Michael Bennet, Cory Gardner stress bipartisan solutions at Colorado State University forum

Americans used to tar and feather one another, settle political disputes with duels and believe it was acceptable for one human being to own another human being.

Those are some of the “big mistakes” that have been made in our country’s history, former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Monday. And the only way to fix mistakes of that magnitude, he said, is for people who disagree to come together and work for a solution that moves our nation forward.

Gardner, a former Republican legislator who served four years in the House of Representatives and six years in the Senate, was speaking at a forum at Colorado State University titled “Building Bridges: Bipartisan Perspectives on Democracy.” Also speaking was current U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, in an hourlong event moderated by CSU President Amy Parsons as part of the university’s “Thematic Year of Democracy.”

From 2015-2021, Gardner, a CSU graduate with a law degree from the University of Colorado, and Bennet, who grew up in Washington, D.C., and has a law degree from Yale, were the two senators representing Colorado. And although they came from different political parties and different backgrounds, Gardner, 49, and Bennet, 59, often worked together on bipartisan legislation that both believed was best for Colorado and the entire country, they said.

People shouldn’t be expected to agree with each other all of the time about everything, Bennet said. That only happens in “totalitarian societies where there’s somebody in charge telling you what to think.”

Speaking to an audience of about 140 people in a ballroom at the Lory Student Center, Bennet went on to say: “I believe this country was founded on the idea that we would disagree with each other, and out of those disagreements we would create more imaginative and durable solutions than any king or tyrant could come up with on their own.

“And I think 230 years later, notwithstanding all of our imperfections, that is still the central difference between the way we make decisions here — and I think they’re better decisions — and the way they’re making decisions in a Russia or China or Iran or North Korea.”

More: Governors of Colorado, Utah urge civility in politics in 'Disagree Better' talk at CSU

Economic mobility one of biggest threats to democracy, Bennet says

Economic mobility, the opportunity to improve one’s financial and social well-being, is one of Bennet’s biggest concerns with the survival of our democracy, he said. He saw the struggles people have trying to escape poverty firsthand while serving as superintendent of Denver Public Schools from 2005-2009.

The largest school district in Colorado, he said, consisted of “mostly kids of color, most of the kids living in poverty, and whose parents often were working two to three jobs.

“And, no matter what they did, they couldn’t get their kids out of poverty, in part, because we’ve had this economy for 50 years in this country that really has not delivered the kind of economic mobility we would wish for. A lot of the countries around the world that we compete with have greater economic mobility than we have.

“That’s deeply concerning to me, because I think you cannot preserve a democracy if people feel like there’s not economic opportunity. You have to have both, political and economic opportunity, for it to work.”

Protestors against U.S. support for Israel's war escorted out peacefully

The start of the forum was disrupted by seven people who stood up and shouted at Bennet for his support of continued funding for Israel’s military for its war against Hamas militants in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks across southern Israel that killed 1,200. The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Aljazeera news network. Each protestor was allowed to briefly speak their mind, then politely escorted from the ballroom. As soon as one was escorted out, another would stand up to shout similar complaints.

Parsons, Gardner and Bennet didn’t seem to mind the disruption, with each going on to note that the ability to express those sentiments without fear of being hauled off to jail is what makes our American democracy special.

Bennet, Gardner speak on importance of U.S. support for Ukrainians 'who will die for democracy'

They then used the disruption to discuss the recent congressional deadlock over funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the bipartisan efforts over the weekend to get it approved.

Noting that there are people in Ukraine and elsewhere who “will still die for democracy,” Bennet emphasized the importance of the U.S. support.

“For us not to support them would have been a capitulation to tyranny,” he said.

Gardner, a CSU graduate from Yuma, was equally supportive of the vote to approve that funding, acknowledging it might cost Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, his position as speaker of the House. “If the fight is contained there, and tyranny, (Russian president) Vladimir Putin, defeated in Ukraine, that is a major victory, not just for the United States but for freedom around the globe.”

Congress doesn't have to choose between Ukraine aid and border security, Gardner says

Gardner went on to criticize those who suggest the U.S. shouldn’t be supporting Ukraine’s war against Russia without also funding security on our own southern border with Mexico.

More: 'Next 4 years may be a difficult 4 years,' retiring Congressman Ken Buck says at CSU forum

“We’re a nation that can do more than one thing at a time, and if we think that we can only focus on one thing, shame on us; we’re belittling our country,” he said. “So, let’s figure out how to do this right. Let’s do both. We can do both; we are doing both. But the bottom line is let’s not have this fight here when there are people willing to put their own blood into it now, because they have been doing so for the last many, many years.”

People in South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan — all countries Bennet said he recently visited — are watching closely how the U.S. deals with Ukraine to see what kind of support they can count on from the U.S. should China or North Korea threaten military action against them, he said.

Polarized politics a bigger concern in Washington than elsewhere

Gardner and Bennet both said the world respects the U.S. and its support for democracy and isn’t dwelling on our increasing political polarization the way many Americans are. Gardner recalled talking to constituents after the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections who couldn’t understand how Donald Trump and Joe Biden, respectively, had each won.

The people he spoke to along the Interstate 25 corridor in 2016, he said, couldn’t understand how Trump had won, since nobody they knew had voted for him. And in 2020, he heard the same from folks on Colorado’s Eastern Plains who said they didn’t know anybody who had voted for Biden.

“We have a real problem in this country with confirmation bias,” Gardner said. “… We have to realize that we sometimes surround ourselves in our comfort zones, and we have to figure out how to get out of that, so we can take information from other quarters. Information that we may not be happy to receive. To admit that maybe the other person is right and has a point and to be able to have that dialogue.”

Bennet pointed out that most Americans are too busy living their daily lives to focus on the political divisiveness that dominates their social-media feed and programming on the 24/7 television news channels.

“Most people in the country don’t have the time to be polarized,” Bennet said. “If they’re learning, they’re going to an elementary school or middle school, or they’re raising their children, or they’re starting a small business or running a farm or a ranch on the Eastern Plains of Colorado.

“What they’re doing is living their lives.”

Yet, he and Gardner both implored students in the audience to get involved. To work together to find solutions to the problems our country is facing.

“The worse you think it is, the more involved you need to be, because if you’re not involved, it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Bennet said. “… Our entire democracy depends on the willingness of students at this university and your peers across the state being involved.

“That’s going to be the difference between whether we succeed or whether we fail.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell and  facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Michael Bennet, Cory Gardner speak at Colorado State University forum