It occurs to me (actually, it’s been occurring to me for a while, now), that in order to affect change, you not only need to get involved … you also must have a seat at the table. But to get that seat, you must be reasonable; you must be willing to listen; you must be willing to understand; you must be willing to learn; and you must have the courage to accept that – at the right moment, for the right reasons – you must be willing to compromise, or even amend your position. That’s the key to successfully representing your constituents, and that’s the key to being a successful leader.
It was inexplicably flattering and humbling to me that friends were willing to stand beside me (even supporting financially in many cases) in this last election cycle. But as I explained to them, if I was ever going to get into this mess, this was not yet the time, and the extreme chips had not yet finished falling. I couldn’t justify accepting their trust and support for a goal that was not tenable in that climate. Maybe someday…
But that’s a very significant part of the issue today. I still believe that the GOP – the true GOP – has a good message, which kept Colorado purple for over half a century. Fiscally responsible conservatism, and socially moderate pragmatism. That is the Republican baseline I grew up in – in Boulder, Colorado (the so-called Liberal Mecca). Today that “conservatism” has been marketed as extreme and fearmongered into being dangerous. The social moderation has been chased out with comparisons to white nationalists. The left labels the GOP in general as MAGA, the right labels the majority of us in the middle as RINOs. Both are quite misleading and totally wrong. But here we are.
Let’s also put this on the table: Many of the current loud voices in the GOP room in Colorado are creating plenty of the problem. Case in point: This last election. Even under a completely disastrous Biden agenda, killing at least half the energy economy in this state, we still increased our elected democrat footprint! Wow. That to me is amazing and frustrating at the same time. The conversation going forward can’t focus on “taking back Colorado”, but it can and should focus on regrouping all of Colorado to create a path forward that makes sense for the majority of the state. There are well over 300 pieces of legislation passed in this state, since 2018, that would appall most of the state’s residents, but they have no mechanism to learn about it because of two (primary) reasons: First, the media is quite polarized on what they’ll report (I know this from personal issue researching, dozens of times, only to see the facts on both sides conveniently trimmed to being heavily skewed), and second, people are just too caught up in their own lives to invest the time to look up things for themselves. Does all of that legislation need to go away some day? Probably not, in most cases, but the vast majority of it needs a balanced renegotiation to get to a solution that works for all of the state, not just a Denver metro subset.
But again, there is no seat at the table for Colorado reasonable heads in the GOP. And if those on the level-headed side of the conversation can’t work to shut down those extreme voices while also working to get a message out that resonates across the state, 2024 and 2026 are going to look very similar, possibly worse. I know plenty of my friends will both agree and disagree, but from my perspective we have a lot of work to do to get a balanced tone back into our government; that doesn’t come by shutting down the cool heads in the room with good ideas. It requires them.
