Like California, Colorado is a state with everything going for it. Natural beauty, a thriving tourist industry, you name it, sane people could have it all. But like California, those in charge certainly aren’t sane, and they’re doing their best to force the joys of socialism/communism on every Coloradan.
I briefly lived on the West slope of Colorado in my youth, attracted there by Colorado’s reputation for individuality and natural beauty. I have relatives in Northern Colorado, where there is very real and sincere sentiment for becoming part of Wyoming, where the deer and the antelope, and individual liberty, play. I recently had to take a trip to Colorado Springs, which meant driving I-25 through northern Colorado, land of eternal highway construction. It also meant Denver traffic, which is horrific no matter the time of day or night. Crossing the Wyoming/Colorado border, one can feel the difference in atmosphere, in attitude. It’s the difference between wild, free, wide-open spaces and clean air and the gloom of a rapidly graying socialist, totalitarian state.
Suffice it to say my wife and I breathed a sigh of relief as we crossed that border heading ever North.
None of this should be surprising. Like California, Colorado is dominated by its leftist population centers. The legislature has been Democrat dominated since 2018, and Dems now hold the Senate and House by two-to-one margins. They get whatever they want, and most recently, they wanted to essentially ban every semiautomatic firearm in the state.
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Graphic: Semiautomatic Glock 17. Author.
Just for fun, they added a variety of other anti-liberty/gun provisions that could not more clearly violate the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions, Bruen being the most obvious and glaring.
No totalitarian government can allow its citizens to keep or bear arms. They’ll inevitably be used against that government, which knows what is best for those it rules and doesn’t much care whether the proles recognize the intellectual and moral superiority of their self-imagined elite.
It’s amazing, but not surprising to students of history, how fast socialism destroys everything it touches. Prior to 2018, a mere seven years ago, Colorado was doing well:
*Third in the nation for personal income growth.
*A regulatory burden in the lower half of all states.
*Tied for second-lowest unemployment in 2017 at 2.7% — and that wasn’t unusual.
*Job growth of 2.4% in 2017 — typical for a state that was regularly in the top ten.
*A top-10 destination for people moving in from other states.
Our recent trip to the People’s Republic of Colorado was occasioned by the purchase of a used recumbent bike to refurbish. That purchase caused a tightening of the throat at the sales tax required. Colorado’s maximum sales tax is 11.2%, even higher than California’s 10.25%. Way to go, Colorado! Only seven states rise to the 11% or higher level, while crossing the Wyoming border yields only a maximum 6% sales tax burden and no state income tax. Colorado’s state income tax is 4.25%. www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/colorado-state-income-tax-rates
So, how is Colorado doing after seven years of far-left Democrat rule? Not so well:
*39th in the nation for personal income growth.
*Sixth worst regulatory burden in the nation.
*In March, we had the second-highest unemployment rate (not an atypical month).
*Job-growth rate of 0.17% (March 2024-March 2025), 43rd in the nation.
*A bottom-10 destination for people moving in from other states.
Oh, but that’s far from the only “improvements” Colorado’s Dem legislature has foisted on Coloradans:
One last note, directly from the Gazette: “Beginning with Senate Bill-181 (2019), Colorado has obstructed energy production — a major Colorado export — at an expense of the state’s economy and high-wage blue-collar jobs.” The paper added, “In all, multiple new regulations since 2018 have Colorado producing less oil and gas in 2025 than in 2019, as the country’s production has increased.”
California and Colorado have much in common, and more every day. They had it all, but Dems have been hard at work “improving” the state, and their work is never done.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
