Face The State Editorial
On Tuesday’s front page, the Denver Post reports that “a coalition of religious leaders announces its opposition to a Denver ballot measure that would require police to impound vehicles of unlicensed drivers."
Here at Face The State, we’re a pretty libertarian bunch. We hesitate—often thinking twice—before advocating more government intervention. But the logic of this “coalition” has us scratching our heads.
The proposal, known as Initiative 100, will appear on this November’s ballot for city voters. Its opposition, calling itself “We Believe Colorado,” is described in the Post report as “an interfaith group challenging the political agenda of social conservatives and the religious right.”
At a Monday news conference, it took only moments before the coalition turned the subject toward race. With Rev. Andrew Simpson, vice president of the Colorado Council of Churches, taking to the mic, he referred to the measure as “dehumanizing,” and according to the Post, alleged that it would promise “a return to racial and ethnic profiling that promises protection against uninsured drivers while stirring up hatred.”
Under current state law, illegal immigrants are not allowed to obtain driver’s licenses. In Simpson’s world, breaking one law should allow permit drivers to violate another without consequences.
Immigration policy is complicated. But one thing is clear: If you are going to get behind the wheel of a car, get some insurance and make sure you have a license. The proposed policy is color-blind, subjecting all unlicensed drivers to a mandate requiring that without a license, a car gets impounded with a $2,500 bond required to get it back. And as the initiative’s supporters point out, the policy would apply to drunk drivers who have had their driving privileges revoked as much as it would apply to illegal immigrants. In 2007 alone, Denver police issued 20,000 citations for charges related to unlicensed drivers.
This is the second time that Simpson’s coalition has garnered ample ink in the Post to launch its charges of racism in the past several weeks. On June 10th, the Post also devoted space to the Colorado Council of Churches and its announcement that it would not support Amendment 46, a statewide ballot initiative approved for the November ballot that, if passed, would prohibit race or gender preferences in public hiring, contracting, and education.
"Progress has been made in overcoming the effects of centuries of discrimination against women and people of color, but we are not there yet. As people of faith, we feel called to stand with them," Jim Ryan, the council's executive director, told the Post. A few weeks later, Ryan appeared in a huge Rocky Mountain News photo, side by side with Jesse Jackson just days after Jackson’s questionable remarks about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
In 2006, the council also received major print coverage for coming out in support of the pro-gay marriage Referendum I.
If Ryan, Simpson, and their friends are called to anything, it’s likely the mic. As reporters continue to give them a venue to continuously spout their predictable political rhetoric, we get the message. Liberals can be Christians too. We just hope we don’t have misfortune of being hit by one within the city limits of Denver.