ASHE IN AMERICA
— OPINION
There is a shift happening in Colorado that no one is talking about.
There are 4,022,433 registered voters in Colorado, according to the Independent Voter Project. Unaffiliated voters — those claiming no party affiliation — more than double the totals from either party. Democrats comprise 991,920 voters, or 24.7%; Republicans comprise 894,209 voters, or 22.2%; and Independents comprise 2,038,329, or 50.7%. Another 97,976 voters, or 2.4%, are listed as “other”, ostensibly a consolidated bucket of the other available affiliations.
The parties, and their media partners, will tell you that the “unaffiliated” voters are mostly still partisans whose lack of affiliation is a form of protest. The implication is, “Don’t take them too seriously, they still vote with the parties.”
The latter part of that implication is largely true, but only in that the two major parties, despite representing less than half of us, still enjoy a premium on ballot access, and its amplification by all the “trusted institutions.”
The former part of the implication, I argue, is false.
Colorado is not two parties. It is many factions, organized largely around causes. What unites these diverse factions is a distinct rejection of the two-party system, in part because that rejection is required to drive change in Colorado. That is, 2,136,356 voters in the state reject the two-party system but ostensibly lack the organizing apparatus to scale something new.
The parties brand this as partisans in protest, a framing that allows them to dismiss it and remain focused on the 1,886,129 voters attached to the two parties.
That brings me to the shift and the current political moment.
I attended the Colorado Citizenry event on July 8th hosted by Jonathan and Deborah Flora in Castle Rock. At one point, I found myself at a table discussing the Governor’s race. Two people at the table were committed to Lopez, two declared for Weiser, and one was considering under voting the contest — leaving the race blank on his ballot. Of those five, two were Republicans, two were unaffiliated, and one was a Democrat.
The discussion was robust, fact-based, and unemotional. There were no personal attacks and, importantly, there was zero discussion about parties for the simple reason that party discussions are irrelevant. That didn’t need to be said. It’s understood. The event was a blast. If there is a Colorado Citizenry event in your area, you should go.
I recently connected with Erin Brantley who is building “Independent Majority” to (my characterization, not hers) combat the party premium on the viability of non-party sanctioned ideas and initiatives. Like the Floras, Brantley is connecting and collaborating with individuals and groups of all political persuasions to imagine and organize something post partisan. Something new.
During the 2026 primary season, a group of local bloggers and podcasters began collaborating and sharing information and ideas in back channels. Like the other examples, those involved run the spectrum of political identity and content and audiences. During the primary, the group comprised support for all three candidates in the race. Local content is better for it, more grounded and balanced in the exploration of issues and ideas facing the electoral franchise before the November election.
There is nothing partisan about any of these anecdotes. The people involved represent many factions, platforms, goals, and movements. These efforts are unemotional and post partisan and they’re growing — despite the parties’ contention that 2,136,356 of us are just partisans in protest.
Now consider that inside the 46.9% that are affiliated with the two major parties, there are many factions. The problem with those guys is that they chase their tails fighting to control the party instead of the government. It’s our 250th birthday month, so let’s get George Washington’s take:
“The alternate domination of one faction over another…is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism… the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one party against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”
Spot on, President Washington. This is literally why we’re post partisan. Something new can be something old. Something new can be whatever we want it to be as long as we’re willing to build it.
People just need to be brave. 53.1% of us are more rightly oriented for change than the minority.
I think that change is happening now. The share of post partisan voters will increase.
“What truly matters is not which party controls our government,” President Trump said in his 2017 inauguration speech, continuing, “but whether our government is controlled by the People.”
Whatever you think about the President, that speech was a strategy statement, and the People are responsible for its execution. The two major political parties are a barrier to self-governance and gatekeepers of political support and advocacy. The moment for change is now.
Bright side: While the rest of the nation writes off the Centennial State as a communist lost cause, the People of Colorado are the tip of the spear for what comes after the people abandon the parties to the point they don’t matter.
The Golden Age of America isn’t something we’re going to inhabit and occupy. It’s something we’re going to build.
A Republic for the next 250 years.
Happy Birthday, America!
Ashe Epp is a local writer, host, and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
