OPINION
I don’t think it’s any great surprise to anyone with a room-temperature-or-above IQ that the principal state races are a joke and have already been predetermined.
The Democrat Party has done too good a job in Colorado, turning a purple state into a true one-party state, a little like the good ole Stalinist USSR. They’ve done this, starting in 2016, by combining mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting. As one sage political analyst noted, “Where one political party ballot harvests votes in an election and the other political party doesn’t, the ballot-harvesting party will win every time.”
Why doesn’t the Republican Party in Colorado engage in the perfectly legal practice of ballot harvesting? It’s in part due to a lack of funds and any appreciable ground game, but, as the sage political analyst opined, “There is a reason why the Republican Party is known throughout Colorado as the ‘Party of Stupid.’”
Yes, the Dems are going to take their brooms out on election night and sweep every important statewide race in Colorado. But that does not mean you should not bother to vote in November, as there are at least 15 statewide ballot initiatives, including two tax measures that will help determine the future economic status of the state. Moreover, the Democrats haven’t yet figured out how to rig the results of statewide ballot measures, at least as far as we presently know.
There are different kinds of propositions. You’ve got citizen-initiated ballot measures that require a certain number of petition signatures. We’ve all been approached by people at a shopping center asking us to sign our names. Eight measures have already qualified for the ballot under this procedure. The other route is when the legislature refers issues to the ballot.
There are competing income tax proposals headed for voters. Proposition 195 creates a graduated income tax soaking the rich — which will undoubtedly eventually comprise anyone not at the poverty level or below — while Proposition 232 caps the tax rate. If they both pass, then we are in the Wild West. If the graduated tax passes, it is effectively the end of TABOR, and that will bring you the economy of Chicago and Illinois.
It’s not as if the State and the City and County of Denver haven’t already done enough to drive companies out of Colorado. If Proposition 195 passes, a lot of economists view this as the beginning of the end times for the Colorado economy.
If the tax-rate cap passes, it will prevent endless efforts by the legislature to raise your taxes.
Another measure that caught my eye is Proposition 175 — roads. I just came back once again from the Hajj to Sturgis, South Dakota, and I could not help but notice how incredible the roads in South Dakota and Wyoming are. You know when you’re back in Colorado even without a sign because the roads are so bad. Proposition 175, in essence, says money raised by taxes on roads must be spent on roads, not whatever pet project the Democrats come up with that has nothing to do with roads.
Another interesting measure is Proposition 177, which gives a constitutional right to buy natural gas for cooking and heating, as well as providing producers with the right to sell it. I am sure that, like you, I have always subconsciously read the U.S. Constitution as guaranteeing all citizens the right to “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and buying natural gas for cooking or heating in homes or businesses.”
Gee, I wonder if oil and gas producers and public utilities are behind this one.
Finally, there are two propositions concerning trans issues — Propositions 109 and 110.
Proposition 109 would prohibit biological boys from competing in girls’ sporting events in schools, while Proposition 110 would prohibit health care professionals from performing certain surgeries on minors “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics.”
Opponents of these measures properly point out: How dare these right-wing do-gooders interfere with those people who enjoy watching biological males beat up on biological females in sporting events and the huge sums some doctors in Colorado are raking in while they gender-mutilate minor children.
There will be at least 10 other measures for your reading pleasure whenever you undertake the no-small task of filling out your ballot.
If you’re a Democrat, be sure to fulfill your traditional duty of voting early and voting often.
Colorado Republicans, you are so pathetic, what difference does it make?
— Peter Boyles
