a military parade to mark the dual occasions after letting the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, slash spending on the Social Security Administration and as Congress now targets Medicaid spending that will likely spill over into Medicare for seniors. Trump is targeting the very generation he purports to love.
Trump clearly is also too old to be president, and he babbles senselessly on all manner of topics. It would be sadly funny if Trump wasn’t commander in chief; instead, it’s often just flat-out terrifying. So I’d want neither Biden nor Trump as governor of Colorado or even CU commencement speaker.
Weiser just turned 57, and Neguse just turned 41. That’s about right in terms of the next generation of leadership in Colorado’s governor’s mansion, the U.S. Capitol and the White House. Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a former presidential candidate who surprised some by jumping into the governor’s race against Weiser, is 60 and will be 61 on Nov. 28. The Democrat has to be considered the frontrunner in that race.
An increasingly vocal opponent of Trump whom some critics say should be even more forceful, Bennet ought to strike a deal to appoint the term-limited AG Weiser to fill his Senate seat if elected. Backroom political deal-making to clear the primary field? Who cares? Take a page from Mitch McConnell’s playbook (see U.S. Supreme Court stacking to tip the scales toward minority rule).
Colorado’s other Democratic U.S. senator, former Denver mayor and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is 73 and seeking another term in the upper chamber of Congress. He’ll be 74 in February of next year, just as the 2026 race for another six-year term is heating up. Hickenlooper has been a stalwart public servant, and his folksy mannerisms have served him well in sometimes purple Colorado.
But it may be time for Hick to step aside. I mentioned to him his endorsement of Bennet over Weiser for governor and he had some interesting takes in this story on both Colorado Newsline and RealVail.com. “Bring him on,” he said of Weiser in the U.S. Senate.
Speaking in Eagle at an April meeting of elected officials and first responders concerned about federal government cuts to public lands staffing and wildland firefighting resources, Hickenlooper – a former oil and gas geologist turned brewpub owner – mused that it’s gotten so dry in Colorado he doesn’t have to pee as much.
That’s the kind of thing grandpa makes all the grandkids cringe with at Christmas dinner, and I know because I just turned 60 and find myself increasingly blurting things out that should stay in my brain. Is Hickenlooper verging into Trump’s obsession with the word “groceries” territory? Not quite. But maybe someone younger should take the wheel.
I know Bernie Sanders is still the resistance standard-bearer at 83, but here in Colorado we have so many younger choices to not just stand up to Trump but also pass laws and institute reforms that will actually prevent another Trump kleptocracy from rising to power again.
Vail local and current Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is 50; current Gov. Jared Polis recently turned 50; U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a veteran who showed so much poise on Jan. 6, is 46; U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen is 43; and state Sen. Dylan Roberts, who told me he briefly considered getting into the AG’s race to replace Weiser, is just 35.
We need younger and more forceful leadership in this country to beat back the forces of Trumpism, prosecute the crimes that are being committed, and pass laws to keep our nation moving forward in the global order instead of retreating to a bygone era of isolationism, nationalism and unchecked racism and sexism.
Editor’s note: The O. Zone is a recurring opinion column by RealVail.com publisher David O. Williams. Please read how you can help support this site by considering a donation or signing up for news alerts … or both.
David O. Williams
