Why Get Involved in the Political Process

It is that time of year again when I will be harassing you all to get to the Capitol. Cynicism with politicians and the political process is at an all time high. Why get involved when they are going to listen to the corporations over people? Do they really care about us? What difference does any of this make? I cannot give a definitive answer to any of these questions but I can tell you that there is an absolutely clear correlation between the level of suffering by people with disabilities and the activity (or lack thereof) by the disability community. In states that do not have active disability communities their Medicaid programs are sold to managed care companies and they lose benefits like durable medical equipment even though there are laws to prevent that from happening. Not that Colorado is all nice and rosy, we have had bad things happen but the key is that we are there to minimize the damage and when that fails we have relationships with the people at the legislature to remedy damages. That was clear at the JBC hearings on Medicaid this past week. We had a strong turnout from the disability community at the hearing and it showed in the comments of JBC members. We have been able to do good stuff in the legislature over the years, everything from CDASS, to wheelchair and assistive technology lemon law, to creation of the Colorado Alliance for Health and Independence and the Laura Hershey Memorial Disability Benefits Support Program just last year. We have stopped bad things from happening. We have had disappointments such as losing a bill to make our civil rights protections worth something and failing to get sanctions when clients suffer retaliation in the Medicaid program. Winning in the legislative process is simple in a way—whoever get the most votes wins. Of course it is more complicated than that—there are different committees and one has to have a reasonable argument and strong data to get legislators. One must work with allies and allay the concerns of opponents, and watch for amendments. Killing a bad bill is the same thing but focusing on why a bill is a bad idea. If it is so simple, why don’t we get more done? Because while it is a relatively simple formula, it is very labor intensive. There are 100 legislators 65 representatives and 35 Senators. There are ten committees of reference in the house and senate (total of 20) plus ten year round standing committees, not counting interim committees. They all must be monitored and worked with and relationships must be developed with each legislator. Because none of us is an expert on ALL disability topics, we need a group to be able to have a relationship with each legislator. While the legislators are responsive to organizational representatives they really need to be hearing from their own constituents, at least in addition to our appointed representatives. What can make our community stand out is having strong constituent responses. That means that whenever one of us says something at the Capitol that the representatives on the committee or even on the floor when they are all together have heard the same thing from their constituents, and that these legislators KNOW the constituents who are calling. This seems overwhelming but it is possible if everyone really gets serious about the disability community and voting as a block. There are two things that matter in politics—one is money and the other is votes. As a community we don’t have much money and will likely be unable to make large contributions to campaigns. Fortunately, in Colorado we have laws limiting how much any one person can give to a campaign, making the second element even more powerful. The second thing that matters is votes—and votes come from people. Even with all of the power corporations have in our current society they don’t get to vote. There are always more of us than them. If each person with a disability/family member/ally were to be active citizens –by knowing your legislator and having them know you we could have anything we wanted. There are more than 400,000 of us in Colorado. If only a quarter of us were active that is 100,000 people –for only 100 legislators. It is a cop out to complain that we have no power or to whine that the system is corrupt. Getting involved does not have to be a major time commitment. It can be as easy a couple three minute calls a week, or attending a legislative coffee once or twice a month. If you are not working during the week and live in the RTD district you can come to the Capitol, even one half day a week would help. You don’t have to get up and speak in front of others, you can watch and be part of the community of people there to let the legislature know that we are an active voting community and will not be ignored or forsaken. Justin Dart, the father of the ADA and disability rights in this country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Whitlock_Dart,_Jr used to say “Get involved in politics as if your life depends on it… because it does” and nothing is more true in this day and age.