What Happened To Colorado?

What Happened to Colorado?

When did it get so bad? 

It started decades ago. Colorado used to be a solidly red state. But Democrats eyed it as a fulcrum into the heartland. Therefore, flipping Colorado blue became a critical Democrat project. The Colorado flip was architected nearly two decades ago, and accomplished in 2008. How they did it is documented here in the book, "The Colorado Blueprint". 

Colorado is a microcosm study of stunning political transformation. Winning became everything. Any state could build a “donor-built and donor-funded conglomerate” that could buy and control the state. The techniques pioneered in Colorado became the future of American politics -- of both parties. 

The Democrats followed this blueprint in other states as well. Republicans have been largely ineffective to stop it until the Trump MAGA force entered the political scene in 2015 with sufficient power to push back effectively. 

“What caused this stunning reversal [in Colorado]? It wasn't just the vagaries of political fortune; a carefully executed Democratic plan was instrumental in the turnaround. Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer debriefed the architects of the plan and now lay out what they learned in The Blueprint. "—Wall Street Journal”

In this 2008 article, NPR theorizes that the Colorado flip was because of  demographics -- euphemistically called "newcomers". These were both California in-movers, and immigrants from Latin America (including illegal migrants). But this alone does not explain it. 

Recall that, in 2008, Obama was on the ticket against McCain. Also recall that McCain suspended his campaign when the 2008 Wall Street economic debacle happened, to return to DC to appear in Senate proceedings. Many people, including this author, concluded at the time that he was "throwing the election" to Obama, since Obama did not suspend his campaign. Looking at this in retrospect, that entire show was political theater, designed to get Obama elected and give McCain plausible deniability. Not that McCain was any better than Obama. It was a Hobson's choice. But I digress. 

The new demographic in Colorado went overwhelmingly for Obama in the 2008 election. The GOTV organizing and funding machine that Obama created, ACORN, was left in place, and continued working through subsequent elections. Don't forget that Obama was a community organizer (Democrat activist) before he ran for Illinois state senate and won with zero elected office experience when his opponent was crippled by a sudden "bimbo eruption" -- a long-time favorite tool of Democrats to smear Republicans during elections. But again I digress. 

After solidifying majorities in the Colorado state legislature and governor's office, Democrats pushed election legislation of many kinds through the state legislature. The 2013 election overhaul made several changes that loosened election controls and would enable Democrat control to continue: 

The Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act of 2013 mandated that mail ballots be sent to every registered voter for most elections; eliminated assigned polling places while establishing voter service and polling centers where any voter in a county can cast a ballot—either early or on Election Day; authorized in-person same-day registration; and shortened the state residency requirements for voter registration.

Predictably, this system left Colorado solidly and irretrievably Democrat-controlled. 

The Colorado state judiciary is appointed, not elected, and so reflects the politics of the nominating commission and the governor. Judges reflected their political leanings from the bench. They opposed reforms aimed at curbing corruption. 

It should not come as a surprise, then, that the Colorado Supreme Court performed a stunt of judicial activism in throwing Trump off the 2024 GOP Primary ballot. The state has been leading up to this for years. The GOP has very little representation in Colorado at this point. The precedent in Colorado, although unconstitutional, will serve to encourage all blue states to get their supreme courts to all bar Trump from the 2024 ballot. 

Get ready for fireworks if that happens, because red states may at that point start removing Biden off Dem ballots. If these things happen the entire election will be in chaos and any result declared null and void, sued and countersued, etc. Democrats will never willingly relinquish power again to Donald Trump; they would actually rather burn the entire country down to prevent him having any hope of reversing course.