@Jp Hmmm, you forgot to mention that 21% of the population in Colorado is Hispanic (8th highest Latino population in the country), and we have a fair sized Asian population as well as many other cultures.
And here are the stats for Colorado's major population center - Denver - which has far greater diversity than you've implied:
Demographics of Denver. The racial makeup of Denver is 77.5% White, 11.1% Black or African American, 2.3% American Indian, 4.5% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander and 4.4% other race. 31.2% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race, giving Denver one of the highest populations of Hispanics or Latinos in the U.S.
3
I have a lot in common with Mr. Craig in that I too own guns. Had to carry them for over 30 years as a job requirement, but I don’t “ love” lethal weapons! Nor will I join the modern day NRA whom I detest for selling-out to big business , and hiding behind the 2nd amendment instead of working for gun safety in this troubled country. Agree that President Trump should quiet down now, and stop the moronic tweeting. Be more of a ,late bloomer, statesman..
5
I grew up in Central Florida and moved to Fountain, Colorado as an Army wife stationed at Ft. Carson in 1989. Until I saw the pristine beauty of Colorado, I had never noticed the eyesore of roadside litter. When I returned to Florida it took months for my eyes to adjust to they dull haze of smog I hadn't known was there. I haven't been back, but I hope Helen Hunt Falls still has the sign which read: No wading: City water supply.
1
“We want to be left alone; he speaks to our isolationism,” Babcox said. “As a father of four daughters I will not take them to Target,” he said, angry about the store’s choose-your-gender bathrooms. “A nation without laws is chaos,”
How is telling people what bathroom they can use qualify as being left alone.
He wants to be left alone to do what he wants, but wants to tell those he disagrees with what they can and cannot do.
What continues to amaze me is how so many Trump supporters fail to see their own hypocrisy.
22
I grew up five miles down the road from Nucla, My mother was the mayor of Naturita in the 1990s, working tirelessly alongside the mayor of Nucla to do everything possibly to diversify the economy of the area so that it would not be left behind. But today's economy just doesn't work for a town that is 100 miles from a hospital, community college, or job training program.
The price of dying mines, ranches, and family farms is enormous: my family, and almost every other family I grew up with, lost at least one child to drugs or alcohol or suicide. To say those folks should move to places with better opportunities, as many in more fortunate place do, ignores the family obligations, the difficulty of saving up even enough money to make a security deposit in a new town, and the attachments that keep people rooted in place.
Treating people like my mother, who remained in the town until her death, as dumb or lazy or misguided, as too many do, is unkind and misinformed. All of us who are more economically secure need to start having real, problem-solving conversations with rural America about how to chart a sustainable path forward for the people in those towns. But that conversation will also need all participants to acknowledge that the increasing diversity of the United States, its movement toward greater equality for those shut out in prior times, and its increased care for our environment are to be celebrated, not regretted as a loss of the good old days.
24
I am originally from Massachusetts and I adored the seacoast and the prolific foliage. Once I hit the West via joining the military, it has been nearly unimaginable to leave Colorado. I have tried a couple of times over a long period of time but it has a boomerang effect on me. I'm on the Western Slope now and it is far too conservative for me but I appreciate and value the state overall. We have mail-in ballots (not mentioned in the article) here which gets most citizens of this state to be involved as active citizens. Ken Salazar was also a Senator in the US Senate until PREZ Obama called him to be Secretary of the Interior (that was not mentioned in the article either). And I will confirm right now if this hippie and the town hall in Nucla had imposed law against me as the head of household to own a gun, I would have fought it tooth and nail. 2nd Amendment is the "right to bear arms", it is not imposing that anyone HAS to own a gun. Many blessings to Ms. Redd's family members - suicide rates are high on the Western Slope.
7
I have lived, worked, and had homes in AZ, FL, MI, NJ, NY, PA, and now Colorado for the past 20 years. It is Colorado's physical environment, and the philosophy of state management, that make the biggest difference among those states.
From the governor on down, multiple government agencies work consistently hard toward the ultimate goal of making Colorado a destination of choice for businesses, the working age population, retirees, singles and couples, and families with and without children.
Most of the people I know well enough to ask where they originally came from, have moved here, like myself, from somewhere else, and are basically the same as when they arrived. However, because on the whole Colorado government does a much better job of fulfilling it's responsibilities to the residents, we are a less aggressive, and aggravating, group of people that we were when living elsewhere. It can be justifiably said that Colorado government has had more success in bringing out the better part of our nature than a large number of other state governments.
5
Driving a Prius to save money and help the planet does not have to be incompatible with owning a gun. Troubling trend to move poor students to 4 day school week while others get pre-school. Nonetheless found Colorado interviews more interesting than most. They seem to be thinking independently.
3
I frequent CO frequently to see family. People do get along, and it's okay to be Rep or Dem - no one hates each other for their choice of political affiliation and people actually discuss issues. Although, that's changed over the years in large cities like Denver. Long time residents tell me it's the exodus from CA that has started to change their state, for the worse.
2
Bravo Mr. Cohen. Your piece captures the essence of this state, where a person's honesty, willingness to engage constructively to address community issues, and work ethic count for much more than where your ancestors came from or who you vote for in national elections.
In our small town, Republican, Democrat, and Independent (unaffiliated) voters put their political identities aside as they work together for the common good. In this period of national polarization, this spirit may seem like a fantasy but it's not. It's Colorado, a model for what the country could be.
1
I agree Roger -"The erosion of middle-class life seems to have reinforced a progressive mood among Coloradans" as well as many other US citizens. The economist, Jeff Faux warned about this years ago. The U.S. cannot afford their bloated military - waging endless trillion dollar wars that do nothing but cause more pain for the peoples of Libya, Mali, Afghanistan, Iraq and the 140 other countries that our special forces entered last year (source: Ralph Nader). As long as we wage these lost wars and spend trillions, we cannot take care of the working people of the US.
The migrants fleeing from Central America are a result of the Harvest of our Empire. Take an hour and a half out of your life and watch Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyncOYTZfHE
It explores the political events, social conditions and U.S. government actions that led millions of Latinos to leave their homelands and move to America. Juan Gonzalez wrote the book. Buy it at https://www.politics-prose.com/ and not at Amazon - the massive conglomerate refusing to pay a small tax for the homeless in Seattle .
In November, vote for a government for the many and not just the few. Hold your nose and Vote for Democrats and then later get good people to run our government.
10
Unfortunately the future may look more like Colorado. This is no success story but a major tragedy in the making.
I have lived in Colorado, and it seemed great. But look below the surface:
1) The smog layer in the Denver metro is thick enough and brown enough that when flying in I thought the plane was about to touch down - in reality we were still a couple of thousand feet up.
2) Climate change is fueling record temperatures and forest fires. Ironically the area is also one of the most at risk for a truly cataclysmic flash flood.
3) The way Colorado legalized marijuana has attracted homeless from around the country who are now overrunning the National Forests as reported in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/us/as-homeless-find-refuge-in-forests...
4) In Colorado you do not necessarily own the rights to resources above or below your property. Someone else may own the mineral rights and have the ability to frack on your land without your permission. You also do not own the rain that falls on your property. You are allowed 2 rain barrels - 110 gallons of water - and no more. Let's not forget that much of Colorado is arid - if not desert.
5) Colorado is unaffordable. Period. Of course so is most of the U.S. so people moving from California might actual think that they are getting a deal.
If this is what Colorado compromise looks like. No Thanks! The Rocky Mountain West is not the future.
6
The NYT would not print this the first time and likely will not print it the same. By these actions and others:
The NYT again show its incorrigible bias for corporate centrists. Hickenlooper helped pass a law in Colorado that forbade cities and localities from regulating fracking within their own borders. Residents are afflicted with air pollution, water pollution and the release of methane gas that vastly increases global warming. There have been several explosions and fires resulting from the fracking operations which have been injurious to populations surrounding fracking wells. It is possible to view all of the wells in Colorado by google search...they undercut pretty much all the land but denver and boulder central and that has been insufficient for Hickenlooper and his oil and gas allies.
Many people have been afflicted by Hickenlooper's prohibition on local care. Clearly Hickenlooper has a major political machine promoting his candidacy for the centrist spot on the next Democratic presidential ticket. The man is a nightmare disguised as a pleasant sheep and Colorado is not golden bliss for all who live there.
5
I agree. I'm a Coloradoan and also a polyamorous queer transgender woman who is married to another transgender woman. I also own 10 guns including a custom AR-15, I live in the woods in a cabin and I am an Independent voter. Colorado is the greatest state in the union. I travel a lot for my work as a marijuana industry consultant, and I can definitely say Colorado is the best state in the US.
I'll be voting a split ticket but will definitely be supporting out very pro-cannabis candidate for governor, Jared Polis.
2
Moved here from Chicago in '98. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. After O'Hell airport ("new brutalism" designed by Helmut Jahn), miserable, out of shape people in brown leather jackets, I landed at Stapleton in downtown Denver. Everyone fit and happy. My brother picked me up, took me to his place for one day of acclimation.
Next day he drove me to the mountains on I-70 (4 lanes), parked on a snowy shoulder, and up we went XC skiing on a old logging road.
Of course, it's different now. DIA huge international airport, transplants from NY and CA drove housing prices up. Traffic on I-70 so bad that skiing on the weekend is a parking lot. Charming old ski towns inundated by billionaires from TX.
Climate change means summer starts in May, stays 90s, humid, til late Sept.
Denver is a great city: art galleries, opera, theater, etc. Former skid row (home to Kerouac, Dylan) full of great brewpubs. Instead of rampant gentrification, Denver creates arts districts to keep neighborhoods alive. Hundreds of ethnic restaurants.
It's not perfect--public school teachers walked off their jobs "Red for Ed", sick of how the legislature kept slashing education funding. Mental Healthcare 43rd in the nation. Homelessness--many forced out of apts from raising rents. State Constitution must return any surplus to the taxpayers--unless they vote otherwise. State Constitution far too easy to amend.
Vote by mail, no-one can tamper with my ballot. Please, rich NYers, go somewhere else.
2
I can call you names, threaten you, and pollute our environment to the determent of all, but don't you dare look down on me~!!!
(headshake, facepalm, sigh...)
5
“I say to Liberals, let’s try to find things we can agree on.”
Without agreeing that Trump is a lying sack, I see no hope for that.
5
Beneath the surface Colorado has some major issues one of which is the unintended consequences of the Initiative and Referendum (I&R) process.
The I&R process is classic case of the road to hell being paved with good intentions: it was originally implemented to provide more accountability and allow more voices to be heard. However, over the last 20-30 years and has become a nightmare where any half-baked idea can become a potential constitutional amendment. This unintended consequences of the I&R are making this great state increasingly ungovernable.
Certain people like to make negative comparisons to California. However, if Colorado is "Californicating" itself--it's own residents are to blame, not people moving in.
Refusing to build enough housing--a combination of opposing change and a cynical attempt to keep prices high for existing owners by limiting supply--is creating some real problems now. Likewise, another perpetual problem is wanting to spend money but refusing to pay for it (see I&R process). Between these two issues, Colorado has some really difficult problems that have few easy answers.
4
Are there any people of color in Colorado? I'm being fascitious, but judging by the photos it doesn't seem so.
2
The photos are all from Western Slope communities where the towns and cities are much smaller and farther between. And you would be correct that the aren't many non-white people out that way. There are a few but they're far flung. And one could make the argument that is partly why the Western Slope is heavily Trump country.
The Front Range, where Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Ft. Collins and Pueblo are located is a vastly different story. Ethnic diversity is apparent every moment in these places. But we're separated from the Western Slope by the Continental Divide and a minimum four-hour drive.
6
Have you been to Boulder? I’m sorry to tell you that diversity is most definitely not a feature of this town.
3
Nice piece. Very informative. Id like to meet some of the people mentioned, esp. Mr. Craig.
However;
Mr. Babcock...you want Dems not to insult you and others like you? Then drop the coded insults yourself. Namely the Prius slight. We know what that means...and its a coded insult to Liberals and environmentalists...without which your reputation as an attraction as a outdoors destination state might not be so great. What does it matter to you that some people will choose such vehicles? It doent threaten your life style. BTW; the technology for work trucks to run on battery power is here...and the necessary torque is awesome. So dont be surprised to see them in your future...when oil goes thru the roof.
Another point. Lots of people talk about the resilience of the American worker and business sector. But how come a business shuts down so easily when the magazine capacity law was passed? Wheres the resilience? Why not retool and do something else? Or was the business being poorly run, outdated, and therefore on a down path anyway? How many high capacity magazines could one "factory" sell and be profitable, for the long game?
The automobile wiped out tons of industries, but look how we came thru? Smithys out of business. Horse stables, grain sellers, leather workers, wagon makers, etc. Gone! Ditto whaling.
This is the reality of now! Outdated, toxin producers, and dangerous product manufacturers, etc, are gonna shut down.
Our resilience must manifest in preparation.
10
Here's the dilemma: rural Republicans have made a lot of fact-free, foolish choices, and believe a whole lot of things that patently are not true (especially about immigrants of color and environmental dangers). In a word, they've acted dumb. So how do you talk about facts and realities with them in ways that don't sound as if you think they are dumb? If Hickenloper can manage that, he's a true genius.
8
With all due respect to Mr. Cohen, who is a fine writer, but whose columns sometimes gets lost in sentimental justification of his decision to immigrate to our nation, the town has 700 folks. I believe Deadwood had more.
Nostalgic waxing is not solving the terrible problems facing our nation.
I lived out there, and those 700 folks are wonderful people. They rely on their neighbors and have a much closer community than any city dweller. Are you implying that because they want to return to where they were raised rather than giving up on rural life and shuffling into a city means they should be left behind, ignored, cast out?
Don't waste any time wondering why those folks voted for Trump. You, and people like you, who look down your nose at good, hard-working small town people are why.
3
Good golly NYT.... As a Colorado Native, you really have painted a political fantasy land. Anyone who lives in Colorado knows that political views contrast greatly with what you portray when one goes west of the front range ( just west of Denver), south ( from Monument down south) or East ( farm country east of Aurora)….Democrats and Liberals are predominantly found in the ever increasingly overpopulated areas in and around of Denver as well as Boulder ( aka '8 square miles surrounded by reality).
Those that have long lived here and did not migrate from California generally are conservative fiscally and libertarian when it comes to social issues ( hence the states notoriety as the highest number of registered libertarians in the US). We don't want the 'West or East Coast' ways imported into our state and are saddened by the traffic and pollution being produced by those emigrating to Colorado from those failed political and economic state systems.
We are tolerant people - but don't mistake that tolerance for a hotbed of liberal or democratic acceptance. Ballot measures to raise taxes will require over 55 percent approval to be adopted and even then will have to overcome Colorado state laws than limit tax increases and put automatic downward pressure on property taxes. There are other ways to raise funding for schools, roads and government services without magic want tax raises which produce nothing but systematic corruption and unaccountability....
2
I'm old enough to remember brushing up against John Hickenlooper's circle of friends on occasion back in the '80s and '90s and chatting it up with him as well. He has come a long way (he used to buy all his clothes at Goodwill, as I recall, and was pretty darn nerdy!), but that history is what helped him get elected to and survive two terms as Denver's mayor, then two terms as our state's governor. While there are people (on the right, mostly), who don't like John, there far greater numbers of people (on the left, right and in the center) who think he's not only a great person, but has done a great deal of good for our "purple" state.
Having watched him for a number of decades, I'd say don't count him out. His funky sense of humor and down to earth ways have a way of sneaking into your heart and charming you all the way to the ballot box. He's a unique option, which may be exactly what this country needs right now (not to mention his crazy, fun, positive political ads!).
Go John!
5
Roger, My husband and I read everything you write. It’s always a treat. This editorial is one of your very best. It reaches deep and wide. Thank you.
3
It is unfortunate that the issue of shutting down a coal-burning power plant was not conveyed to the victims of its toxic emissions as protecting them and their children from breathing them in.
4
When it's the only source of power for your high altitude community (which it was), because Xcel refuses to provide service and infrastructure citing high costs, pollution necessarily becomes something you must ignore.
1
It was nice to see an article that understands Colorado is not just the metro Front Range. I live in Montrose County. Thank you for this excellent piece.
4
Colorado's church attendance rate is around 35 percent, making it, aside from Wyoming, one of the least religious states in the West. I think one reason our ideological differences seem less insurmountable is, outside of Colorado. Springs, relatively few of us believe our worldviews are inspired by God.
8
The recurring theme that pops up for these right wingers is how OLD they all are.
Don’t assume that trend will continue for our generation.
5
Back in 1977 I was studying an old gold deposit north of Yellowstone, and one day Hickenlooper shows up, asking for some samples for his university geology department collection. John was working on the volcanic rocks erupted from the nearby caldera of Yellowstone Lake. Long story short, John and his field assistant were camping out in the bush, and they would stop by after replenishing groceries every 10 days, use our laundry machine, and sleep on the floor for the night. In return, he would bake his specialty breakfast - garlic muffins... Knowing him for years until he became mayor and then govenor, making garlic muffins for breakfast is the worst thing I can say of John Hickenlooper. He is the real deal (except for the garlic muffins at breakfast).
9
As much as I like what Governor Hickenlooper has accomplished, I'm not sure he has the temperament to be a presidential candidate because, in short, he is too nice.
Hickenlooper attempting to stay positive on previous campaigns was laudable; however, that isn't going to fly at the presidential level.
Presidential campaigns are an ugly business and I cringe thinking about how dirty the 2020 presidential campaign cycle will be. Unless Hickenlooper is prepared to take the gloves off and hit back--you think Trump is going to play nice and not fight dirty--he won't get real far.
3
“A nation without laws is chaos,” he said, alluding to his support for Trump’s now-reversed border policy under which nearly 3,000 children were separated from their parents.
Of course Babcox is a "Christian" pastor doing his best to show off his complete lack of moral compass. The only thing more aggravating than a Trump supporter that thinks isolationism is a compliment is one posing as clergy.
8
I heard Hickenlooper talk on one of the NPR shows. He was very impressive, no nonsense person. Successful at what he has done without burning any contacts he made along the way. As a matter of fact, probably most people he has run into like that he is a decent human being.
I could get behind a “get it done” kind of Democrat. We can reach for the stars with our dreams and our hopes, but sometimes you just have to settle for less than the whole pie. Too far to the left will not get you elected nationally in the US.
8
Wow. Southwest Colorado is majority Republican. Over all the state has always been divided. The governor has no clue how we live in the "West slope".
As a "lifelong" resident of Southwest Colorado, I can tell you that the West slope counties have voted majority in favor for Republican for generations. Of course we do not have the population as the eastern part of the state which is obviously not Republican.
Your survey is so flawed. It looks like, again, news article reflect heavily one sided party. The author solicited democrats for this story, which is minority in the southwest part of Colorado, but had to get a Republican to "make it not so one side".
As for Telluride it nothing but transplants that has turned into a group that does not fit the way of life for Southwest Colorado. It use to be a small sleepy community with American values. It is now a town with "odd" values. Go an hour and a half southwest of Telluride and you will find people, including myself, with real morals and values of the American country life.
We're farmers and rancher with family values. We did not vote for the legalizing of marijuana. It has brought a lot of unwanted crimes, which we are not use to, individuals that are homeless and dysfunctional families to name a few. We struggle to keep the "norm" of family values. Denver and it's surrounded area population passed it. Our problems were created by the left with the ideas we are all to live alike, their ways, not our " RURAL WAY".
2
So after living for 28 years in Pittsburgh, I picked up and left, didn't chase a job here. Just picked up and left. It's been a really interesting 2 1/2 years and I think I am also starting to get some traction. It was a family vacation in 1985, didn't visit here for 30 years, something was always compelling me to come back. The people, the mountains -- that was only part of it. (I won't go into the other part, it's irrelevant to the point of the article).
When I first got here, I heard a number of times, "Welcome to Colorado." Now I am saying it to others, though I'm hardly a native. I spent the fall of 2016 canvassing for Morgan Carroll in CD6, which she lost (they split their ticket there) and where I lived at the time, and now I live again. I would also say, "Do not write off CD3." That's the big western part of the state, most of the Western Slope. Diane Mitsch Bush has a real shot at unseating Scott Tipton if the cards hold right. Of course CD2, where Jarod Polis is from (and who will be the U.S. first openly gay governor -- McGreevy in NJ only came out when he was resigning), is a somewhat large district encompassing diverse places from liberal college town Boulder, center-left Ft. Collins, and redneck-y places like Idaho Springs. The counties in the center of the state lean left because the people working there are liberal and effectively working-class, serving the rich people who come to ski (and who do NOT lean left).
This is a magical place.
3
A simply excellently wonderful Column about Colorado. We all gotta be and live somewhere. Unfortunately there are fifty (50) states from which to choose and a globular planet filled with countries from which to choose.
I spent a long time, perhaps the prime of my life, in Colorado and this piece from Cohen resonates. America has always been about Westward movement, however, and I decided to leave land-locked Colorado and move to coastal extreme Northwest Washington. . .not far at all from our Northern Neighbour, Canada.
In some ways WA and CO and CO and WA could be sister states or brother states. With the addition of the water (which Colorado lacks), both fresh and salt, WA may have the tipping point advantage. In just about all other aspects the tale of the tape is equal.
We all gotta live somewhere.
4
Nice piece but the reality of the matter is that the state has become a magnet for Californians and their state-strangling politics and voting habits. Hickenlooper will soon be a memory and likely seen as the last of a dying breed of centrist governors (to the extent that he is).
The future of Colorado is the present of the US. Extreme political divisions fermenting unrest and, in the case of this particular state, an ongoing battle between left-leaning urban centers and the purple/red minorities sprinkled across the rest of the state.
Write an article on Wyoming if you really want to see if the spirit of the Old West and that sort of Americanism still exists.
1
"The feeling of being left behind, forgotten or cheated by a rigged system in a country of sharpening inequality is America’s core dilemma. The question now is who will more effectively convince Americans that the American dream can be restored."
The first sentence is on target as to the baseline emotion. The second sentence sums up the current problem: looking for a secular savior to recreate a mythological former state of national grace. Trump was elected because he promised to restore the American Dream. Look what's happening -- delusional glamor and false crises on the surface to distract the populace while thieves rob the till. So are we just looking for someone who is a little less flagrantly dishonest and abrasive, who will put traditional consumerism on a sounder and more egalitarian footing?
Maybe more basic change is required. Maybe there is no simple way to ignore or escape the fundamental challenge to the American Dream posed by climate change. A new consensus will be required, not merely a new coat of varnish on old dreams.
What Colorado and the west usefully offer is a better attitude toward disagreement, not substantive solutions. In the short term, while things continue to fall apart and before new social forms have been defined, we need to be able to amiably accept and examine a diversity of opinions in an open-ended search for new approaches. Nobody will get everything right, but most may be able to contribute one or two pieces to solving the puzzle.
4
I see that picture of the older gentlemen sitting around the table at the restaurant, and suspect most of them are on Medicare and Social Security. For those that are, this has enormously transformed their lives for the better. And they probably all vote R....
25
Thanks for this article, it does an admirable job of teasing out the character of Coloradans that inhabit the Western Slope. Of course it is hard to balance our love of the outdoors and the impending hardships that will come with climate changes with the need for jobs and energy. I am the same age as Hickenlooper and a geologist--but I have so far continued to work as one, even though there are days I'm not certain I've made the best choice! Our company works on climate related issues focusing on reduction of methane emissions from coal mining world wide. From this work we have enjoyed the benefit of the good that comes from working through even the most difficult problems by talking with our colleagues and adversaries as people with the same basic needs that we all share. Sure, we have differences in opinions here in Colorado, and it is not always easy to find the middle ground. Like most of us out here on the Colorado Plateau, I believe that anything worth having is worth working for, and it is so much easier when we work together! The Governor is a good and thoughtful man and I hope we have the chance to share him with the rest of the country.
7
Colorado is awesome but no, we can't save America. Why not? Even in our lovely state, we have local politicians who are serious extremists on wedge issues, like the Neville-family , a father and son duo who are implacable NRA water-carriers. We are struggling with the long term implications of a terrible constitutional called TABOR passed in the early 1990s, that has stalled our ability to fund public education. Not can our purple state politicians solve our water shortage/drought, which is a direct result of climate change. The really big issues are national in scope and local in impact. Nationally, we all have to pull in the same direction but that's not happening.
11
My grandfather emigrated from England and ended up in Boulder, where he ran the hardware store and sold supplies to hard rock miners in the mountains. My father had a real Norman Rockwell upbringing there. It was a land of many possibilities in which almost everyone was a newcomer. Except for the Indians, almost everyone was given a stake in the future.
Trump is the great divider. He plays on victimhood. Hickenlooper reflects the optimism of the West, and we need someone like this for the country, someone who says we are all in this together, and won't leave people behind. Many Trump supporters, aging whites, know they'll never get their jobs back, but they want to see their children and grandchildren have prospects for the future. It's going to take someone forward looking to give them a positive reason to vote. Trump was a "Hail Mary" pass that didn't pan out. Maybe next time they'll do their due diligence before they vote.
10
Heaven help us that we have political leaders that listen well and know how to get things done. That certainly does not describe Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan or Nancy Pelosi. Each and everyone one of them has his or her own agenda and only listens to the sound of their own voice.
2
First the country does not need to be saved, and no one state could not do so if it was needed.
2
You know what I love? That this article elicited a ton of response from Coloradoans that basically all say that Colorado is the best place in the world to live.
I agree. Colorado is my home. I grew up here and I believe that we have it right. If it wasnt for Amendment 64 I wouldnt be a homeowner right now. I'm so proud of my fellow citizens for what we have done with our state, and I hope that we continue to move forward on the path we are on.
BTW, mail in ballots are the best way to vote. I'm voting tonight, and one of my votes will be going to Jared Polis, although I will be voting a split ticket. I dont want a Democratic-run state, I'd rather have the fairly even split we have now.
6
Completely absent from this lovely piece on Colorado bipartisanship is any mention of our junior senator, Cory Gardner. This must be by design because Gardner makes no pretense of listening to or showing concern for all his constituents. The only folks he pays attention to are named David and Charles Koch and they live in Kansas. Gardner is a perfect example of how little our voices matter when we are living under oligarchic rule.
40
Hickenlooper is a pragmatist above all. He knows when to compromise and when not to. He can work with anybody whose basic intentions are good. He would be a valuable addition to the national political stage, but I don't doubt the ability of the Republican smear machinery to destroy anyone who gets in their way. In other words, in the age of Trumpism, competence and decency may not matter anymore in american politics.
10
Is Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper the Democrats’ best hope to defeat President Trump in the 2020 presidential election?
Perhaps, but it will not be because he is a moderate white guy from the West. This is a panic-driven fantasy from a growing number of largely moderate Democrats who have forgotten the lessons of past American presidential campaigns. Donald Trump’s upset election and abysmal presidential performance has pushed my ideological friends into the “electability” trap.
I take no joy in reminding my friends that in modern times electability has never been a winning general election campaign strategy. From Michael Dukakis in 1988 to Al Gore in 2000 to John Kerry in 2004 to Hillary Clinton in 2016, “the electability strategy,” has always come up short. And the list of failed nomination contenders from the country’s gut is quite lengthy: Bruce Babbitt, Tom Harkin, and Bob Kerrey to name a few.
But why?
This is because a candidate must capture the imagination of a nationwide electorate to win the American Presidency. Practicality, pragmatism, if you prefer, is the antithesis of imagination. Practical considerations, such as geography and white maleness, are usually insufficient to trump the requirement of capturing the electorate’s imagination.
To do this, you must take ownership of an agenda and sell it to a national electorate. This is how a young, relatively unknown, liberal African-American community organizer from Chicago was able to win twice.
11
I am very proud of my former home. I grew up just outside of Denver, hold two of my three degrees from Colorado universities, practiced law in Denver, called the place home for almost 29 years, and drank beer in Governor Hickenlooper's brewpub (Railyard Ale is quite tasty). My remaining family still lives there. The state has come a long way since we arrived in 1965 and has overcome significant obstacles - the 1981 oil and gas bust, the savings and loan crisis and housing collapse, and the moniker of "hate state" after the Amendment 2 debacle in 1992. It is a microcosm of this country's many ailments - rural v. urban, housing costs, development v. environmental preservation etc. But Coloradans love their state and are doing their best to build bridges and not walls between competing interests. I was proud to call Colorado home once and remain proud of the place. Now Georgia, that's a whole other issue!
35
As a person born 70 plus years ago in SW Colorado, and currently retired in Denver, I can't quite agree with Mr. Cohen. I would contend that the economic success of Colorado is largely tied to the large population influx to the Denver Front range of younger people, which has moderated its conservative political past. Unfortunately, Colorado is a tale of two states. Formerly prosperous farm communities such as Lamar, La Junta and Burlington have all but disappeared. A once thriving blue collar steel-producing Pueblo, is now but a shell of its self. Rural historical mining communities would also be gone, if not for the tourist industry. Unfortunately, as is the trend nationally, these poor communities seem to have become more politically conservative. It is as if they longer believe in the politics of hope, but have adopted in many cases to the politics of the extreme right. Colorado, like America consists of largely blue urban areas and very red rural areas. How is that any different than the country as a whole?
11
This is an excellent Opinion piece about my adopted state (I am a native Oklahoman). I would like to see John Hickenlooper run for Pres in 2020, and it would be especially awesome if he would pick someone like John Kasich or Ben Sasse or Jeff Flake from the Republican side and run on a split ticket. They are too conservative for my beliefs, but I also believe that they are thoughtful persons who would work for the good of all, not solely for the interests of the party. And I'm sure there are other more moderate Republicans who would fit the bill as well. Talk about shaking things up, but shaking them up in an honest, intelligent, bipartisan way. I think it's high time we kicked the two-party system in this country to the curb and tried something new - at least for one election - before it is too late. Which of course means that it will never happen, but I can dream, can't I?
5
Someone should loan Roger a road map of Colorado. Half of the state lies east of I-25. Admittedly, that half is not as pretty as the San Juan Skyway and Aspen-Vail. Who would want to wander around Wray or La Junta searching for the real West when you can lounge around Boulder under the Flat Irons?
It could be that Mr. Cohen would be uncomfortable rubbing Stetsons with the "volks" of Eastern Colorado. A lot of them are Trump volks, and we all know how Roger feels about Trump and his supporters. Shoot, Roger didn't play his cards until the fifth word of this column. That's restraint.
Maybe Roger is planning to head east on I-70 real soon. Heck, he's travelled around Ridgeway, the Uncompahgre, scooted thorough Grand Junction and hightailed it to the Big D.
Last Chance.
4
Best comment here. It's a big state, get out of Denver. See the rest of us.
I will not set foot in Colorado until Denver repeals its racist "dangerous dog breed" law.
1
Pitbulls are dangerous. They were bred to be aggressive and hurt people. They need to be controlled.
1
https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2018/08/09/education-attainment-gap-...
1
Save us Colorado your our only hope!!!
1
There's always Vermont.
If you want to know why many in the West hate Washington DC even more than Trump, start here. The only problem with this feel-good political article is that Mitch McConnell is too disgusting to understand what it is about, and therefore the basis -- that ordinary Americans think people of different parties should work together to solve problems, rather than screw each other over to make points -- is totally beyond the comprehension of Mitch McConnell and the GOP Senators he leads like a pack of rabid lemmings.
12
We lived in Colorado for many years, flaming liberals in Colorado Springs, home to the most rabid pro-Trump "evangelical Christians" in the country. Most Colorado conservatives are of the libertarian persuasion - leave me alone and I'll let you alone, but not the people of Colorado Springs who believe that taxes, liberals and Democrats are spawn of the devil. Of course the city is kept afloat by the military - Air Force Academy (where adherence to evangelical Christianity is enforced), Fort Carson, NORAD, Peterson AFB, Shreiver AFB and a host of war profiteers - and weed. Colorado is a wonderful place to live, but the forces of division and hate are alive and well there, carrying both a cross and a gun.
21
Colorado native of 51 years here.
In the new Age of Trump, Hickenlooper has as much chance at being elected president as John Kasich or Joe Biden. That would be somewhere in the 10%-15% range.
He is a neoliberal, developer-friendly, corporate Democrat. He is also a carpet-bagger transplant. Hes' also a proud sanctuary city supporter. Not surprised that Cohen is enamored.
Notice how the symbol of hope of this article, the elderly, gun collecting libertariian hippie, is a Trump-hater, but he is also a Hickenlooper hater.
Wishful thinking. Exactly what the Dems DON'T need right now.
Think, Dems. Think. Learn your Bernie lesson, once and for all.
23
@EH
The Bernie lesson is that our party should have nominated him rather than Hillary. Polls at the time showed Bernie had a better chance of beating Trump than Hillary. Colorado's population is largely made of transplants. The "native" argument is as old as the faded, eponymous bumper stickers that no longer appear on every pick up truck.
3
So how does this "western" mind set so glowingly described deal with gun violence and suicide? By making gun ownership mandatory? Mr. Craig may think Trump is an idiot, but he's not far behind.
2
For some reason Rodger Cohen didn't mention the huge solar farm being built in Nucla. Maybe he doesn't know about it?
Hick for President!
4
Have you visited Colorado lately ? Try visiting their capital, Denver.
The legalization of marijuana has brought a large change to the
state. The folks in Colorado are a blend of aging hippies, young dopers, miners and ranchers.
Walk through downtown Denver, go to their parks, they are FILLED with the most pathetic creatures you have ever seen. Homeless dopers, not a few either, the parks are filled and the cops do nothing. Walk past the pot shops before they open for the day, like zombies the homeless line up.
If for even one moment you think Colorado can save America, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for you.
5
A headline like that made me think the writer might have tried out a bit of Colorado’s most infamous legal product.
2
Is America worth saving? Whose America deserves to be saved?
White citizens of Colorado massacred and terroized American men, women and children at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864. Led by Colonel John Chivington and 675 volunteers the peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne civilians did not have a chance.
Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle escaped. But he died a few years later at the Washita Massacre. The leader of that genocidal terrorist Oklahoma attack was George Custer.
5
@Blackmamba. This may come as a huge shock but there are very few of us today who own slaves or have killed any native Americans in quite some time. We have made progress on many issue and need to make more progress on many others. People of all races (yes even people of color) have dark parts of their history. Native Americans made war on each other before and after Europeans showed up on this continent. Is it only whites who never get an update or is that just your agenda?
1
That was the Rev Colonel John Chivington, don’t forget
1
RE: "I drove across town to see Pastor Robert Babcox, who dismissed the billboard as a vile insult (“like saying all Democrats are Nazis”) and listed his reasons for backing Trump."
There are so many inconsistencies in this one paragraph to be alarming! And can't he even get his metaphors straight.
It would have been illustrative to read the whole section on the visit to Babcox - and then at the end reveal that he is a Pastor. Would you have guessed? A Pastor? A Christian Pastor? Really?
5
Please stop publishing pro-Colorado articles. We have enough growth already!
14
"behind the local ordinance here that made gun ownership obligatory for the head of every household."
So much for living in a free country....first step to fascism...
2
It was a statement and is not enforced. I don't agree with the statement, but it was pretty darn harmless.
2
I work everyday at disciplining myself to not to think that Trump voters are dumb---and then everyday I open up the newspaper reading how dumb Trump is---I just can't get the connection out of my mind.
3
The evil of the Republican Party must be stopped.
2
Run Johnny! Run!
It’ll be the rest of us saving Colorado when they run out of water.
11
“One thing every single Trump supporter knows as soon as you start to talk to them is that we think they’re dumb and look down on them.” Democrats, he suggested, might reflect on that.
This, this, and this. People out west are descended from settlers who literally had to fight every single day just to stay alive. They worked their butts off, and they built communities where they would give the shirts off their backs to help their neighbors. If a man looked you in the eye and gave you his word, that was more valuable than any contract.
Somehow the party of Clinton and Obama, that related very well to regular people, has been a rudderless ship lately. A big part of that was the Affordable Care Act - from the moment it passed Democrats allowed Republicans to dominate the conversation. Even now, conservatives refer to it as socialism. An insurance plan created by a Republican think tank (Heritage Foundation) in 1989 and implemented first by a Republican governor (Romney), that uses private insurance companies...is somehow socialism.
The Democratic Party's all-in approach to the unlikable Hillary Clinton didn't help. They didn't even try to support other candidates. The only time the corrupt, dishonest Hillary Clinton ever revealed her true opinion was when she uttered "Deplorables."
Now it is Trump, the lying, cheating New York billionaire, who is the populist. Insane. Democrats needs to get back to their roots and start listening to people again.
6
I think foreign policy experience is a must to be POTUS. Particularly following the clown in office currently.
3
Seriously? In Nucla, you have to have a gun?
1
I'm all in with Hickenlooper. Thank you for raising the specter of his candidacy. A Western politician makes great sense for the country which has become tribal. This guy has all the skills to provide a bridge. Name identification will be the biggest obstacle as will his ability to parry Trump's volatility and incoherence.
2
Of a closing coal plant "It’s a sacrificial cow to the environmental movement,” he said."
No sir. Our planet and its future have been sacrificial cows to coal and fossil fuel interests and the Republicans they bought. And its going to stop.
15
@Dave Scott. Nobody ever brought a coal fired power plant on line or drilled an oil well unless somebody, often a self righteous environmentalist wanted to turn on the lights or drive some place nice in their gigantic SUV. The oil companies are not the bad guys, we are. When Americans are willing to change their lifestyle and pay what the new one will cost, I'll believe them. Don't get me wrong, I'm part of the problem as well, but we need to own up to where this all started. An over populated nation living a rediculously over the top lifestyle.
1
@Al You could apply the same exact logic to drugs... If the people in the US of A would stop buying C, H, M, etc from the cartels... At least Colo had the sense to allow mostly US companies to supply the M.
I thought the idea that a beer brewer would become mayor of Denver was wonderful. Then even better he became governor. Especially after 2016 featuring a pair of New Yorkers slugging it out, the idea of a common-sense, centrist, Westerner, beer brewer in the white house would be fantastic. Hickenlooper has been very good for Colorado.
4
I wish a reporter/columnist would ask a deeper question of the president's supporters when they point out what he has done for them like the oil and gas production cited by Mr. Babcox. What exactly did the president do to make that happen? or is Mr. Babcox just parroting a line? As for the bathroom thing with Target -- I call nonsense and bigot on that one. A guy no matter what his gender identification could go into a girls restroom with or without the law. He should worry about criminals like that instead of fretting over a born-male who believes he should be a female with every ounce of her soul.
4
I appreciate Roger's optimism in this article, but before everyone looks to Colorado as a shining example it might be worth considering what we didn't get right. I've been a Denver area resident for 9 years and I've learned a few things. For instance, we're not immune to partisanship here. Hickenlooper may be a centrist, but our current two gubernatorial candidates aren't: in my opinion Polis was the bluest of the Democrats running and Stapleton the reddest of the Republicans.
In addition, our constitution has been so horribly broken by various amendments over the years that it isn't actually possible to simultaneously abide by all Colorado's constitutional requirements. For instance, due to the (in)famous TABOR (taxpayer's bill of rights) and the Gallagher amendments, we aren't able to fully fund our schools as required by a different amendment, Amendment 23. Even now, we as voters are all set to pass both Proposition 112, a law which will increase setbacks for oil and gas drilling, and also Constitutional Amendment 74, which will force government to reimburse landowners for any reduction in "fair market value" of property as a result of government regulation. If these both pass, there's likely to be a mess of compensation to landowners for the loss of land value due to curtailment of drilling rights, straining an already over-constrained state budget.
So, look to Colorado as an example if you like, but make sure you look with a critical eye.
10
Great perspective. We need to galvanise more perspectives from different regions. Being on the east coast doesnt mean that their ideas need to dominate.
1
Anyone who thinks Nucla is the "mild west" spends too much time east of the Hudson River.
What these people want is the lack of responsibility inherent in their way of life with someone else to back stop their continued slide into poverty while praising Trump for all he's done for them.
4
Any argument that we should attempt a higher level of civility is welcome, but I would like to point out a glaring omission in this piece - diversity.
Colorado remains 84.3% white and overwhelmingly Christian; by contrast, California is currently standing at a 61.5% combined nonwhite population.
I would like to know how the author thinks Coloradans would deal with that kind of demographic reality. (Based on my experiences in Colorado, the answer isn't encouraging.)
7
@Ellen
Are you including Hispanics in your diversity numbers? Diversity isn't just black and white and also includes socio economic and cultural diversity. Colorado was first explored by the Spanish coming up from the south in the 1500s. I think the demographic reality is that Colorado was part of Mexico until the mid 1800s and that the original history of the American west is Hispanic and not white Europeans.
2
@Ellen
True on race but Colorado is one of the least religious states (bottom 10). From living in the Front Range you just don't see religion displayed a ton and it never feels like a central part of life unlike others areas I have lived in.
The religion is the mountains =)
3
@Ellen. It isn't going all that great in Cali either. Lots of people with money leaving, gated communities, 35% of the countries welfare recipients, schools, enclaves of squalor next to gilded communities that never even acknowledge the other.
The citzens of Nucla are the same as citzens everywhere: as long as they’re making $ bank, they do not care about the plutocrats destroying the environment and the rule of law. Incivility, outright crudeness, self dealing and corruption are ignored or rationalized.
Division and hateful rhetoric targeting critics and the press are embraced, internalized and accepted as necessary to “shake things up”.
Trump’s Kool Aid goes down easy when the world is seen as us vs. them
2
Why do we have to pretend that there is one part of America that is our perfect ideal? Colorado is a nice state, but most Americans don't live there, nor could they.
1
@Larry Figdill. Nor should they. The place is going under as it is from too many people.
1
Seems a pretty big oversite to not mention that prop 112 and 74 both look like they are going to pass.
The former defacto bans fracking. The latter forces the state to pay landowners for lost revenues from fracking bans.
Our polarization is going to bankrupt the state. Colorado can't save America. We are even more divided than the rest of the country.
4
Interesting comment about the Colorado economy: things are great, "hope Trumps has two terms". This strong economy is primarily grounded/supported by the heavy lifting of Barack Obama. That is true (often good economic times are launched by a previous administration). Also, in the midwest, talk to the farmers: things not so great here. Finally, it is unlikely that the incompetent Trump is the only person (Dem or Repub) who can "keep this going". I'll take a candidate who is not mired in 4+ bankruptcies, silver spoon background, hides personal financial information, and is afraid to visit American troops abroad. Thank you very much!
8
I grew up in Grand Junction and live in Denver. There has always been a divide between the West Slope (of the Rockies) and the East Slope for decades. This article paints a picture that is not entirely accurate. Mr. Cohen fails to mention is the elephant in the Colorado room, Proposition 112, a statewide ballot issue that will effectively shut down oil development in Colorado. There is no compromise position. It is being pushed by Democrats and environmentalists, and will cost the state thousands of jobs and lost tax revenue, primarily in rural areas and small towns in Weld County. Hickenlooper, Salazar, and Polis, mentioned in this article, are against it, but the Colorado Democratic Party is for it. Polls show it passing with a slight edge. The NYT did a piece on this - perhaps Mr. Cohen should read it for perspective. If this measure passes, the divisions within Colorado will only deepen. To leave this out paints a picture of compromise within Colorado that does not necessarily match the politics right now, sadly. I will miss Governor Hickenlooper and his ability to work with all sides of these issues.
5
Can Colorado Save America?
Not sure if you really intended to ask that question. Let's look at what Colorado is. It is 84% white and just over 4% African-American.
This is the state that will lead the way in teaching tolerance and how to get along among the races and ethnic groups here in the US?
Will liberal and progressive Colorado residents start an affirmative action program to draw in more African-Americans since they are under-represented in Colorado. Are the progressive minded folks in Boulder on board?
No doubt many Americans feel Colorado is a great state in which to live.
35
@Jp
"Draw in?" "Underrepresented?" Gimme a break. The demographics just reflect history, where people move to and don't. Where is the mandate that all geographies should have such and such ethnicities?
BTW, speaking as an ex-Coloradan, the percentage of blacks in CO has increased 33% since I moved there in the early 1970's. From 3%!
1
@Jp Hmmm, you forgot to mention that 21% of the population in Colorado is Hispanic (8th highest Latino population in the country), and we have a fair sized Asian population as well as many other cultures.
And here are the stats for Colorado's major population center - Denver - which has far greater diversity than you've implied:
Demographics of Denver. The racial makeup of Denver is 77.5% White, 11.1% Black or African American, 2.3% American Indian, 4.5% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander and 4.4% other race. 31.2% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race, giving Denver one of the highest populations of Hispanics or Latinos in the U.S.
3
Colorado is also >20% Hispanic; Hispanic, not being a race, is often counted within the "white" percentage. And Hispanics are a part of the social fabric -- and have been forever -- both in urban and rural areas here.
3
"They clean bathrooms for billionaires in Telluride for a minimum wage."
That sentence, more than any, symbolises America's eve deepening socio-economic divide. If Colorado is a microcosm of the nation, then things are far worse than suggested by headline GDP numbers. Too many have been left behind, surviving on third world wages, exploited for their cheap labour and brainwashed into blaming 'others' for failing to 'Make America Great Again'.
Trump isn't the solution. He is the problem. He talks like a saviour, but acts like a torturer, slowly poisoning what is left of the nation.
The awakening is destined to be rude, sudden and brutal.
10
“One thing every single Trump supporter knows as soon as you start to talk to them is that we think they’re dumb and look down on them.” Democrats, he suggested, might reflect on that.”
When I hear something—anything—that is not a laughably disprovable assertion of fact, or a wildly unhinged conspiracy theory about the “deep state” working against Trump, i might start to pay attention. Further, when I begin to detect just a little diiscomfort on the part of my interlocutor about the steady stream of lies about ISIS caravans, the disregard for truth (even regarding little things) and worship of thugs and autocrats I’ll reconsider.
Finally, If I could just hear how much income and personal prosperity these citizens need to make a complete abandonment of any sense of decency or morality at all I could at least respect that glimmer of logic.
1
Roger Cohen sums up the question to ask ourselves as we vote now and in 2020:
The country’s challenges are vast and the basic choice before Americans in November is this: Do you want your anger manipulated or addressed?
2
How exactly does the Republican party speak with middle Americans in the vast middle of the country? They gather together in a clown circus, led by the clown of hatred but do they even attempt to speak the truth, they lie. They lie so much that the lies become reality, how does this address real issues? The Republicans are really good at talking nonsense and igniting hatred of those others and racism, how does this help America? How does raping the environment, attempting to destroy the 4th estate to avoid those nasty questions, no monies for education or healthcare and enriching the 1% and Corporations benefit middle America? This is the current Republican Party of trump's America, how should the Democratic Party top them?
We are living in the twilight zone and consider this normal.
10
Colorado can't do it on it's own, it will take more writers like yourself, getting away from the desk, and making the introductions, thanks.
2
There are towns in Colorado that have sister cities around the nation.
Durango, Colorado is kin to Brevard, North Carolina. If Boulder is Asheville’s funky cousin, then Austin is a brother who makes some fine barbecue.
Bend, Oregon and Grand Junction, Colorado are kissing cousins, y’all. Burlington, Vermont, on the verge of wilderness and a vast Lake, has a family resemblance to Breckinridge.
Vancouver, BC is smitten with Aspen. So is the high country of North Carolina, little towns like Cashiers, where you can buy a log and stone house in the mountains, not far from a golf course, a few ski runs and still impulse buy a $1,500 espresso machine, on your way back from brunch.
Everyone’s cool brother, or sister, dodges responsibilities for a while, in Colorado. They come back and say, “why isn’t (fill in the blank) more like Crested Butte?”
Why can’t New Canaan have a vibe?
Because your cooler siblings moved to Idaho Springs, Colorado. They’re a river guide in the summer. In winter, you can find them running snow mobile tours across pristine mountain passes. They ski fresh powder at dawn, & are way fit. They come to visit your boring town, but get pretty antsy after a bit.
There aren’t enough places to mountain bike in Westchester or Fairfield County. Tort laws won’t allow it.
And frankly, cool uncle Pete in Estes Park is having a blast. He might see you at the holidays, if there isn’t fresh powder.
Your folks think he’s irresponsible. Uncle Pete has the best stories.
1
Nucla is an almost 6 hour drive from urban Denver, located on the Utah border, with a conservative Mormon influence. If your drive 6 hours north from Manhattan, you'll find the same sort of independent spirited, politically conservative, gun loving, outdoorsy, working poor folk living on the U.S. side of the Canadian border.
Hillary crushed Trump with regard to New York State's popular voting (59% to 36.5%), but he won more than twice as many of the State's counties...places populated mostly by rural, poor, politically ignored, and traditionally conservative voters, similar in make up to Cohen's western Colorado example.
In short, Colorado can't save America...it will take ALL Americans to turn the tide.
9
So Craig believes in freedom so strongly that he promoted a law that makes gun ownership obligatory. Apparently we are not free to go without a weapon. Yes, very American, you are only free to live your life as I live mine.
I stopped reading. I hope he doesn’t promote a law that makes it obligatory to listen to his nonsense.
3
I disagree with many of these points. Hick reminds me of Clinton, he’s old school liberal, slick. He’s a big fan of public/private partnerships that enrich the few who sit on the right boards of the right clubs. Denver and Colorado are still very much an old boys playground. let’s not so easily buy some pie in the sky mythology and clever marketing about how the cowboy from colorado can save us all.
4
I've always considered Roger Cohen to be the NYT's most insightful columnist, on matters both domestic and international.
I had the pleasure of reading this particular column, datelined from the so-called West End of Montrose County, while completing my Montrose County mail-in ballot here in Ft. Lauderdale.
While many of my fellow-traveler progressive Democratic friends - including those back in Colorado and on either coast - will no doubt find this paean to purple politics distasteful.....I believe it's spot on if the Dems expect to reclaim the White House from #MeinTrumpf two years out
2
Forget about Hickenlooper. Polis is the future of the Democratic Party. He’s a genuine progressive. And when he becomes Colorado’s next governor, he will be the first openly gay man elected governor in the United States. Mark my words. Trump’s retrograde and vile vision of America will soon wither away.
2
The democratic party will insist on a corporate apologist and not a western politician or true liberal. The people who voted for Trump and expect him to help working people and the poor are delusional. It is the democrats who are dumb because they continually select politicians who also do not work for them. The ACA while getting more people covered was a giant gift to insurance companies. Neither party works for the people. However, at this point we have a choice between fascism or being corporate slaves. Fascism will fail spectacularly and likely in a flourish of violence. As corporate slaves you will get to choose the car you drive to work and be able to escape into your TV fantasy land.
5
@Chris fascism is corporatism. Mussolini invented it. Look it up.
I'm a fourth generation Coloradan. Colorado is awful. The weather is horrible. Snowstorms in October all the way through may. And the traffic. Don't get me started about the traffic. And marijuana. Potheads everywhere. And that smell--everywhere you go. And just try to get a restaurant reservation, or a ticket to a Red Rocks concert. Impossible. And no jobs. Employment rate is too high. A monstrous affordable housing shortage. But if you love Texans and Californians, this place is for you.Yup, Colorado is a terrible place to live. Trust me on this. Believe me. It's just the worst. If you're considering moving here, please don't. It would be a huge mistake.
14
@Offscreen Whoa Mr. Offscreen! Denver is not the only Colorado. Get off the freeway and crowded streets and take a little tour around the rest of the state. Try Divide or Texas Creek, Colorado Springs if you like big cities or Cortez, Mancos, Dove Creek, Ignacio for small towns. Some are "Red", some are "Blue" but all are pure Colorado folks making a living as best they can in a pretty darn nice part of the West. It's not perfect but show me the part of this country that is and go ahead and move there. Or stay and make it work wherever you are.
@SDowler. I'm thinking he's maybe a little ironic. We have much the same here. Californians, for what ever reason, tired of paradise on earth are flooding in. I guess once all of the U.S. looks like California and everywhere in the Americas like Central America all this will end. But of coarse it will be far too late by then.
@Offscreen There's absolutely nuthin' you can say about Colo that will keep people from coming there over and over and each time trying to figure out a way to move there. Just think about it... to the east it's tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, freezin' cold long winters, rising sea levels and high humidity heat waves... to the west it's droughts, gigantic forest fires, heat waves, earthquakes, mudslides and super expensive housing... better get ready for the mass migrations!
1
Colorado, and a lot of other places. Keep up your columns, Roger!
PS: We (American couple, roughly 70 age-wise) are back in Cape Town for the fifth year running, enjoying the country you grew up in and observing its own post-apartheid trials and tribulations. Like here, and in the U.S., it's a matter of never giving in, and seeking for a just and happy solution to humanity's problems.
@C.L.S. How's the water supply?
The cow-corn's sparce and short; what's amiss? Here in Southern Ontario, by contrast...
1
4 day school week, can't afford medicine, can't buy a house.
Yep, that's a success story!
6
We stayed with friends in Evergreen Colorado. Lovely place. Went to the community musical gathering down by the lake there, everyone seemed to know everyone else, very friendly. I even saw one black resident, apparently an ex-NFL player.
Colorado is the hope for some Americans, for sure. Other Americans just don’t live there. Look it up.
Nucla, Co is probably one of the most remote places you can find in Colorado. It does not surprise me what the people there are thinking.
2
@Two in Memphis
Much of Colorado is very isolated and rural and Republican. 80% of the population live in a narrow band along the Front Range. The eastern half plains is very sparsely populated as is northwestern and western Colorado. Yuma in northeastern Colorado where Senator Gardner is from is just as isolated. And there are isolated mountain communities as well. The resort areas and the front range tend to be more blue but most of Colorado is very rural and agricultural.
1
we are overwhelmed by Texans: don't know whether they are escaping or invading.
10
After reading the article I am not sure what the meaning of the word ‘save’ is.
“You know, we’re all too wrapped up in our differences to see our similarities,” he told me. “I say to Liberals, let’s try to find things we can agree on.”“
I’ve been urging my fellow liberals/Democrats to do exactly that for two years now. Almost without exception — and these are bright, college-educated people — they scoff at me. Such as: “Oh, forget that. I can’t even talk to my Trump-supporting brother-in-law anymore. We just argue. It’s a waste of time.” They don’t even see that it doesn’t have to be about converting “deplorables” to “common sense” and are not even willing to see that there are commonalities and, more importantly, ways of identifying and discussing them. If we are ever to have a functioning government again — and if Democrats ever hope to have the broad political consensus that brings with it enough real power to enact urgent change — then we very much need to adopt the approach of that conservative Coloradan. When I dip into the hermetically sealed world of my liberal cohort, I do not feel optimistic.
2
This article feels a bit like a congratulatory note to the politicians who are "in bed" with the oil and gas industry. No drilling permit has been denied to the extraction industry in 66 years. Not one. Drive through Weld County, and you won't see those beautiful vistas any more as they are blemished with fracking operations next to school playing fields, bison eating grass in the fields, and pumpkin farms inviting children. No amount of science, showing the effets of the increased methane and benzine we are exposed to affects policy. The public taxes itself to preserve open space, and oil and gas claims its rights to drill it. If we wnat to preserve it, they propose legislation saying taxpayers must give them the money they were thinking of getting. Hickenlooper, Polis, Bennett and Gardner, our top policians, are all agreed with one another--to pump oil and gas quicker to foreign markets. Coloradoans will never see a penny of the profits. You have not dug deep enough for this article. Enough with the candy coating. Colorado is giving up its grandeur to line campaign chests. Come back and do your journalistic homework.
5
Well said. Just spent a night in Denver. Drove across the eastern front. Can see the difference in KS and CO. Mental too. But they have the same issues. People find themselves worth more dead than alive. The commentary from the peanut gallery is way too pat. What is wrong with becoming like CA? What do you need beyond a bolt action 30-60 to kill a deer or bear? Preacher man interviewed was the typical closed minded bible thumping money grubbing hypocrite Sunday morning brings out. So if they want to know, it is not just those from the coast that make fun of them. I grew up in the desert West. It is their narrow minded approach to all things considered.
2
How did Colorado—and other—Republicans go from “better dead than red” to embracing the red-state concept and Trump’s long red ties to Russia?
1
“Listen harder.” How refreshing.
Before we get carried away, remember that Colorado Springs, CO., was the site of BlacKkKlansman, the account by, and of, Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer there, who infiltrated the local KKK. If I’m not mistaken, decades later, Trump won that city by roughly two to one. I’m not going to hold my breath for a whole lot of America saving coming from those parts.
As a Pennsylvania native who has lived in Colorado for 34 years, there are many reasons to love this state. The politics are for the most part clean, there is a strong pragmatic aspect to much of the public discourse, and it's hard to beat the physical splendor of the Intermountain West.
However, there are several big issues where the collaboration touted in the article is not working. Our ballot is filled with initiatives pointing to a failure to politically address at least three major issues: 1.) how to balance oil and gas development with local community concerns; 2) how to invest in needed transportation improvements; and 3) how to improve public education in the state.
These items are on the ballot because on theses critical issues our legislature demonstrates the same ideological inflexibility that is decried in DC. Governor Hickenlooper, who is probably the least ideological politician I can think of, would probably admit that collaboration has its limits when it runs into rigid ideology. When it comes to money, there is a strong "no tax" mentality here, and tax limitation is in the state constitution. So the argument inevitably reduces to either cut existing programs to pay for new needs, or put a special tax issue on the ballot.
Yes, Colorado citizens are probably more civil and engaged in public issues. We do look for ways to get things done. But on several critical issues, structural elements in our laws and constitution stymie effective problem solving.
5
I live in Colorado. John Hickenlooper has been a very good governor. He is smart, honest, compassionate, practical, and realistic. The country would be lucky to have him as president.
2
And what do you do when compromise with the oil and gas industries, to create a rational energy policy, just does not cut it, does not get us where we need to be to avoid the looming disasters predicted for 2040?
7
As a 73 year old native Coloradan, I enjoyed reading about the state. I grew up in Denver back when it was much smaller, and although I visit the Western Slope yearly to visit Crested Butte and the surrounding area, I’ve never been to Nucla nor do I have any desire to go there. Some years ago, Nucla was infamous for their annual prairie dog shooting contest, and while I neither know nor care if this ridiculous contest still occurs, there are numerous other small Colorado towns that would’ve been more interesting and more representative of our state. Even so, I agree in general with the characterization of Coloradans as mostly friendly and amenable to discussion of differences. We’re purple, tending more blue, hopefully. While I understand what draws people here, the recent surge in population tempts me to agree with the saying “Colorado is full - we hear Kansas is nice.”
9
Hick for president!
3
Hmmm ... not quite sure what I think of this piece. In some ways, it feels true; in others, not so much. And though I remain a proud "libtard" (actually, more Green than Dem), I remain a bit ambivalent about Hickenlooper - I'm still awaiting his downing of a pint of fracking juice!
That being said, abortion is actually not much of a wedge issue here. In 2010, our ballots contained a "Fetal Personhood Initiatve," which went down in flames (70% against versus 29% in favor). And though I like our ballot initiative process (it does abet democratization), it has resulted in some bizarre, even dysfunctional, additions to our constitution: for example, TABOR (the taxpayer bill of rights, which greatly limits tax revenue), combined with Amendment 23 (which mandated increases to K-12 public education), combined with the Gallagher Amendment (property tax relief for seniors) - a Bermuda Triangle of revenue deprivation and mandated spending increases. A booming economy puts this problem on the back burner, but when we hit our next recession, it will return.
7
Implementing single payer will solve many problems. I look forward to it. Sorry that single mom had to suffer so much due to Republicans opposition to anything good.
4
That guy thinks the Prius is a joke. This story forgets to mention the drought and it forgets to mention that in this warming climate, it can get into the 50s in mid-winter. The ski industry that helps Colorado have an economy is facing an existential threat from climate change.
The joke is going to be on the Coloradans who laugh at people who drive a Prius. But they won't think it's so funny, because Colorado without reliable snow is going to be an economic disaster.
9
Craig believes in freedom yet successfully promoted an ordinance that obligated everyone in his town to own a gun. Apparently his neighbors who choose to go without a weapon are taking freedom a step too far. How American it is to believe people should only be free to live their lives the way you live yours. We a free to be like Craig else into the slammer.
3
Colorado is running out of water and polluting everywhere with fracking chemicals. There are wells right next to school playgrounds and some children tested have shown fracking chemicals in their blood. What was once a beautiful state is being ruined.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/us/colorado-fracking-proposition-112....
18
And remember that Hick drank a glass of fracking fluid, supposedly, to prove it wasn't harmful. That has always made me think he isn't that smart. I did see him while he was mayor just hanging around in the the tatttered cover bookstore. So, he can't be that dumb.
I don't think all Trump supporters in Colorado or anywhere else are stupid, just as I don't think all liberals are smart.
What I find appalling is a national trend to not perform our due diligence on topics that matter most to people to uncover the truth. They'd rather believe a politician, a particular lobby, or their favorite partisan media outlet. This is a recipe for disaster.
Using these types of sources alone are a certain "F" on any college paper.
Recently I had a conversation with a close relative who is a smart guy and a Trump supporter. He chose to conveniently ignore facts and quoted false statistics that supported his positions. He's not from a rural community but from a posh Florida enclave of transplanted, well-to-do seniors.
People have become lazy in relying on Facebook, partisan websites, and their own fear to reach conclusions that are false, misleading, and ultimately, against their best interest under the surface. It's a modern problem but has roots in the propaganda despots used in the past to gain power.
I'm waiting and hoping for intelligence and reason to take hold and enough of the public to stand up to liars, cheats, and greedy individuals of any stripe who like to hide from the truth when it doesn't suit their agenda.
At least Colorado is trying and may prove to us that throughout history the American nose for chicanery will rise again.
9
@Sherrie Perhaps "willfully ignorant" would be a better description. It's really hard to understand how so many Trump supporters believe some of the (obviously false) things they do.
1
Another doom and gloom “Trump is destroying America but there’s hope with the right think people” opinion piece. Gads it’s just getting old.
People aren’t supporting Trump so much as rejecting the crazy of the democrat left. His poll numbers show this. The economy is better under Trump, but of course it’s not all to his credit. But the tax cuts and the easing of regulations clearly helped charge it.
Yes, wages have stagnated, but you can still buy more now and better quality items with what you are making. The job numbers and average wage figures in no way support your hand wringing. A lot of the stagnation has less to do with anything Obama or Trump related, it’s just an expected outcome of capitalism. As more and more people in China, India and other rapidly developing nations move out of poverty, more and more jobs are moving and being created there. This is a good thing. What holds us back is over regulation and high taxes, and the sheer number of things for which we are taxed.
And of course any federal tax breaks are going to benefit the rich more. They are the ones paying the taxes. Those earning over 138k payed 70.6% of federal taxes in 2015. I understand in this forum most members are fine with wealth redistribution. But out in the real world people want to keep what they earn and give it away to persons and organizations of their own choosing.
3
@John Couch
But you forget to mention that the earnings of those 30% are fueled by the labor and spending of folks under that 138K mark. After the 70% pay for rent, food, transportation, utilities, clothes, and co-pays (if they're lucky enough to get insurance), there's not much left for anything else including taxes or even a darn night out once in a while. Only the very poor get tax breaks that many rich folks take for granted (and some people like Trump avoid paying any tax year after year. Buy his book and find out how).
Those taxes from the higher brackets serve as a social contract. You want chaos and instability? Keep giving the rich tax cuts and see what happens.
6
@Sherrie
I disagree. Wealth doesn't exist in a finite state. 80% of the millionaires in America are first generation. They found something the public wanted and were able to produce and sell it at an acceptable price. Any fruits of that innovation are their own, not the governments and not to people voting to steal it through proxy (i.e. IRS). People in higher tax brackets are not the same ones there 10 years ago and the same is true of the lower brackets. People shift in wealth and if we let the market function freely, more people will find their way out of poverty. When 43% of the population voting for taxes when they pay an effective rate of 0, that's also an issue. Everyone needs to pay something so that they are motivated to ensure those taxes are spent appropriately and with accountability.
I appreciate your disagreeing respectfully. That's important if we want to find solutions. A point we DO agree on is that the level of income inequality can reach a tipping point. We have an obligation to the poor and to those who through no fault of their own (and here I mean mentally challenged, physically disabled) cannot compete in a free market. Where we have disagreement is how best to serve those people. I firmly believe that if you want a better life, America offers you that opportunity, and the limit to your advancement is yourself. I'm fine with you disagreeing; but I see about 10,000 people on their way from Honduras because they do agree.
I lived in Colorado for 3 years from 2012 to 2015, when I was stationed in the military at Fort Carson and, then after i got out i completed my Bachelors degree at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Gov. Hickenlooper was Governor the entire time I lived there. If he runs, and gets the nomination, he has my vote.
8
I wonder whether Lacie Redd's suicide because she couldn't afford medication changed the politics of anyone who knew her.
Living as an East Coast transplant in Oregon, a state split between a liberal Coast and a conservative inter-mountain West, I can hear the same American dialogue as Roger Cohen does in Colorado. Given where I live and where I come from, my sympathies should be obvious.
But I would never romanticize these differences with the title, "Can Oregon Save America?" What is happening is as obvious as it is tragic. The West has become the most polarized region of the country.
The rhapsodic beauty of our region -- of our country -- is undeniable. But so is the ugliness of the historical moment we are passing through. An older rural way of life is changing into a newer, more urban, racially and ethnically diverse society. That fact is also undeniable. That change will be for better and for worse. Pointing that out is not condescending to anyone. It is a fact. But everything else about that change is uncertain.
I do hope that that future society will find a way to get other Lacie Redds the medications they need.
13
Proposition 112 is on the ballot in Colorado this election. Support for and against is running neck and neck, but polls show it passing. It will basically eliminate the oil and gas industry in Colorado in one fell swoop, in that no new wells can be drilled on most (85%) of the privately owned land.
I wish some mention of this could have been included in this article, as I find this a confusing issue and a big face-off between left and right, with no room for compromise allowed.
On the one hand, yes, fracking comes with dangers to health and environment, no question about that. On the other hand, is it fair to just wipe out tens of thousands of people's livelihoods, income and assets with the stroke of a pen?
I wish a real plan of action had been developed that could be a win/win situation for both sides.
2
Roger, how did I miss you? You were running all over my part of the country! Hickenlooper is a strange cat. I disagree with so much of what he has done, but I dread both candidates to replace him. But maybe Hick represents what we need. At least I feel like I could argue with him all day, he would certainly argue back and a day or two later we would probably come to a grudging agreement. My wife and I have good jobs, thanks to lots of education and hard work, not to Trump. On the other hand we have grandkids that we have to support because their parents barely make more than minimum wage. Some of our friends are very well off and others struggle to get by in 50 year old single wide mobile homes with no health insurance, no teeth and eating the meat they put in the freezer during hunting season. A 15 year old grandson just got his first elk last weekend and finished butchering it last night. You don't get the experience of knowing where your food comes and what it costs in blood, sweat, and tears (both from you and the elk) in Denver or NYC. We love life here and we try to work together to make our part of the country better, despite our disagreements. That's what America is supposed to be about. Right?
2
It's not all rosy. I believe that now as many people are leaving as are coming in - and that's a lot - because housing prices have risen astronomically and are forcing out everyone who built the lovely state you describe. That, along with massive problems with traffic and transients, is the story you're not telling. I'm thrilled to see arts and culture take a significant role here alongside sports and beer, but we need intelligent, creative, conscious planning and thoughtful development.
12
Here in Colorado, many of us call our governor "Frackenlooper," not Hickenlooper. John Hickenlooper, as an old oil and gas man, has over ruled local ordinances designed to protect homes, schools and groundwater from from the out - of - control fracking industry. Under the Hickenlooper leadership, Noble Energy, Crestone Resources, and other O&G fracking companies now drill in suburban neighborhoods and next to school yards.
With John in charge , we are not on a path to a renewal energy future despite abundant wind and solar potential. Rather, it's business as usual for the fossil fuel industry, fires, floods and melting snowfields at higher elevations are more common, and the health and safety or our air and water take second place to fracking.
21
Very interesting article. I have heard a lot of comments like those from Bob Ralph, talking about how Trump has been so good for business. But I never really hear exactly how this is so. For example, a lot of the regulations that people complain about are state and local, not federal. If someone can really show me that Trump is personally responsible for this business renaissance, I promise, I will vote for him next time!
1
"“Just like the rest of the country, most people can’t easily afford housing, can’t easily afford health care, can’t easily afford higher education or early childhood education; so another way of saying that is most of the people cannot afford a middle-class lifestyle,” Senator Michael Bennet......told me."
I think this is America's defining challenge, one dealt with in Colorado in vastly different ways as Roger Cohen describes here.
Growing up in the 50s, I didn't see the huge economic disparities that plague today's Americans. At my NJ elementary school, folks weren't rich or poor, just average--yet to afford an equal level of lifestyle.
Clearly something is tearing America apart aside from the exploitation of public anger by politicians. And I believe that something is money.
The problem would be fixable were people willing to be as open-minded as the profiles included in this piece.
The other statement that hit me between the eyes, inducing guilt pangs, is the point made by Seth Cagin, about Democrats "looking down" on Trump supporters.
Yes, I have painted them with a broad liberal brush and reading this, better understand how enraged my disdain must make them feel.
Colorado seems to encompass all the tensions of American society, but with the desire to solve local problems.
What I learned is that we are redeemable--if we can get back to valuing compromise.
167
@ChristineMcM
I would like to believe we are all redeemable, but now nearing 70 years on the planet, 50 plus of those years living in America, several states, I can attest to the fact that the control of the nations wealth held tightly in the hands of the .01%ters, is the root cause of the palpable anger and outrage among the poor and the declining middle class.
Neither party, in its current makeup, has any interest in relinquishing control of the nations wealth, and both will continue to provide breadcrumbs and lip-service to the long disenfranchised, and neither party will allow any new blood to gain traction within their ranks.
The inequality which has nearly destroyed the heart and soul of America is here to stay, until the people are finally so desperate they will have no choice but to turn on their masters.
History keeps on repeating itself in this regard, and so it will be in this dying American Democracy.
77
@ChristineMcM I would guess without any evidence, but I'll guess anyway, that back in the '50s you didn't live near many non-whites, who were most certainly, on average, poorer than whites, struggling in ways that went beyond money.
9
@newyorkerva: Your guess is only halfway right. I grew up in Englewood, NJ, with a high proportion of African American residents. Of course, back then segregated neighborhoods were the norm (still are), but there were African American kids in my classes.
That said, I'm sure they earned far less than my parents, but since the gap between middle-to-high earners and low-income families was a fraction of what it is today, I continue to maintain that the huge wealth discrepancy today from decades of pro-wealth and corporate tax and employment policy is a key factor in our social and political unrest.
I’m a relatively new arrival to this great state and nearly every day I am taken aback by the kindness, openness and genuine individualism displayed by almost everyone I meet here. It’s as if there is something in the air that alleviates you of your pretenses. Maybe it’s a Western thing? I don’t know, but I like it...a lot.
People seem to be sensible in their politics here (and I’m contrasting that with long stints in blue Chicago and very red suburban Kansas City). One gets the sense that all voices are heard at the ballot box and that over time, those decisions have created a state that’s very much in the image of the people that live here. The net result is a big difference from what the powerful political machines have wrought in my previous two places of residence.
The county at large could definitely use a mega dose of what’s cooking here, that’s for sure!
187
@Dudesworth
Welcome to Colorado from a 4th generation native! My husband is 5th. I joke that our families came here from east of the Mississippi River and west of the European Atlantic shores right after the 1859 Gold Rush. They recognized a great place to stay -- and several hundred of us still do. Coloradoans (That IS the correct spelling and punctuation, BTW.) are traditionally socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Translation: What happens in the bedroom and the doctor's office is your own darn business. What happens with public and non-profit dollars needs watching like a hawk. Taxes for the public good -- healthcare, education, the environment -- are necessary and good. Unfunded wars, unregulated guns, and mass incarcerations are harmful to children and other living things. We do have a Code of the West. Learn it and you will thrive here.
18
I live in Colorado, and I think John Hickenlooper would make an excellent President. Unfortunately, those who inflicted Donald Trump on America don't deserve him and probably won't get him.
Did any of those good old boys who meet up regularly at the 5th Avenue Grill in Nucla ever reach out to help Lacie Redd? Do they think Trump cares one iota about the burdens that so overwhelmed her she killed herself?
What about the father of her children? Where was he when she was so desperately struggling financially? Did he pay child support? I wonder who he voted for.
154
@Carson Drew
Many excellent points. Thank you.
7
I'm a native Californian, born during WWII. I grew up with travels throughout the West, including a week or two in Colorado in 1956.
We Californians used to say "the future happens here first." Unfortunately, it has.
Starting after WWII, California has seen unremitting growth: the 7 million population of my birth year has become more than 40 million.
The rest of the West became part of the gush of growth long ago.
What is saddest to me, of course, is the disappearance of so many charming places and regions under concrete and suburbs.
But, the second, is what has happened to the cities. As they become conventionally successful, growing from 300,000, say, to a million or two, they lose all their uniqueness, and start to look alike. And their common modernist look reminds me of our sixties phrase "Plastic Fantastic".
Inauthenticity and homogenization are a sad future to contemplate.
It is happening as much in Colorado as in the rest of West. The population has doubled since 1980, and one should expect another doubling by 2060.
Population is in fact the crux of the problem. In the West, America, and the world. It is impossible not to turn nature into suburbs so long as our population is expanding.
And yet, it seems that making population steady, or even declining, is as hard as dealing with the related problem of carbon use.
Especially, when there is a quack around every corner, telling us that the economy needs population growth.
107
@alyosha
... or decides to cut you off if you're driving a Prius. (I had that happen to me the other day while driving apace with everyone else, just minding my own business, and then the guy gave me the finger.)
I'd bet good money that he'll remain loyal to Trump until Trump actually comes right out and gets caught off camera talking about what he really thinks about his fans. This hostility is the same hostility that apparently was displayed during the McCarthy era - it's a self-involved puerile attitude with no sense of dignity and no sense of shame until they're affected personally.
Does Omarosa or does someone have the tape that will bring this country back to an age of enlightment, real patriotism, soundness of reason and progress?
Where's the tape or video. We need one.
8
@alyosha
Oops! I didn't look and I sent this to another Californian I've known for about 40 years. Oh well, no harm done.
"I figured I was the only one who thought the elephant in the room was population control! EVERYTHING goes back to that. Is there any lack of humans anywhere? It was a pleasure and surprise to read your cleareyed (and well-written) comment... "
14
I wish people didn’t feel like they need a mini mansion and a yard. We could live in energy efficient apartments, taking up less space and resources but people aren’t willing to think collectively. It’s just about getting your own and screw everyone else.
2
A Hickenlooper like candidate would be ideal. He's a hybrid, an educated easterner who has spent a lot of time and governed out west. Small town folks out west, and in rural America in general, can't stand big city easterners. Trump has managed to bridge that divide which shows his skills of manipulation and salesmanship by using race issues as a way to win their support. Michael Avenatti is taking a lot of heat about saying that a white male should run for the democratic nomination. Actually, a midwestern or western white male would have the best chances to win. I say that because a liberal white woman would face intense opposition from conservative rural women who are just as misogynistic as the men. A black male would be more popular with them and was.
We keep seeing the same complaint from small towners. They keep saying that they have been left behind. They left themselves behind by not diversifying their economies. Many of these towns are one industry towns with one major employer. If the plant closes, the town dies.
Small towns do not have the population base to provide the diversity and number of workers that companies need. As an economic model in today's world, the small town cannot compete. How can a town of 500 provide 50 architects and engineers for a new design company? Probably more like two.
Free market capitalism is killing small towns. Modernity is killing small towns. Advancing technology is killing small towns. Who left who behind?
244
@Bruce Rozenblit I Agree completely. I’m weary of those (mainly white men and the politicians who stir up their prejudices) who complain, often bitterly, about being ‘left behind’. It’s pretty simple, if you don’t get on the bus you’ll be left behind. If you are in CO, thanks to good government, there are many, many ways to get ahead no matter what side of the political fence you’re on.
67
@Bruce Rozenblit
Good point about the small towns Bruce. Those in small towns blame liberal democrats when it is really corporate America. Then they vote for the GOP which corporate America supports. The GOP exists on lies and extreme marketing of those lies.
81
@Bruce Rozenblit
I disagree about freemarket, modernitity and advanced technology killing towns, it has to be an education problem, people do not learn that they might need to change.
I have often wondered why those in small towns don't find another way when the big companies leave. I think of my grandfather who often moved his large family around to get work in the 30's, they settled here a little farther north because he was a farmer, he started growing tomatoes for a large company there, in another small town. Complaints that things change astounds me. It may be more complicated than this, but it seems the town should compete for perhaps a solar cell or battery plant. Or even start something. Like growing hemp in Nucla.
27
I currently live in Colorado District 6, and through my conversations here, I have appreciated the climate of temperance and reason during the election. This article is a great reflection on the strengths that I hope our country can revisit and embrace as we tackle the issues that are important to us all.
1
I’ve lived in Colorado for the last 20 years, maintain a residence there but have recently moved to the East Coast. This article neatly captures the sentiment that my wife and I have been observing. The optimism and collaboration in Colorado - and in Hickenlooper’s approach to governance - is a way out of the morass we find ourselves in nationally.
308
Great piece about a great place to live. You didn't mention our high voter turnout, fueled in part by statewide mailed-in ballots. We also have two ballot measures this year that are aimed at preventing partisan redistricting.
430
@edv961 I lived in Colorado from 2012 to 2015 when i was in the military. In 2012 i voted but it wasn't mail in i had to drive to a polling place. So the mail in policy must have been implemented later.
@edv961 : Second the motion on everything you said. I received my ballot for this midterm elections, filled it up, put it in a dropbox, and received both an email and a text confirming receipt of my completed ballot. I have lived in Colorado 25 years now, and cannot imagine living anywhere else. People take their politics very seriously here, but still get along.
17
@edv961I miss the mail-in voting now that I moved out of the state. It was such a nice convenience to have.
1
Most people in this country used to talk to people with opposing points of view, but that is impossible now with the conspiracy theorists and those brainwashed with the lies coming out of Fox News and other right wing organizations. It's pretty bad when the only factual news is labeled "fake" by a country's so-called leader. I, for one, refuse to engage with those who just want to argue their phony propaganda.
10
Colorado is a wonderful state, a photo opportunity at every turn. In the American west, however, there is a strain of taking individualism deep toward hostility that I have notice every time I have set foot or rental car there. It it seems, in many cases, to boil down to, "Get out of my way, I don't need you." (Generalizations are risky, I know, and I am still trying to figure it out.)
Trump supporters attribute virtually everything good that has happened since he took office to him, in the same way many of these same voters attributed everything bad that happened during Obama's years to him. There were people who actually believed Obama caused the recession because it was still getting worse when he took office in 2009. Facts are less important than belief.
There are more customers in that guy's cafe because of Trump? People want to start businesses? The oil derricks are back at work? Holy crude oil, how did Trump do these things? A miracle worker.
What Trump did was consistently brag about everything, sometimes with lies, implying that he accomplished X or Y and those who support him drink it down like hot coffee on a cold winter's day. There is no way around this. If they believe Trump has magical powers, they will persist. I am not sure we can have a national govt. if it takes a loudmouth idiot to make it seem successful.
Take note: we can have temporary prosperity by cutting taxes on the rich and dropping regulations. It won't last and the cost long term will be high
26
@Doug Terry
Let's suppose that prosperity lasts throughout a Trump presidency (as it did for most of Obama's) and then a Democrat takes office. The ill effects of the Trump policies would fall on a Democrat...who could then be blamed for not keeping the economy up...like Trump did. There will be another recession and it could be almost as big as the last one. The question is when and who gets the blame.
1
@Doug Terry
Interesting observations on the American West, Doug. However, having traveled DC to Boston & cities betwixt a couple times, I'd have to say that DC had some of the most provincial & course patrons of any taverns or cafes I entered on the trip. Heads swiveled in unison with surly expressions as I walked through the doors. All places were within walking distance of the Capitol. Still trying to figure it out.
1
David Haskell raised a point that I had noted as well: this article would cause a reader to thing there are no people of color in Western Colorado. Did the author talk to any of the Hispanics there (some of whom are descended from early traders who moved unhindered back and forth across what are now becoming impassable borders)? Are there no black people. And have the Native Americans been erased? I suspect Roger might have benefited from reading Michener's Centennial prior to his trip to Colorado. Oh, he might also keep an eye out to see how Coloradoans vote on the 2500 foot setback for drilling. Some of us are tired of Hickenlooper's willingness to "compromise" with oil and gas.
1
I'm heartened by reading an article about the "flyover country" by someone from the NYT. There is much to be learned here about the nature of our great national divide by those who care to learn.
Democrats who wish to return to power should heed Hickenlooper's advice: "The only way to persuade people is to listen harder". How right he is! In order to make any inroads on closed minds - and as America becomes ever more tribalized, the instinctual response of most is to close their mind to that which scares them - first you really need to open your own mind and listen. Listen to what's behind the statement of Pastor Babcox when he says "A country without laws is chaos". His real fear isn't unisex bathrooms, but CHAOS, and his belief that if you allow a chink in the dam of order like making bathrooms unisex, there will quickly be a flood of chaos. Is there an answer that will satisfy his terror? Maybe not, but simply calling him "ignorant" won't achieve a solution either. A mind closed like this is immune to simple frontal assault, and if it would be changed, it will take some real hard listening to see where there might be the opening for dialogue. Sadly, there might not be any. I live surrounded with people like this, and know that most of them are not inclined to change - their way has worked for generations, so why should they change?
The formula needs to include much close listening, more education, and a refrain from belittlement of that which you don't understand.
2
I appreciate Mr. Cohen’s optimism. But the Colorado he describes is a recent phenomenon. The Colorado of say 35 years ago was a savage place. Many of the state laws and regulations from that era remain in place. The article quotes Senator Bennet extensively but not Senator Gardner, a typical republican boot licker of the people who fund his party.
1
@sguknw Uhhh, 35 years ago Colorado's governor was Dick Lamm, one of the most liberal ever, and Democrats controlled the legislature. Remember Gov. Lamm being referred to as Governor Hairshirt and trading in the governor's limo for a Plymoth Volare and making the State Patrol drive those same pieces of garbage? Remember him shutting down construction and maintenance of the highways because "if we don't build it, they won't come." Remember the potholes that pock marked I-25 and I-70 that didn't get fixed until Roy Romer, a common sense Democrat, replaced him? Remember the I-225 entry ramp from I-25 hanging in the air like Florida chad, a bridge to nowhere for 12 years? Remember him running his first campaign on the promise to cancel the 1976 Winter Olympics that had been awarded to Colorado and sending billions of dollars in recreational business elsewhere? I do. It took more than two decades, but we have finally recovered from his 12 years in office.
This article reminds me of a our place in the mountains. We turn off the 4 lane onto a nondescript road, there is a run down trailer adjacent to the railroad tracks. As we pass slowly by this wily old couple sits on the porch, boxes and trash everywhere. They always wave and we wave back. In town the young men are always "yes sir" and "yes ma'am". No one beeps their horn if your slow out of the starting gate at a light.
It's the North Georgia Mountains. There are great people all over this country, it's Washington and in particular the President that is trying to divide us.
So please vote and maybe we can bring civility back to Washington.
1
Great column! Give this column to leaders of Democratic party in Washington.
1
I want to hear from any GOP supporters with a seizure disorder and tell me how they justify it.
As a 30 yr plus epileptic, I can fully understand why the young woman took her life.
Can you say pre-existing condition?
15
Colorado is awesome. I love visiting. It's beautiful and rugged and urban and cultured and rural. Hickenlooper sounds... sane? And yet more. Sensible too?
Sanity, there's a crazy thought. Sensibility, well, that's gotta be a pipe dream.
I have a theory that people with funny sounding last names can't win the presidency. We haven't had a three-syllable President since Kennedy (which is a pretty weak three-syllabler).That's why Huckabee never worried me. Obama is a weird last name, but it's not giggly like Hickenlooper, and it's only two syllables. (yes, that's a joke)
All that said, Hickenlooper has already got my vote.
2
It was over 40 years ago that I first encountered one of Colorado Spring's anti Christian GOP mega churches. Like everywhere Colorado is home to a large cross section of America.
Unfortunately the hypocrisy, the materialism and lack of empathy soured me on Colorado because I am a JEW and understand what my brother Jesus was telling us. I have since met many Coloradans and know that they don't all wake up in a thousand dollar suit and tie ready to tell you how to live your life.
I have crossed America many times and it will take people from all 50 states to fix what is wrong and like everywhere else Colorado has many of the best and many of the worst but only Texas has Ted Cruz and he was born in a city that I love.
3
A little hope. Thanks.
I'd love to see a Democrat from the west run for President. I'm tired of east coast liberals always setting the tone for the Democratic Party. Not to insult all you New Yorkers, but half of them are completely out of touch with the rest of the country and next to none of them have experienced life outside their New England bubble. That's why these east coast politicians come across as condescending and that's why blue collar folks across the country turned on them in 2016.
2
No, but California might.
2
What is missing in this article is the utter cheapness of Coloradans outside the Ft. Collins-Denver corridor. Folks outside this area do not want to pay for anything that supports the greater good. Even though Denver taxes itself at the highest rates in the state, it flourishes. Other areas want to pay for nothing and they flounder. Folks want to move to Denver because of the infrastructure that is paid by taxes. Go figure.
21
How about that line from the pastor linking gun control to driving a Prius.And then asking that we all need to agree on some things .
How can you even reason with such ignorance?
9
Colorado has always been one of my favorite states. It's beauty has entranced me the many times I have driven across. I am impressed with what I now know about its governor. Mr Hickenlooper impresses me as just the kind of candidate that would make sense in 2018. I think America is fed up with the extremes.
2
I'm a big fan of Gov. Hickenlooper and I feel that his brand of pragmatism would be great for the country. But I doubt that a moderate could ever get the endorsement of a major party.
1
What a splendid and perceptive piece, Mr. Cohen. As someone who has spent a fair amount of time during my childhood in Colorado and Utah, what you are saying rings true even after all these years.
People are willing to listen to each other and take action together.
Perhaps Coloradans can help make America great again.
Roger, I want you to stay in the open spaces of western Colorado for a while longer, please. Get all those people together for a seminar for the next two weeks. Get down to specific policy issues, like health care availability, that cut across the small and larger communities of the area. Ask them, specifically, what does President Trump have to do with this problem. Or, what does he have to do with the low employment of the state? How or why did it become hard to get a seat in the cafe or through the lines at the hardware store?
If they are pragmatic folk, as your essay suggests, they might talk about the candidates for office there who could contribute to solutions. In other words, see if the group will separate the appeal of the style and apparent interest in them by POTUS from what is done through policy, statutes, regulations -- the very stuff of Congress and state legislators or city mayors for that matter.
Maybe the pastor could be your co-leader in this seminar. See how it goes and tell us about it all. Oh, and make sure that Richard Craig is present -- with his unique perspective, gun loving Democrat who scorns the NRA then insists that his neighbors have to have guns at home!
Your really know how to unearth some genuine characters!
4
I have never been to Colorado, other than passing through the airport one time on my way to somewhere else. It struck me as being a very spacious place. The airport was quiet. The people working there were friendly and easy to talk with.
All of which is precisely why Colorado is unlikely to exert much influence on national politics. Real compromises are only made when people are forced to make them. They happen in the crowded and conflicted coastal cities, where too many people want the same thing, where everyone has to accept less than what they want. The needs and compromises of the cities are what determines the lives of the country dwellers, who tend to forget that they’re paid to work in coal and uranium mines because cities need electricity.
The cost of education has been mentioned both in the article and in the comments, and this is more revealing than Mr. Cohen or the commenters seem to realize. As John Dewey expresses so well in Democracy and Education, our priorities in raising our children express our true philosophy of life. Education in New Jersey and other crowded states is expensive, because it has to include the needs of so many different people. We may not like it as parents or as taxpayers, but learning how to divide a limited resouce is what teaches us how to divide the seemingly unlimited ones, not the other way round.
I don’t think we’ll be seeing Mr. Hickenlooper in the White House any time soon.
3
@Global Charm Some excellent points. I have spent a political life listening to cities, states, saying "we should be an example, a model." I used to be in charge of working with cities and states at the W.H. for President Carter and heart that all the time. It is such nonsense. There is NO MODEL to be replicated someplace else because everyplace, group, circumstance is different. This point about crowded cities vs. open spaces is excellent.
1
Mr. Cohen has captured well that independent yet civil mind-set of Coloradans. Admittedly, I knew very little about this state other than its environmental beauty, an inland sister of my own California. That was until my daughter married a man from Colorado. He and his family are representative of this very essay. They are environmentalists, but still manage to negotiate the father and sons’ profession as geophysicists while preserving and conserving their natural resources. They are socially liberal without hesitation, but the parents are church going Christians. I can go on, but I think I have made my point. That is that people are capable of living in harmony to the benefit of themselves as well as others in spite of personal differences.
10
I will overlook the Trump bashing littered throughout this article and let your readers know what is really happening along these border states. These isn’t a republican vs democratic issue. It’s an America vs Mexico issue. The Rio Grande is no longer the border between our nations. The culture, behavior, economics and beliefs have moved that border significantly north (san antonio, tucson, albuquerque, san diego). That is what most people writing about this issue are missing. Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Kentucky, Northern California recognize the problem. Texas, Nevada, Arizona New Mexico have morphed into the border for Americans above 32 degrees latitude. I predict, if anything, these states like Colorado will only harden their positions: both Democratic and Republican voters. Otherwise, they will be living in Mexico.
3
@Pilot
If you are saying that you can get good Mexican food in San Antonio, you are right.
3
@Pilot
The Rio Grande is an arbitrary border created by an illegal land grab (the Mexican War). This is the war that Henry David Thoreau protested in his essay "Civil Disobedience."
The states you mentioned along with Northern Mexico form a naturally cohesive area called "El Norte." This area may well be a separate nation in the next 30 to 50 years.
1
It seems that Pilot is of the opinion that the United States is indeed only about white Anglo-Saxons. I live in Colorado, and I don't see the problem involving folks of Mexican descent anymore than I see an issue of folks from Celtic, Asian or Scandinavian descent. Like most states, being from Colorado is more about wanting to be here as opposed to where you or your ancestors came from. Colorado is not paradise and has its issues. But they are not about where people come from.
5
As a Pueblo native, I often tell people I am from the part of Colorado no one talks about. I was pleased Cohen managed to mention the city, but Southern Colorado, with its significant immigrant influence (not just today's Hispanics but yesterday's Italians, Irish and Slovaks) and non-tech, non-tourist economy, deserved more attention. And BTW, Colorado isn't the paradise it once was -- a lot of Iowans who flocked to the Front Range after college are back home to raise their families.
3
Obviously most Times reads vigorously reject the Trump/ Republican solution, but come to NYC and see the Democratic Party's solution. We have bizarrely overpaid municipal and state employees, tons of programs for the poor, everyone feeling desperate - except the zillionaires. Middle income people cannot live comfortably here, we can just get by. Some kind of practical solution is necessary to govern, but how to get there?
4
Scratch the surface of Pastor Babcox even a tiny bit and you find standard received right wing hoo-haw. A working set of Christian values should not be a strain for a preacher with a collection plate. He declared no kid had been separated from their parents on the border. Colorado has a voting populace that can separate fact and fiction. The "fertilized egg as citizen" idea went down 3X here.
A fear message is definitely out of step for people using their brain in Colorado, which has a third of its voters registered as Independent. Mr Craig of Nucla may have been offended by a law on high capacity magazines but when that law was introduced my state Senator lost his job thanks to the NRA butting in and paying people per signature to have a recall. The guy who came to our door lied that the Senator did not want people to be able to protect their family, an obvious lie. While the families at Aurora tried to get over their slaughtered families, our sheriff was throwing high capacity magazines into a crowd as a stunt. He was later indicted for hiring his lady buddies over others at his jail. People tend to remember this stuff.
Our US Senator Cory Gardner was endorsed by the Denver Post as a bipartisan golden boy from rural Colorado - he has managed to vote with Trump more than almost anyone. There's a cardboard Cory in Denver people visit if they want time with their otherwise invisible senator. Hopefully he will get canned next go-round.
51
@Kay Johnson I think Gardner is toast in 2020. He won by less than 2 points in very low turnout 2014, and between the state's changing demographics and the higher turnout of a Presidential election year, plus his total failure to back up his claim that he is a bipartisan moderate, Gardner is politically a dead man walking.
I think he knows that too, which is why he spends so little time talking to his constituents and votes for even the most politically toxic parts of the GOP agenda.
3
Thank you for publishing this article from a small town in Colorado.
America, land of the free. Home of the brave.
To the editors of the NYT
I love this article and hope you will send Mr Cohen to other battleground States and let him give us a boots on the ground perspective of each one. It's fascinating, and shows the real America.
5
I'm a widow, head of a household, my cat no doubt disagrees, and i live by myself. I do not particularly like guns, but i don't mind people having guns in their household. However, i would not want a gun in my house. What would i do with it? I don't want to shoot a gun, i don't know how to load a gun, clean a gun, etc. I don't want a gun in my house. Back off. You are interfering on my rights.
17
I've lived in Colorado for 35 years and I'd say you need to take off your rose-colored glasses for a bit. Colorado Springs is home to Focus on the Family, a very large right-wing evangelical presence, and a large military population. There is no compromise there. Boulder and Denver are far-left to centrist left and there is little understanding or tolerance of Trumpism in that population. Even the folks you interviewed did not really sound like they were looking to compromise, either way.
I love Colorado. It is a great place to live. But some political utopia? I don't see it.
27
I dunno, forcing people to own a gun seems anti-freedom to me. I also wondered what problem is solved by doing so. I get the whole pot smoking-gun owner thing going on in Colorado, but this just seems dumb.
7
There is so much to sort out. Gov. Hickenlooper sounds like a man with his feet firmly planted and I would look carefully at him if he chose to run.
I would be very helpful if we could eliminate "slash and burn" wil think, yield and work together."
3
Kansas, with pretty scenery and legal weed. Especially the eastern half. Truly wonderful piece, you’ve really captured the place. Best wishes, Colorado. At least you’re NOT Kansas.
5
@Phyliss Dalmatian I live in Colorado. I think what has happened in Kansas is sad. Sad, and puzzling, I really don't understand the motivation behind the decisions that were made.
5
I'm desperately searching for any evidence that the Trump supporters featured in this article have some constructive ideas, motives, and accomplishments such that I can hope for an American revival, after the Trump years. But I see nothing in these people's opinions that indicate they are salvageable. It gives me no pleasure to realize that I don't want to share a country with them. Any reasonably intelligent and educated person who cannot see that Trump is defiling the US and ruining it in many different dimensions, is simply too stupid or ignorant to function properly in today's world. Just listen to the quality of their complaints: they can't buy the most capacious rifle magazines!? As if the unfortunate deer or or elk they shoot is going to charge them and require 20 more bullets before they are dead. Or the strong intimation that a "Prius" somehow detracts from their manhood and instantly infects them with liberal ideas from California. They can't see or conclude that Trump's tax cuts have shifted an even greater percent to the ultra rich, while impoverishing the fast-disappearing middle and lower classes--and increased the deficit by 17%.
Nonetheless, Cohen has made a useful contribution: he illustrates why the ideological basis of the American experiment in democracy no longer "works." A participatory democracy requires that the voters have the capacity to understand Capitalism and the knowledge that enables them to cast an informed and reasoned vote.
21
"To her, the Trump phenomenon has been about releasing xenophobic emotions suppressed as the country headed in a direction many did not like. “It’s scary to see it. And now that box has been opened, I’m not sure how we close it again.”
that about says it all. Does Trump even know what a dangerous road he is setting this country on. No President in my lifetime has preyed on the emotions of the angry and channeled it towards something tangible. People are always going to be angry about something, it is the dirtiest trick in the book to take advantage of this for political reasons. The American people must restore order on Nov 6 and bring checks and balances back to our government.
9
As a Coloradoan, I must say I’m disappointed that the 3rd congressional district race continues to soar under the NYT radar. This is the largest congressional district in the country that isn’t a state, and it includes Nucla and Grand Junction This is a critical race between an incumbent who ignores his constituents and a challenger with a proven record of working across the aisle for the good of all.
12
We 'Dems" have got to put up somebody that can actually govern the country in 2020. Two term mayor of Denver, two term governor of CO; Hickenlooper can be the anthesis of our current POTUS. I'd sport his bumper sticker.
6
Why would any person, other than whose sole focus is that super rich pay , ever decreasing percentage of income in taxes, vote for a party as full of lies and fraudulent as GOP ?
4
I moved to Colorado 10 years ago after 21 years in Wyoming and 22 in New York City. In Wyoming , a ridiculously conservative state that has shot itself in the foot and destroyed its education system by depending on energy severence fees and refusing to implement even the tiniest income tax, you never discussed politics with someone whose views you didn't already know. In the past, Democrats there were judged akin to Commies. In lower Manhattan, I suppose there were some Republicans , but I never met one, and no, they could never understand how or why Donald Trump won. Colorado is more interesting politically ,but The Front Range is not the only Democratic Stronghold. Leadville, where everyone talks politics in the Aquatic Center hot tub,is traditionally Democratic, and still has a mine,as is Pitkin County, Paonia, Pueblo, Out at county, Gunnison County, etc.For the first time, the progressive Democratic candidate for Congress is giving the incumbent Republican in District 3 a run for his money. Younger , more liberal people are moving to the mountains where there is a booming tourist industry, and where the brilliant State Senator , Kerry Donovan, is a Democrat who is fairly pro- gun. Fyi, Hillary won Colorado by five points, the most of any Swing State, and Bernie would have won by much more. The gun company that manufactured outlawed magazines went to an undisclosed location in Texas and the marketing branch went to Wyoming.
16
@Vicki lindner
Magpul is a manufacturer of accessories not guns. Colorado passed a law that made their products illegal to sell in the state so they left. Why pay taxes to a state that dislikes what you make?
Gun manufacturers are leaving Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Upstate New York because they are no longer welcome. Some of them have been manufacturing for almost 200 years in their locations. They're moving to the Southern states and taking 1000s of jobs with them.
This article is heavy on the voices of rural whites. Interviews with anyone else? The millions of urban and suburban Coloradans, including the voiceless "immigrants"? Crickets. Likewise, no interviews with scientists who could fill you in on the staggering increase in forest fires or the health effects of air swimming in ozone, particulates, and fracking gas. A disappointingly narrow window into a state in the midst of cultural and ecological transformation.
19
Take a look at the racial demgraphics of Colorado.
1
I grew up in Colorado, still here and will die here but have to say the state was a great place before the Easterners Hickenlooper and Bennett decided to show up.
Half-kidding aside, the state is a great place now and will be in the future. Yes, we have our challenges, but work to correct them.
Why? We say hello to each other, respect freedoms and want the same things for every family regardless of politics: health, safety, love and happiness.
Now go vote blue and red!
1
“...and the basic choice before Americans in November is this: Do you want your anger manipulated or addressed? Do you want your differences used to fan a violent atmosphere where explosive devices get sent to critics of Trump? Or do you want your difference negotiated to produce reasonable outcomes that may restore the American dream?”
Mr. Cohen is such a good writer.
We’ve had our anger manipulated for 3+ years. I’d like to try something different. And I’d like not to be scared every time I check the news.
5
The word "boundlessness" sums up the present political debate.
It is the job, the main job, of government to set bounds. Without government, anything is possible. Reality is the exact opposite of Obama's "you did not do that". People, plain, ordinary people, do things. Edison, Ford, Gates, Gordon Moore, they really did it. Yes, sometimes the military does PAY for developing it (computers, the Internet, satellites), but there are people behind it. Yes, the government gave land to Colorado homesteaders in the 19th century ... in return for them "doit 'it'", "it' being developing a civilization there. But the people did it.
But today Democrats are the people who pay people tio NOT do it ... they reward failure with welfare. Its the Republicans and Trump who reward those who "so it".
Democrats rig the system against success. THEY are the ones against boundlessness, with piles and piles of government regulation.
1
@Doug McDonald You are correct and "Because population growth and immigration are concentrated in the Front Range, Colorado seems to be edging bluer." is the plan the Democrats have, as Jennifer Palermo said in her infamous memo "The Millions of DACA recipients and their families are critical to our future voting base". These folks are and many will be dependant on the blue welfare state. Dems are basically buying votes with immigrants. At least trying. Recent polls from Florida show Puerto Ricans are thinking for themselves and leaning 'red" more than many anticipated. They are a proud people and will be "doing it". At least here in Florida. Although US citizens they were not able to vote in General Election. Now they can and they are making Dems see red. Fact is almost all Hispanic Immigrants that are citizens do not favor "Undocumented" immigrants and believe they should take care of themselves as they did and immigrate legally into our country . Guarantee that Immigrants "placed on The Front Plain" are receiving taxpayer dollars. If buying votes will "save America" then it might work for the Dems. "Saving America" to them is nothing more than Power with liberal policies to them. The permanent government bureaucrats aka "Deep State" are intentionally placing immigrants in areas so when they get amnesty they will alter the demographics in favor of Dems. A different and over looked form of "Gerrymandering" ) by manipulating the voters of an electoral constituency.
1
@Doug McDonald
Are you talking about Colorado? You know, the subject of this article? Under Democratic leadership the last 12 years, Colorado has outperformed on economic growth and employment measures compared to the rest of the country.
As for the sound bite you credulously cite as evidence for Democrats being against individual success, here's the context:
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
When viewed accurately, it's clear President Obama was talking about the fact that individual success occurs in a context of what society has made possible through shared preparation for it. Why the right-wing propaganda machine has felt the need to lie about what he said, and the fact that so many are willing to believe those lies when the true meaning is plain in reading his words, tells everything one needs to know about why compromise is so difficult these days.
It's much easier to find common goals when we deal with reality, instead of seeing our opponents through a haze of PR spin and lies.
8
"When viewed accurately, it's clear President Obama was talking about the fact that individual success occurs in a context of what society has made possible through shared preparation for it. "
NO! And that's extremely exemplified by Colorado!
The government did NOT provide "shared preparation" for the Colorado of today. It simply provided ownership of previous unowned, and mostly unoccupied, and almost entirely unfarmed and unmined (except for a few farmed pueblos) areas. The pioneers themselves did it.
The govenment did NOT build the railroad or
even pay for it. It merely gave ownership of the raw land. The great builders like Leland Stanford Jr. "did it". And look at what, in addition to the railroads themselves that gift of land bought: it bought Stanford University and through that much of what make the post IBM-PC world what it is. (Though of course Stanford's part of the rails ended in Utah.)
You have given the very perfect example of why Obama was WRONG! Thanks for playing.
Rural towns throughout the West have always been heavily dependent on the extraction industries. Minerals, timber & farming (water) have been the life's blood of these places since day one. Environmental concerns have upended many livelihoods for a number of years. Corporations fleeing to third world sources to deal with commodity slides & domestic labor costs have cost jobs. Trump has spoken to people taking the brunt of these losses. Democrats are struggling to address these issues as we speak. If we want to thwart the threats to our safety net & combat the disconnected plutocracy we have to turn to people who work with their hands once again. The technocrats will not save us any more than telling the disaffected to get a life.
Good article, Mr. Cohen.
4
Colorado is populated by young hopefuls from the midwest who move for some Denver big city life, recent East coast graduates who want a taste of the west, retirees in Grand Junction and elsewhere with enough money to build a dream home in a terrific climate, and a boatload of California transplants. People come to Colorado because it's beautiful, and has cities such as Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder that have humming economies. Yes, it is a place where there is a lot of energy. That is because people with energy, and money, move there. They are engaged in politics to protect self-interests. The ex-Californians are tired of the bustle, the pollution, the high-cost of Cali lifestyles. Do I wish the rest of the US were more like Colorado? Sure, but natural beauty, money and optimism go a long way toward making people more tolerant.
13
America needs to be saved?
3
What is scary is how this “hopeful” story—maybe compromise and collaboration might reemerge one day—also underscores how entrenched and old America’s regional character is. In the West (where I live) , outside urban areas, they’re paranoid about government, living in the 1800s. Back east (where I used to live) Democracy and government are thought of as progressive, good forces. And in the South (where I’ve also lived) the Civil War and slavery still looms large. We need a generation who’s tired of living in the past.
35
Incredibly, people don't make the connection between population growth, property value growth, and the proper way to collect taxes (via Land Value Taxation).
If they did this, they would not hurt their economy at all, and they would shift investment to workers and additional capital investment as opposed to privatizing rent and share buybacks.
4
CO could with soft powdery power. Another state in the neighbourhood is capable of launching a stealth precision-guided long range conventional strike.
I dunno -- this paints rather a sunny picture of our state but I suppose we're in better shape than most. For this country to work, all states should be some shade of purple, no?
29
The takeaway from this article should be this: It's easier to build a healthy consensus on a more local level, and perhaps the best solution to many of our most pressing issues is to return more decision-making power to the states, rather than trying to impose our personally favored solutions on the entire nation through the heavy hand of the federal government. This will create more incentive for innovative problem-solving; if a program or law doesn't work, it's easier to change it when fewer stakeholders are involved, and the potential presence of a better alternative across a nearby state border provides an incentive to get it done.
This is a truly democratic (small d) solution, and an attractive alternative to our current national political gamesmanship, with both sides trying to cram their favored ideas down the other side's throats with a too-powerful chief executive and then cement their gains by packing the Supreme Court with ideologues.
3
@C Walton You are right. I would go further; the municipalities need to make the decisions. Let the locals decide how they want to live. Austin should not override what Dallas, or Ft Worth, or Amarillo or Killeen wants to do. While -- maybe -- Austin is better than D.C. telling us what to do, it's still not local enough.
@C Walton Agreed! As a Colorado native and proud resident for all but my college years, I think one of my state's biggest strengths is its insulation from the coasts. We don't get caught up in the drama and toxicity of California or the Northeast - as a result, we focus on the issues at hand and how to solve them. If more decision-making was returned to the States (as was intended by the founders), then I bet we'd have a lot more getting done in this country.
I do agree with others in this comment section that this article undersells the degree to which there still is very real division and conflict in Colorado (it's no utopia!). Nevertheless, I think the author does a great job of showing how Coloradans are more interested in driving common-sense policy than they are in voting the party line.
Finally, I think Colorado's ability to amend the state constitution by ballot (only requiring 55% of the popular vote) is also a huge factor into why our government actually works. And why, as a result, Coloradans are generally willing to work towards solutions rather than complain about problems.
I appreciate Mr. Cohen's writing but, as an economic development professional (starting in rural Colorado 1985) I get very tired of people making direct correlations between who, or what party, has political power at the moment and business investment decisions. A direct connection is extremely rare, such as when a govt approves a tax abatement. Businesspeople, in making investment decisions, must evaluate the future of the community (not its past) and political leadership is one of many factors: is the community well-managed or not? If so, it might attract the globally-competitive labor force needed, have functional transp and hold down costs of water and power etc. But I believe reporters too often allow interviewees to make loose statements about the economy as being related to their favorite candiate (to love or hate) and the reporters don't ask the critical follow up questions about actual examples or data. Colorado is a great place to live (controlling growth is like having four aces and trying to lose, said a growth-control pioneer) but still suffers from political dysfunction - e.g. road maintenance funds are short, but the sensible thing to do - raise the gas tax - can't be done for some reason so a sales tax is proposed but held up in the legislature by conservatives who want to cut social services instead. Affordable housing where the good jobs are is rapidly vanishing. Cohen's focus should have been on actual challenges, not political platitudes.
27
@cljuniper
It was a descriptive article, based on his personal observations and conclusions. Platitudes? Not so much.
@cljuniper
Sir. One should not let the the Good be the enemy of the Perfect.
Two weeks ago, at my Harvard 45th reunion, I posed the possibility of a Hickenlooper presidential bid to two of my classmates in attendance, former senator Al Franken and writer and journalist E.J. Dionne. Former comedian and SNL alum Al was dismissive; not exciting enough. E.J. was positive and enthusiastic; noting that a problem solving pragmatist was perhaps exactly what this country needs. I'm headed out to Denver on Thursday with my older son. We are going to help re-wire my younger son's recently purchased, built in 1904, home in Jefferson Park, Denver. He and his fiancé will move into a very diverse neighborhood of folks working hard to make better lives for themselves and their neighbors.
7
As a 30-year Coloradan from PA and IN, I only voted for Hick because he was the Democrat. I certainly wouldn’t vote for him in a presidential primary and I hope he does poorly.
As a Colorado native who spent most of the last decade in California, the liberal bubble in LA/ SF is striking. Although I lean left, I’m open to debate but in these cities, there seemed to be a stigma against expressing any right leaning viewpoint. I recently moved back to CO and it’s great to live in a place where different ideas and views can be expressed in good faith and without personal judgements.
7
I’m also an east coast transplant, and it baffles me why a state with one of the highest suicide rates in the country has fewer inpatient mental health beds than just about any state in the country. Also, despite a healthy economy, we spend less on education than Mississippi.
27
@JSD
Studies show correlation between high altitudes and high suicide rates worldwide. Here's one:
http://theconversation.com/the-curious-relationship-between-altitude-and...
“There are a lot of wonderful things about free enterprise,” Colcord reflected. “And a lot of devastating things, too. Good-old America. Yeah, good-old America.”
True, that. As the pace of change in the world ramps up, there will always be Americans (and Mexicans and Canadians) who get left behind. What American-style capitalism does poorly is provide a safety net for those in that category. Unemployment insurance, food stamps, and most importantly education and training are not written into the policies promoted by and adopted by the oligarchs, the corporations, and their Congressional lapdogs.
Instead, more tax cuts for billionaires and a larger and larger share of the economy going to the 1%, and the .1%, and the .01%. If these segments of the income stream would be taxed at the rates seen in the 1950s they would continue to retain their spot in the 1%, and the .1%, and the .01%.
30
Yeah, I live here too.
Switzerland also mandates that every voting age head of household keep a rifle and 40 rounds. But I think there is an outsize focus on guns, and I say that as a Colorado liberal, with liberal friends, who all own at least a couple. I learned to shoot as a Boy Scout in a program run by the NRA, and have the medals to prove it. But the NRA is a religious group now, and members join it like cult leaders.
Denver's great and it's acquired a critical level of diversity in it's economy, but outside of the Front Range the mines are closing, the farmers and ranchers need fewer people every year, and the great engine of mechanization and automation continue to eliminate jobs that were once the mainstay of the middle class. McDonald's and Wendy's restaurants are already automating food service to deal with a labor shortage and a minimum wage of $15/hour across Wyoming and Nebraska. These are not Conservative/Liberal, Red State/Blue State problems.
Much of the polarization that we experience is based in cultural factors, not in economics. This confounds liberals, and the issues that liberals take as gospel, founded in Secular Humanism, are every bit as religious as any Evangelical's faith.
Hickenlooper is great, but he will not save you in a national political arena.
17
@UTBG - Interesting perspective. Thank you.
1
@UTBG
You write, "Much of the polarization that we experience is based in cultural factors, not in economics. This confounds liberals, and the issues that liberals take as gospel, founded in Secular Humanism, are every bit as religious as any Evangelical's faith."
Rubbish. That's a false equivalence. Items considered "liberal" views are based on expertise, science, and data. (the environment, global warming, heavy tax cuts for the rich don't work, single payer is the future) all this is based on data, numbers, math.
Religion, or religiousness, however, is not based on any objectively verifiable information. Catholics, for instance, (former one here) take the inexplicable, the illogical, the fantastical, as true or having actually taken place on faith, not facts.
Faith is not facts. That, sir, is the big mistake your comment conveniently overlooks. And that is the fallacy of your argument.
Have a nice day.
7
@Homer 54% of the founding fathers were Anglican, the rest mostly Unitarian and Presbyterian. As heirs to the enlightenment, they had just watched Europe convulsed with religious warfare, bordering on genocide, for two centuries.
As religious as they were, they conceived of a nation that was fundamentally secular; the humanism has been evolving.
Now, Evangelicals claim they are 'persecuted' as a religion, and that the nation was founded on Christian principles. Indeed it was, but those were Anglican and Protestant principles, not evangelical, a 'religion' primarily based on illiteracy and low levels of education, if any.
Episcopalians are the heirs to the founding fathers, and their faith is in secular humanism, science and empirical analysis of our world. They should be allowed to practice their beliefs in the public sphere in exactly the same way that Evangelicals ask to practice their so-called faith.
I trap Southern Baptists with that line of reasoning all the time, they simply don't know how to respond. If they start blubbering about Old Testament stuff they only dig themselves in deeper.
So you're exactly right, but try a different line of reasoning when you talk to Evangelicals, it's fun and rewarding.
2
I grew up in Colorado and have just moved back after 30 years in New Jersey. When comes to education both states have their issues. New Jersey's is way to expensive (highest per pupil cost in the nation) and Colorado is slowly killing it's education system by not paying teachers enough (46th in the nation). In the end Colorado will more likely address its' problem first because of two items. As mentioned in the article the electorate is roughly split 1/3 each between Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated. This puts a premium on getting things done and not on ideology. The other reason is referendum. Critical questions can be put directly to the people for resolution without waiting for the legislature. I might add referendum is a two edged sword as in the Tax Payer Bill of Rights passed in 1992. Imagine my shock when found out it was responsible for costing me $800+ to register my new car in Colorado. FYI, to register my car in New Jersey it would have cost $55.
9
@C.G. Of course your property tax in NJ would be literally 6X what you pay in Colorado. Win some, lose some.
If you haven't paid attention, Colorado has an initiative on the ballot that would raise teacher pay substantially. I'm not sure that we would ever want to become New Jersey, however. Education isn't expensive in New Jersey because that's the only way to do it. Education is expensive in New Jersey, in large part, because of incredible amounts of waste, graft and mismanagement.
3
Trumps support is intense in the rural areas. I had a laugh reading that. We will see how on November 7th that erodes. I saw on a Democratic political add Mitch McConnel video where he is saying we the GOP will cut social security, medicare and the affordable health care on November 7 if we win both houses. When that happens these gun owners will be shooting their families and themselves when they have no more safety net money coming in. The Republicans are for less government and all for the rich. The man in the photo does not look to stable even to be allowed to own a gun. Very sad.
33
Election Day is November 6 this year.
Maybe someone can explain to the rest of us how: the environment, school crowding and education, jobs, preservation of open space, housing, global warming, urban crowding and commute times, health insurance etc are improved by the democratic agenda of mass immigration and population growth? Either in Colorado or anywhere else. The democratic obsession with this issue fuels trump and the right. When I visit I see few benefits of having the population triple on the same land mass since I went to HS there.
2
@Al Neither party has a platform of population growth. But the GOP definitely expresses a desire to live in the past ("make America great again") in which population growth was a goal. Likewise, "mass immigration" is not a policy of either party. Overpopulation is certainly the biggest problem we face as humans …
4
@Al
I start my explanation by pointing out that there is no Democratic agenda of mass immigration. I'll continue by pointing out that net migration into the US declined consistently since the late 90's (simply search the term "net migration into the us" and click the link for the Federal Reserve Economic Data or FRED). Furthermore, despite the incessant, and I'd argue racist, focus on the US' southern border, the number of Hispanic immigrants entering the country has been declining since 2009. The largest and fastest growing group of immigrants currently entering the US come from South and East Asia. To verify what I've just written feel free to search the term, "PEW Immigrants in America: Key Charts."
Funny then how the President focuses so much on things like the caravan of would-be refugees from Honduras when immigration is actually on the decline. Especially when immigration from Latin America is on the decline even more Could it be that he's realized there is a large group of people so fearful of brown people that they can be easily manipulated to vote for him? Occam's Razor my friend.
10
@Al - I'm going to respectfully suggest that you spend a few moments doing some online research about the economics of immigration.
2
I have been lucky enough to visit CO a few times, and there is something almost mystical how that state can capture you. There is a feeling of romantic ruggedness. You notice how smoothly the diverse peoples in a city like Denver get along. The physical openness is relaxing; even in cities, people aren't piled on one another. The natural beauty is second to none - if there is a heaven, it looks like the Rocky Mountains and is home to elk! Then there is the mountain air which, once you adjust to it, is great; that air helped my grandmother with a host of ailments where no medicine could.
Can its magic be exported to the rest of our country? Probably not. But leaders like Hickenlooper do have ideas and approaches that are a worthy model. And, if you can, Colorado is more than worth visiting.
32
@NM I'm afraid you've got it all wrong. We're cranky people here. There's not enough water. The traffic is terrible, and getting worse. Once a hillside becomes scarredm it stays scarred for generations. We're growing overcrowded. It's harder and harder to find a quiet hiking trail, anywhere, or a peaceful cross-country ski area, or a lone reach of stream to fish. The summers are too hot (and getting hotter), and winters are too cold.
If NYT readers know what's good for them, they will stay far, far away from Colorado. Take my word. You don't, I repeat, DON'T want to come here. By all means, please go to Idaho, or Wyoming, or Nevada, or Montana if you want to live in the West. They all need more people badly ... and educated, liberal people especially. But what used to be so wonderful about the great state of Colorado is rapidly fading away ...
3
Having moved here from the East Coast, I don't know that I'd put quite as rosy a glow on the compromise spirit, but there is something to be said for the idea of independent decisions far from the nation's capital. Outside of the Denver and Boulder liberal bubbles, I've had some great conversations and discussions around tough issues with my neighbors and passers-through that were more respectful and productive than I've managed to have elsewhere.
9
Lest people think that things are all rosy in western Colorado, it should be mentioned that violence drugs are rampant in much of Mesa County; where Grand Junction is located. Outsiders are tolerated. Like every place else, there are wonderful people and bad people. But the jail is overflowing for a reason. And health care is a problem, with some people with complex medical conditions forced to move out of the area to get treatment. The local school district is not known for academic excellence and this contributes to the difficulty of attracting physicians to the area. All of which is to say that natural beauty is nice but not Edenic. So can Colorado solve our problems? No. It can help. But every place has to pitch in to solve our problems.
23
@Frank, being from Grand Jct, I can relate to your comments. I work in health care and it is severely limited here and, I believe, is a crisis. Finding a physician who will accept a new Medicare patient is at times impossible for someone with complex medical issues. There is more tolerance to outsiders than there was 20 years ago but this is still predominately a conservative, mostly white community in which minorities and those of other-than Christian faith are looked on with skepticism. I can say this from personal experience. Scenically, this is a great place and “Edenic” is not far from town in the mountains and canyons. There are opportunities if you look carefully, network and push hard. I hope we can move a little more from red to purplish for our seniors looking for healthcare and for our children needing a good education.
5
Rural America is a forgotten place that struggles with little hope of recovery. The future does not bode well for rural Americans who would rather remain outside the interconnected world while it changes drastically right before their eyes. I grew up in a rural town but left for a job in the city. Going back to visit, I quickly realize I feel out of place and totally disconnected. The idealistic small town of 50 years ago where we lived a good middle class life, got a good education and jobs were plentiful are fading. The American politicians these rural voters elect have no concern for them outside convincing them to vote for them. Follow the money. In this country, having no money pretty much means you have no voice. The American dream is nowhere in sight for these uninformed rural voters who cannot understand that changing world forces like climate change and rising new powers in Asia now rule their lives.
30
@Bella
Those uninformed rural voters don't generally participate in Save the World activities. They vote people in to represent them at the table.
@Bella
Completely. The politicians who represent these people immediately get sucked into the urban void themselves and instantly lose sight of whatever rural interests that said they would represent.
One minor correction to an otherwise very on-point commentary. We in Colorado are not purple, but Purplish, as our public radio station points out in their podcast by that name. Our economy is very diversified thanks to smart political leadership elected by thoughtful citizens over the last decades, who talk more than they argue. Our mail-in ballot system encourages high participation (my ballot is already in). We don't fall for the zero-sum politics game, we know that compromise is possible.
We are also an incubator for the effects of climate change and human mismanagement. Our forests are burning because we let them get too dense, and warming winters allowed pine beetles to kill so many trees. Where I once couldn't get to the high country to hike until July, I was hiking in May due to lower snowpack and earlier melting. This snow feeds the Colorado, Mississippi and Rio Grande rivers.
It's not enough to build new solar and wind energy resources, we must also give livelihood to those who are displaced when their coal related jobs go away. Many times if you're away from the I-70/I-25 corridors, you can be forgotten, like in Nucla.
My hope is that our ability to talk to each other and not past each other spreads elsewhere.
58
@Fredd R why do we have to "give" livelihood to these people or to anyone? Because we are a caring and compassionate country? Yep. But for some, the idea of "getting" something is akin to having a hand-out and they slap that away.
2
@Fredd R I'm open to compromise. Give me a big juicy tax a la Trump / Kushner and I'll give you no Social Security and Medicare, after all, you don't want it anyway, it is communism.
1
@newyorkerva In the West, there is NOTHING free of "government" - from farms to forests, drilling to aerospace.
Something not mentioned by Mr. Cohen is that in Colorado there are always ballot issues voted upon in each election. These election contests are placed on the ballot when some interested party gets enough signatures to allow the issue to appear on the ballot and be voted on by THE PEOPLE. No politicians vote makes any more difference than mine. Marijuana was legalized in Colorado by one of these ballot issues. There's a thing called the Tax Payers Bill of Rights (TABOR), the result of a ballot issue, which requires any increase in taxes to be approved by THE PEOPLE. As a consequence there are frequently tax increase issues on the ballot which surprisingly do not always fail. The point is that this ballot system bypasses the partisan legislature completely and we the people vote on issues. It's called democracy. And things get done here. We're not held hostage by partisan politics in the government, in fact it seems irrelevant. I think we all need to look at the Federal government and realize that no matter who is running the show things are not getting done. No healthcare solution, perpetual war, crumbling infrastructure (an issue for many decades), no high-speed rail in America, and the list goes an and on. We're sliding backwards. Maybe a national ballot system to get past the ridiculous politicians in Washington is just what we need, because they certainly aren't solving any problems.
47
@Gary
and because of TABOR Colorado schools are pretty bad...people most often vote in their own best interest, hence, not much tax revenue increases for schools...sometimes the interests of many need to surpass those of the individual. Only because of MMJ and other MJ legalization have there been some revenues to make a difference in education.
4
What you are describing is direct democracy. I'm an eastern transplant and was incredulous at Colorado's ballot. How many people do you think actually read that blue book which was 1/4 " thick and about 8" x 6" this year? I'm frankly amazed this state functions at all. If the the issues re school funding (debt vs tax increase) both pass which a commenter said looks possible, it should be interesting.
1
The challenge for Colorado, and for the country, is not a political shade but degree of partisanship. Purple does not necessarily reflect diversity, let alone cooperation. Ideologies deadlocked at 50-50 are equally dysfunctional.
We need more people, in roles of voter and official, like Craig and Hickenlooper, who seem to have sorted through issues and questions, and assembled their own hybrid perspectives. And perhaps more fundamentally, we need to embrace and encourage local independent solutions (and sometimes, the lack of at least quick solutions), and stop pushing all-purpose national party platforms and comprehensive government programs.
If nothing else, Nucla might demonstrate how people cooperate where everyone knows everyone else, and that group includes truly diverse ideas.
4
Great article. Colorado is definitely a model for how to get things done and is a great success story. However a survey of white people about how to they manage to get along despite their differences is, I'm guessing, not something you'd hear from everyone in the state.
4
Great article. I have lived in Colorado for 25 years and this is how things are accomplished. We look in Weber at the east and struggle to understand why there is no compromise. Governor Hickenlooper is an amazing get things done compromise individual. Are country would be well served to follow his lead.
21
I'm more of a Liz Warren guy personally, but I recognize our profound need for a reunification candidate in 2020, and Hickenlooper is sounding good. Thanks for this bit of hope in a scary and stressful time!
23
Great article and description of how we live in Colorado. Having lived in Fort Collins for 20+ years I can attest to the truism of people disagreeing but not being disagreeable.
24
I have lived in Colorado for 35 years, and have never voted a straight ticket in any election. I gave a little money once to our Senator for re-election, and he promptly switched parties. I have also thrown votes away in straight Republican Indiana and straight Democrat Maryland.
I will admit, it is very gratifying to be able to vote for the candidate I feel is best while knowing that "party" victories in Colorado are few and far between. I feel that every vote I cast in Colorado is counted and means something to our society.
That said, our referendum process is out of control. We now often vote on actual legislation, bypassing our State legislature.
7
One state or one person cannot "save" OUR United States of America, Mr. Cohen. Why does the media insist on picking out one or two people then painting whole groups as thinking that way. Mr. Craig sounds like just another crackpot who is controlling an entire town with HIS beliefs. Why do people vote for outliers like he and The Con Don?
You say, "But Colorado has not split into the irreconcilable political tribes that have turned Washington into a symbol of polarization. Division is not the whole American story, despite Trump’s best efforts. In Colorado, immense space still equals possibility, an old American promise. Crisscrossing the state, I found more people interested in problem-solving than point-scoring."
I believe THAT defines OUR United States of America right now - not the outliers the media decides to promote.
WE THE PEOPLE - average people across America - will save ourselves on November 6 and every other election in the foreseeable future by hiring/electing Socially Conscious Women and men who will represent 99.9% of us.
18
@njglea
In Colorado, we don't elect socially conscious people, whatever that is that the media doesn't promote.
We try to elect the best people to make our laws, run our state government, and represent us in Washington. Sometimes we actually get it right.
I'm not sure Colorado is a microcosm for America so much as a national anomaly. Let's face it: the West is weird. Colorado is simply the most prominent example of our manifest strangeness at the moment.
I happen to enjoy Utah's particular brand of weirdness. Colorado always struck me as a place massively divided. They are literally divided. It takes hours to go from the Front to most other places in the state. There's an old joke about it. "Colorado: Enjoy the Traffic." Between construction and tourists, getting around can be a real challenge.
As a result, you have a coexisting political divide that rarely interacts with each other. There are certain flash points for interaction. However, they are largely transactional. In the central Coloradan town where my sister lived, there was one store, three bars, and a movie theater. When an outsider came passing through, they were kindly advised to avoid the locals' bar.
Is this reality really a path forward? Maybe Colorado's resentful tolerance is preferable to all out war. However, I feel like the state is living in separate bubbles. Utah isn't a national standard but we are forced to confront our opposing numbers. There's really no way around SLC's liberalism coexisting with a unique brand of conservatism.
Mayor Ben McAdams even spent three days secretly posing as a homeless person before writing a new homeless policy. He legitimately wanted to understand what was happening before disrupting peoples' lives. That's progress.
12
@Andy
Your sister's town with a bar that doesnt want customers isnt a legit model of reality- for Colorado or anyone else, it sounds like.
The guy who came up with TABOR has one of his slum properties on our street- it has been crumbling and I mean down to the skeletal remains- for decades - it now is fenced off with a warning sign. Maybe that a sign too - the GOP runs the town.
3
@Andy
Resentful tolerance? Yikes. At least we did not resentfully tolerate our brown cloud.
In Colorado, we don't confront our opposing numbers, we work with them begrudgingly on behalf of the people of our state, with no dogmatic doctrine coming from Washington or a church.
That said, interested folks should move to SLC rather than DEN.
1
@nukewaste
We don't either. Trust me. Air quality is improving compared to population and industry growth. We aren't perfect yet but we're getting there.
As for "confronting," I meant we actually live and work together. The church has to deal with us as much as we have to deal with them. We both exist in downtown Salt Lake. We interact everyday To me Denver is one thing, Central Colorado is something entirely different.
... It seems that my professional capabilities far outweigh the simple fact that I find the current occupant of the white house to be a contemptible little faux-keen gnash shoal. My own response to outlandishness is typically, "Eh. Whatever floats yer boat."
Right up to the moment, that is, when my patriotism and love of Country is impugned or denigrated. I stand with my hand over my heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag -- and cherish the rights of others to take a knee to protest societal, cultural, or political grievances. I sing "God Bless America" right out loud, despite the fact that the divine that I adhere to is vastly different from whatever Great Big Invisible White Man in the Sky so many others may worship.
Whatever happened to compromise?
SNAP OUT OF IT, AMERICA!
7
This article writes so lovingly about Nucla, but requiring every head of household to own a gun???? Talk about the heavy hand of government! Is there no room in that town for freedom of conscience? And does no one see a possible connection between a requirement to have guns in every house and a tragic suicide by gunshot? I am amazed that libertarian leaning Westerners would go along with something like that. I don't see the future of American in a town with a draconian law like that.
30
@csgirl
Slow down a bit and check the context. Mining has pretty much evaporated here, and many small mining towns were dying, quickly. We passed limited stakes gambling back in the 90's to save 3 mining towns: Central City, Blackhawk, and Cripple Creek. No more, no less.
Nucla, a uranium town, was stiffed. In an effort to save the town, they first held highly publicized Prairie Dog Shoots. Then they went with the mandatory gun ownership.
It's 700 people trying desperately, albeit bizarrely, to save their town, and Libertarians support it.
4
@nukewaste so how does mandatory gun ownership save a dying town? Do they think they will get publicity that way and that tourists will come visit? It makes no sense.
2
@csgirl If you live in the outback, you are faced with dealing with bears and mountain lions. I lived there for 35 years until a wild fire took my home and 256 others. I never used those guns however. A bear did tear up my pickup seat however. Different world.
Hickenlooper: Scientist, entrepreneur, bridge builder, listener, experienced elected executive as Denver mayor and Colorado governor, willing to compromise but also someone who's taken an unpopular stand on automatic weapons ... un-hateful and tall -- looks like just the kind of package for a 2020 presidential run.
Wishing you well, candidate Hickenlooper.
72
@another MA resident who understands we need someone in the middle (of the country and of politics) to bring the US back to sanity.
1
So we are somehow supposed to be inspired by obligatory gun ownership because it was 'overwhelmingly' approved by the town and supported by an anti-Trump non-NRA member?
That kind of coercion (and likely unconstitutional violation of civil rights) is no different from the one that would prevent anyone from owning a weapon. Where is the NRA screaming about the sanctity of the second (or first) amendment? No doubt hiding behind a big fat wall of hypocrisy.
21
65% of all murders by guns will be owners turning their guns on themselves. (large studies, 5 years of all US gun deaths). Of the rest, how many are dads shooting their teen kids who are climbing in at 1 AM?, how many are arguments over parties in neighbor's houses? Are we at 70%, 90% yet?. These are facts. The 'bad man with a gun and the good man with a gun' are the same person. Fact.
36
@4Average Joe. I'll say it again. WY and ID have ~same population as Chicago. Those two states have 20-30 gun murders per year. Chicago can do that on a Saturday. Not every gun owner is the same.
The man in the photo does not look mentally sound to even own a gun. I bet if he is given a fatal diagnosis he will go after his wife family and himself like so many so called normal gun owners are doing when that scenario happens. Very sad. I support no bullets to be sold in USA only to police and the military.
5
@D.j.j.k.
Seems that you have exemplified exactly what the author is trying to tell us not to do. “This man does not look mentally sound” is a blanket stereotype based on absolutely no evidence. That is something that people from your neck of the woods tend to do. And the conversation ends there.
Out here we are in daily contact with our neighbors and know who is mentally sound and who isn’t. 0ur observations are not based on how the person dresses or does their hair but their actions in the community on a daily basis. Once you get past stereotyping people the world is a whole different place.
@D.j.j.k.
I understand your position, but things are different where he lives. Nucla is uranium country, as you might discern. A shuttered mining town with the old miners still around, unlike Aspen or Crested Butte. A dead Western town. Other than the goofy Prairie Dog Shoots, they cause us no trouble.
1
@D.j.j.k. Wow. I can just imagine how you feel walking around many of the larger urban areas, most of which have much higher gun violence rates than the rural west.
I spend time in Colorado elk hunting and fly fishing and I find if a perfect relection of U.S. politics. Split about 50-50: leftists is the big cities and college towns, civilized people in the smaller towns and in the country.
1
@Burton - Surely you don't mean to imply that people on the left are not civilized.
2
And not a single mention of legal marijuana. Come on, man, don’t criticize it. Legalize it.
3
@T. Rivers " ...... and attracted a range of new companies, from tech through recreation to the Noosa yogurt business; the legalization of recreational marijuana, now a significant source of tax revenue; and successful trade-offs in Colorado’s fierce fossil-fuel-vs.-environment debate that have ...."
2
@T. Rivers - Read the article.
As a Colorado native of almost 70 years, I'm proud of my state. I am disappointed that you make no mention of the eastern one third of the state which represents the state's second largest revenue----farming. In addition huge wind farms are sprinkled over the eastern part of Colorado with Excel Energy buying all the wind power even before the farms are built. Colorado has great diversity and because of that diversity we have learned to be accepting. And that allows for things to get done.
38
“The West is the most collaborative space.” - No surprise to this too infrequent visitor. The elements and open space foster a genuine form of collaboration (and recognition of the other as the same, too.) We lack this form of intimacy on The East Coast and it reveals itself in our toe gazing and cell phone fixation.
What is most frustrating for liberals like myself in reading this story is that what most of the Trump voters discussed as their concerns here, including skyrocketing medical costs, declining funding for education, affordable housing are all much better addressed in policy by the Democratic party than the GOP.
People need to be smart enough to listen to words less and study policy and results more.
But how do you fix stupid? It is in our DNA to be followers, and most human beings, whatever their politics, follow their leaders without adequate scrutiny of real information.
The power of propaganda does the rest, and in this country, the right wing has more of that power than the middle and left combined.
31
As a Californian who lived for a couple of years in Colorado, I used to smile to myself at the “Don’t Californicate Colorado” signs I often saw in the state. Since then, California has become the fifth largest economy in the world, and put the “over-taxed, over-regulated, lax-on-immigration enforcement” myth to rest, and otherwise been a leader in everything from clean air and water to openness and inclusiveness vis-a-vis people, philosophy and politics. Perhaps, for these, and many other reasons, one never sees “Don’t Coloradocate California” signs.
10
@Steve Griffith. Yeah , that's why Idaho is now the fastest growing state driven by Californians trying to escape "paradise"
How can a pastor, of all people, be an isolationist? Has he installed a keycard on the church with a passcode? That, my friends, is sinful.
7
What this analysis shows us is that America, by way of Colorado's example, is really purple and that the "red state, blue state" categories don't really serve us in a useful way -- and in fact are a temptation to our darker angels of useless, bad-mannered, righteous conflict -- a kind of theater of the absurd to keep the population from coming up with pragmatic, democratic solutions to pressing regional problems.
It's hard to imagine a more utopian scenario for the globalist, corporate oligarchs, people with no fidelity to any nation, that the national press would be endlessly squabbling about guns, transgendered people, Honduran Caravans, abortion, Hillary Clinton -- all the while profits gushed upwards to the 1%.
7
Haircuts, I notice, are not mandatory.
So how does the town deal with mental cases who shouldn't own a gun?
By requiring them to be sane or own two?
29
@A. Stanton - Haircuts? That's a bit nit picky isn't it?
Politicians have two choices to unite people behind their candidacy: identification of internal or external threats. The path of Gov. Hickenlooper demonstrates the use of internal threats. These are the things in our midst which we wrongly feel are outside our collective control and foul our lives: income inequality, wage stagnation, tenuous health care, environmental degradation, encroaching climate change.
In contrast, Mr. Trump rallies his base with external threats of The Other: MS-13, terrorist-infested caravans moving north, fake news media, (white) nationalism.
Sadly, the demagogues are ascendant in the world today. There will always be groups or individuals who can be exploited by them such as George Soros or Antifa.
I prefer tackling the issues affecting us like Gov. Hickenlooper or Andrew Gillam who, rather than retreating to a place of refuge like a remote golf course, picked up a chain saw and helped work directly to restore his storm-ravaged city of Tallahassee.
I would rather build bridges than build bombs.
2
Unfortunately, the boundlessness of the landscape, and poetic metaphor, aids little with the rigid limitations and narrow thoroughfares of what we like to call human "thinking."
And when it comes to "thinking," America is as severely small-minded as every other nation on Earth -- as the current so-called "administration" (and the people who put it there) proves beyond all doubt.
4
Roger... thanks for this inspiring piece. Many lessons to be learned here. America will not heal as long as we are stuck in this boiling pot of hateful stew. Colorado seems too be showing us a way to move forward. Erosion of middle class life is at the heart of much of the nation's anger. We need ideas, answers and action. We must stop the hate and the tribal warfare, which is totally counterproductive. We must solve our problems in a bipartisan fashion. And we need leadership that will not stoke our our divisions for political gain.
3
“One thing every single Trump supporter knows as soon as you start to talk to them is that we think they’re dumb and look down on them.” Democrats, he suggested, might reflect on that.
After his campaign and 21 months in office I am inclined to think that many people who still support DJT are also vile and vengeful. Dumb is in the group of non violent and not hateful. Trump supporters are full with hate, not love. Love for oneself does not count.
And for the politician to be from Telluride - how do the Democrats alienate small town America? By asking to be politically correct? By advancing policies for clean air and water and food that result in closing down uranium and coal mines and then pushing for retraining programs and financial assistance to go through life and subsidies for small business? By promoting public schools, free and comprehensive (paid by taxes, by everybody) health and child jobs programs, land management, far from my backyard oil and gas drilling, gun control in the form of banning military capacity weapons? By promoting equality, civil rights, human rights, health care as a right, education and clean air, food and water, one person-one vote, jail reform, compassion, LGBQ rights, the values of social democracy, the Democrats alienated small town America, some independents and libertarians. Small town America are recipients of agricultural and military-industrial complex subsidies, tax free churches, take it all capitalism and globalization.
5
That would be a presidential debate worth watching. Even with the bodyguards he hides behind, I doubt Trump would be brave enough to come up with an insulting nickname in this instance.
Becaues John Hickenlooper is not just a graduate of Wesleyan University, he is a no-nonsense and well respected man who is taller than 5' 8".
4
@Jbugko, sadly and inappropriately Trump would call him Loopy John.
1
I always check out Mr. Cohen. I believe many of the things he - and Coloradans - say here: listening is key. I have cancer, I'm nearly 70 (a couple of weeks away), etc. I live on the right coast, but have driven across the country a couple of times and stopping to hear other folks' points of view is very important to what it means to be an American.
I went to a real New England Town meeting where 2,000 of us raised our hands when it came time to vote (it was held in a highschool gymnasium to hold all the attendees). Legalizing recreational pot was the issue - medical marijuana has been legal since 2015 - and despite the tax bonanza folks voted it down because they were afraid their home values would decline and their kids would be corrupted! How shortsighted. It's 2018, not 1930.
9
Thank you for this, Mr. Cohen. Despite the obvious differences Maine is like Colorado in some ways. Unfortunately Maine took a wrong turn a few years ago when it elected a governor who makes Trump look like a pussycat. I hope that Maine's Democrats have learned a lesson from that. As you say Hickenlooper is certainly worth a look as the Democrats' 2020 nominee. Here's hoping that the Democrats come to their senses.
2
Nucla forces every household to have a gun, and votes against the ACA, with the result someone shoots herself because she cannot afford her medicine - but they don't want to be "looked down on"?
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Only this to combine a tragedy and a Trump story of the day:
For Lacie Redd, mother of two daughters: "Thirty tablets cost more than $1,000, and she needed more than one a day, and she was fighting and fighting to get insurance to cover it, and sometimes she’d run out,”
I read an improbable story about Trump: He has said that the US should use surveys of drug pricing in other countries as the basis for setting limits on drug prices in the US.
I often write that the Times should provide us with such comparisons more often, in table form. If I had been told here what medication Lacie Redd was taking, I might be able to make that comparison.
Perhaps it would not have mattered, the factors underlying the taking of one's life cannot be simplified to a single price of drugs factor.
But perhaps it would.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
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Having lived in Colorado for 26 years before moving to the PNW, I can attest to the accuracy of his oped. Yay Colorado, wish there were more states like you.
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Yes, I somehow think the North American Indians would not have seen Colorado as the whites did. What followed. in the middle of the nineteenth century, was one of the world's great displacements and ecological horrors.
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Democracy's "Manifest Destiny" is no longer justified and inevitable under president Donald Trump. Our 45th president has called the press "The Enemy of the People". He blames everyone but himself for the rampant anger and hostility inspiring our divided American people. Notwithstanding your brilliant exegesis on the State of Colorado, Roger Cohen, America's potential is at a dead-end. The president is blaming the press and the Democratic Party for targeting him. He is flailing out like a drowning man. With our countrymen split into two factions -- pro and anti-Trump -- the death of America's experiment in democracy is inevitable. We await with wonder, abject fear, and anxiety, the denouement of our Democracy under a president we could not have imagined in our worst dreams.
7
I live in Colorado. I've been all over the state during my forty years here.
Right now, we Coloradans are struggling to save our state, let alone save the nation. A hard right wing relative of the Bush family is running for governor on the republican ticket. He is the most egregious liar that I have ever seen in all my years - even the local TV stations are saying so. I hope that Democrats sweep the elections but hope seems like small potatoes when the stakes are this high.
We here in Colorado cannot save the country if we can't even save our state.
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Seriously, don't be fooled by this opinion/article.
Colorado is deeply divided just like everywhere else in this country. Power and control is wielded from a huge swath of land called the front range. It's a sprawling mega city that runs from colorado springs to fort collins. It is nothing but uncontrolled growth and newcomers who desperately want to change how things have been done for years in this state.
The rest of the state is just a playground for theses people. They have very little regarded for small town, backwoods, ranching politics.
As for the quote in the article that people are cleaning billionaires homes in Telluride for minimum wage is laughable. No they are not cleaning bathrooms for 8 bucks an hr. Try twenty to twenty five an hour.
Colorado has and will continue to lead the country into the right direction in subtle and quiet ways. Legalization of weed. The Tabor and Gallagher amendments keep politicians from squandering our tax dollars. Even though they fight against them and desperately want them appealed so they can tax and spend like east coast fools.
And mark my word, we will be the first in the country to reign in health care and health insurance with a single payer system that will be the model for the rest of the country.
4
That part of Colorado is irrelevant. It's beautiful, but has no political power. The Denver metro area's population is larger than the entire rural population, and Colorado Springs is the only other politically powerful population center.
Colorado, the great state where Gov Hickenlooper (D) is putting in rich people only lanes. Reasonable places put in HOV lanes, but Hickenlooper's 1% lanes are blatant evidence that the Democrats there have become their stereotype of Republicans.
2
Small town Americana and a wonderful 'let's keep it free to be you and me' state of abundant natural beauty. What's not to love.
God Bless America!! Great article and thank you. Notice how in a state with many guns they still advocate for peace and discussion on differences.
2
I lived in Denver for over 20 years.
Moved to the West Coast 10 years ago.
I miss living in a purple state. Political discussions were real, and pragmatic. At the end of the day everyone needs someone to poke holes in their hubris, we keep each other in check.
This article can be seen as a very compelling argument against gerrymandering.
13
I was visiting in south west colorado last month.
It is very beautiful.
I then when to santa fe - georgia okeefe museum. I was shocked to see a photo of the 4 corners region from space showing a red cloud of methane.
Are those folks all breathing an invisible poison?
Tell me it is not true. I would love to go back but as a tourist i do like clean air and water, too!
I hope someone can say... i found it disturbing.
10
@Margaret Cronk Methane is not red. It is a clear, colorless gas. You saw a dust storm kicked up by wind...lots of wind in Four Corners.
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@Burton
I assume she was seeing a map where the very high methane levels over the Four Corners are colored red (for example, see NASA link below). She said she saw a photo, not an actual red cloud out on the landscape (and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum's a long ways from there...)
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/09oct_methane...
@Burton
Methane detection from satellites is an active technology. The resulting photos are color enhanced, thus what Margaret Cronk saw may have actually been red.
Check this out:
https://www.ghgsat.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI582eurik3gIV0MDICh0J6ApuEAAYAS...
I don't feel like we're particularly purple in Colorado, but instead very strongly striped. So we're a microcosm of the nation as a whole. It's not Utopian, but we do have mail in ballots and not as much gerrymandering because Democrats were in key offices (i.e., governor and holding either state house of senate) during most of the last decade.
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@TJ
A key factor is that Republicans held the state for the previous 2 decades and passed a horrific Constitutional Amendment known as TABOR, a noose around our State's government.
As much as I despise TABOR for castrating our legislature and pushing legislative issues to a state referendum for law making, gerrymandering is also rendered ineffective by TABOR, and I can sleep at night knowing our legislature, whether Republican or Democrat, is not going to do something fiscally stupid.
2
''...for lack of tax revenue.'' - and there you have it.
How can a state that is supposedly humming along with a 2.9 % unemployment rate, yet is so destitute that teachers are reduced to a 4 day work week ?
People will get along so long as you do not take away all they have. The trick that republicans have done is that for decades now, they have been chipping away (especially the social safety net) and have administered costs for everything else. (essentially a massive redistribution to the wealthy)
The real trick has been the gradual chipping away so that it is just enough to placate the population (the voters) so that the pitchforks do not come out.
What has happened (and as the population ages) is that the number one priority is self preservation, or health care. President Obama and Democrats offered a way out to at least plateau the health costs, while republicans continue to try and take it away (among other things)
This is why the state is becoming blue, as is the country.
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@Funky Irishman
To answer your question...In Colorado, and many other states, a large part of school funding comes from county property taxes. Pueblo has not been as prosperous over the past 30 years as other front-range cities and has an aging population. Colorado offers property tax relief to older homeowners who have lived in their homes for many years, to prevent them losing their homes if values (and thus, property taxes) increase dramatically - a humane initiative that, unfortunately, decreases funding for schools. Sometimes that works out because there are fewer children in aging communities. If not the case in Pueblo, the state should help IF the local school board is not averse to outsiders. It’s complicated.
10
@Dee
Thank you for the explanation, but the obvious solution remains, that the tax structure is still geared to funnel massive amounts of money upwards to the rich and corporations.
It is a matter of priorities and political will to put children, teachers and schools first. (as they should be)
Besides, isn't there a boom in marijuana taxes - where are they going ? - right...
1
Thank you for this wonderful piece. You’ve captured our beautiful state so well.
24
So the minority of people who constitute the party that gerrymandered and voter suppressed its way into power and then claimed a mandate to change everything that had come before now want to discuss the things we agree on. Try again.
19
There's another great Colorado problem-solving success story that bears sharing nationwide; its award-winning low-cost/free IUD/LARC program for poor women that has lowered teen pregnancies and abortion rates dramatically.
From 2009 to 2016, Colorado's teen birth rate fell by a whopping 54% and the teen abortion rate dropped by an astounding 64%.
Among women aged 20 to 24, the birth and abortion rates fell by 30% and 41% respectively.
The numbers, capturing the eight-year period since IUDs became an affordable option for low-income health clinics in Colorado, showed that Colorado also avoided paying nearly $70 million for labor and delivery, well-baby check-ups, medical care, food stamps and child-care assistance because of fewer births to teen moms and poor women.
https://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/30/colorado-teen-pregnancy-abortion-r...
“This is one of the biggest public-health home runs that I’ve seen in my 35-year public-health career,” Dr. John Douglas, director of the Tri-County Health Department, which has six clinics in three Colorado counties.
But some people can't stand this success story, mostly Republican lawmakers, and Christian Shariah Law anti-choice activists who falsely, erroneously and shamelessly equate IUDs with abortion and abortifacients.
The program saves the state tens of millions and dramatically reduces the abortion rate and is good government policy.
Republicans hate it.
D to go forward; R for reverse.
Nov 6 2018
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@Socrates
Wow, you really are into the numbers when it comes to policy issues. I wouldn't have expected a coastal person to know about the Colorado IUDs.
4
@Socrates - Glad to be reminded of this - should have been Editor's pick.
9
Rose colored glasses. The state sold out to developers and the fossil fuel industries. You cant find wildlife anywhere, developers crowded it out. I've talked to older people who are leaving the state because the wildlife is gone and people are mean and in a hurry.
True, the state is turning blue. Now that Republicans have spoiled the beauty and left a mess, The loss of jobs in rural areas is caused by technology, not fossil fuels. Hi tech companies cluster in the Front Range for a young educated workforce.The Front range is where fracking pollutes drinking water so bad you can light it.
Truth to power: people hate Hickenlooper.
Sorry, Amazon. Nothing to see here. Move along.
20
@senior citizen Amen. The NYT fix seems to be in, but before you accept the way Hickenlooper is pictured in this article, take a drive east along Highway 52 from Boulder County to Weld County. Look at the numerous horrible drilling pads that have been plopped into farmland and immediately next to residential neighborhoods. I suggest you do it at night so you can see the incredibly bright floodlights illuminating the gas and dust clouds that pour out of these things--right next to housing developments. Hickenlooper didn't negotiate a grand bargain, he handed us over to these awful companies that run roughshod over homeowners, farmers, ranchers, and local communities.
8
@senior citizen
I live just North of Longmont in Fort Collins. A college town that vibrates with health and a solid population of wildlife that I see every day as I walk together with great neighbors and playful dogs. Yes, traffic is horrid these days but our population here volunteers at great numbers, shows up at civic meetings, attends cultural events and we smile at each other in the grocery store no matter what hat we are wearing. Is it utopia? Nope. We struggle to address homelessness and affordable housing and a myriad other issues that plague cities small to large. Like your city, it is hard sometimes to accept the growth and change but compromise can be had if you show up to meetings, express your views and VOTE.
3
Best to not criticize the good in search of the perfect.
This article reminds me of the good old days or Democrats and Republicans working together to take care of the issues that actually matter to all of us. I think of Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan. I might have disagreed with a lot of Reagan's policies but I admired the fact that he was a civil, respectful human being. As was O'Neill, who never forgot his roots.
It sounds as if Colorado is the best place to start a movement against what has divided our Country and we all should look at their example as the future way forward for our divided country.
I do have to question the fervor of the Pastor Babcox for Trump. How can he justify supporting a man who puts children in cages and separates them from their parents? Trump, who wants to do away with Health Care for his congregation, a man who steals from the middle-class taxpayer to line the pockets of the wealthy and the Corporations?
Babcox sounds more like a Jim Baker Christian than a real one. But then, in order for me to really ascertain that, I would need to speak to him at length to understand his philosophy.
And that is what we all have to do to bridge the divide that is in our country.
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@Jean
I would submit that what has divided the country is that people are no longer willing to trade away their rights (human and otherwise ) for a tax break. There is no more taxes to cut (as I mentioned that the teachers are now working 4 day work weeks) and what taxes are cut, the revenue is going directly into the pockets of the rich and corporations.
People have had enough and rightly so.
7
"...a Democratic Party that rediscovers the ability to speak to small-town and blue-collar and barely middle-class America in a way that does not sound patronizing?"
and there, ladies and gentlemen, is the challenge that the DNC leadership should be thinking about every moment of every day. Americans vote for Democratic policies but tend to loose interest in Democratic candidates.
Hickenlooper would crush Trump in flyover country during a general election but he is probably too unglamorous to register a campaign heartbeat during the Democratic primary.
12
@T Montoya:
"Hickenlooper would crush Trump in flyover country during a general election but he is probably too unglamorous to register a campaign heartbeat during the Democratic primary."
I think that's why so many of us like him. He's not a drama queen, and I've personally seen enough drama queen behavior from the highest echelons of government over the past two years to last a dozen or more lifetimes. Ultimately, though, I think you're right that Hick's appeal to western sensibilities is unlikely to translate well to other parts of the country, but we won't know for sure unless he runs. Maybe Trump's reign of terror will have so exhausted the nation's patience that Hick's low-key, collaborative nature will win the electorate over.
10
@T Montoya: "Hickenlooper would crush Trump in flyover country "
It would be great to hear him explain the need for increasing racial and ethnic diversity in many of the outer-ring suburbs in flyover country purple states and how he would achieve that. The Metro Detroit Area is one such location. But those pesky Trump supporters would probably demand to hear how he's "walked the talk" - they're funny like that. Those same Trump supporters would also probably be more than a bit jealous of Colorado's racial demographics.
3
@T Montoya: When Hickenlooper first ran for mayor of Denver, there were about a dozen other Democratic candidates on the ballot. The system here lets everybody run who collects enough signatures. If nobody wins a majority of the votes, there's a runoff between the top two.
One thing made Hickenlooper stand out from all the rest of the candidates: He had a sense of humor. He was comically and sincerely self-deprecating. That would be quite a contrast to Trump, wouldn't it?
6
Anecdotally, I live in a smallish SW CO town that has grown steadily for the forty years I've been here. I'm a tradesman, and my extremely well-educated Son is following in my footsteps despite the string of academic degrees he has fought hard for. Our town's economy is broadly tourism-based, and the homebuilding cycles have largely been driven by very wealthy out-of-staters moving here to "paradise" ...
I know a whole bunch of locals from all walks of life, and interact with people from across the economic and political spectrum. Typically, we meet smack-dab in the middle. Those who would eschew my middle-of-the road progressivism nonetheless embrace my ability to install their plumbing and heating systems functionally, stylishly, and at reasonable cost.
82
My experience of the West is that the discussions around politics remain civil overall, and the general sense of perpetual outrage that seems endemic on the coasts is absent. We all have our issues and differences, but it seems it’s not how we define ourselves. Nice piece capturing this.
44
A sprawling article with tight focus: Americans of different beliefs, some struggling to find ways to come together to solve common problems, some just obstinate in their opposition.
Colorado may differ from other states in its resources, geography and economy but it is not unique in its divided residents, some radical, some reasonable.
Most people would prefer outlawing military style weapons, but limiting ammunition clips to 15 rounds is a reasonable compromise and first step. Mandating residents own guns is extremely radical; unacceptable to anyone who believes in individual freedoms, that the government should not rule our lives. How ironic that Craig should believe in dictating his beliefs and imposing them on others by abusing the power of government!
Hickenlooper is reasonable in finding ways to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, in working with opposition to find compromise, in looking to a future where common concerns bring us together rather than focus on our differences. Babcox is radical in boycotting a store because his faith excludes God's transgender people. How can one claim to be a pastor when he believes in isolation and exclusion?
Of all the vignettes, that of Lacie Redd is most troubling. Her struggles and suicide encapsulate what is wrong with conservatives; they lack compassion, put their pocketbooks ahead of lives. Which is exactly the core belief of Trump; he finds Khashoggi's immoral murder an inconvenient hiccup to a profitable deal.
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@jabarry: In fact, most people do NOT prefer outlawing "military style" weapons, if you're referring to the AR-15. Likewise, there is no law anywhere limiting "clips" to 15 or less rounds, it's magazines. I'm sure this is picking nits to you, but it's not to those of us who find comments like yours as arrogant as they are ignorant.
1
Thank you, Mr. Cohen. This comes at just the right time, when our country is starting to seem hopelessly polarized. We need independents more than ever, because they constitute a middle ground that can help draw us all back together, in finding common ground, such as love of our country and its founding values. And they connect us with the time of our first President, before political parties started tearing us apart.
39
@Richard M. Waugaman, M.D.
I also replied to another comment. Lived in DC for 41 years. Played at KenCen for a job (Opera House Orchestra). Certainly know Chevy Chase, although I didn't live there. My mother did.
5
I’ve always felt blessed to live my life in Western Colorado-It is not without it’s problems and at times was a hard place to raise a family in-It’s beauty won my heart the first morning I woke up in a camp ground 47 years ago-The nation could learn a lot from Colorado-John Hickenlooper would be a good President-
99
We lost 150 manufacturing jobs in my town due to a reactionary, feel good, ineffective, law signed by Hickenlooper and promoted by my party. My town is small, we needed those good jobs. The "lets sit down and sort through" things attitude no longer exists along our urban front range, we are now a stew of transplanted bigotry from California and the East Coast. Take the misguided anti jobs amendment on the ballot today for instance, it would end some of the last few good paying blue collar jobs we have, many people are gleeful over oil workers being unemployed. "work for a solar company or wind" they say, ya, at 1/3 the income.
Colorado has the same issues as the rest of the country, insular pockets of people only exposed to the like minded, there's no cross pollination of opinions or culture.
8
@somsai Mr. Don Colcord says:"the imminent shutdown of a coal-fired power plant ... “i’s a sacrificial cow to the environmental movement.”
No our planet is burning. Don`t we care about our children and grandchildren. Unless we stop the extractive industries, the earth will be too hot for their children to survive.
We are the richest country on the planet. Why do five people have more money that the 160,000,000 people struggling at the bottom. We just gave a $1.4 trillion tax benefit to those 5 people and the other 10% at the top. ENOUGH!
A Universal Basic Income would provide exactly what it says - a basic income to start a new business, go back to school, enjoy your retirement etc etc..
There are answers. Guaranteed living wage; full government-funded health insurance;
free education including at the university level;
the prosecution of corporate criminals; cutting the bloated military budget; an end to empire; criminal justice reform; transferring power from the elites to the citizenry by providing public spaces where consumers, workers and communities can meet and organize; breaking up the big banks and creating a public banking system; protecting and fostering labor unions; removing money from politics; taking the airwaves out of the hands of corporations and returning them to the public; ending subsidies to the fossil fuel industry while keeping fossil fuels in the ground to radically reconfigure our relationship to the ecosystem.
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@somsai
We'll see what happens after Prop 112 passes. I think oil will still be extracted. It's not like the oil is going to move to another state.
As for the job loss - my sympathies, but one industry is a vulnerability. See Bruce Rozenblit's comment starting with paragraph two. In your opinion, just how small does a town have to be before it doesn't deserve special economic protection?
8
@Jim there is no global warming until that stuff is burnt. In general CO2 matches income. Big houses, big SUVs, high tech toys, international vacations. It's not coal field workers that are destroying the atmosphere as much as it is dilettante enviros, jet setting around to green "treks".
We don't want BAs determining what a living wage is, if that happens the 9.9% will cry at the cost of all the services they use to avoid doing for themselves. We want a good wage, a wage to live a middle class life and support a family, wa wage like NYT readers get. The cost of inequality is Trump.
Interesting.
It is almost as if the Walmart/Amazon/China/Mexico economy has, for now, passed parts of Colorado by.
There are parts of rural, eastern Oregon that would interview the same way, for those who actually own land have a different grasp on reality, and how the rest of us should live, than those who cannot find a low cost rental in Eugene or Portland, to live in.
With the rich rigging the tax laws so that estates live forever, there will always be the landed gentry.
But so what? There isn't a movement upward for all, there is income inequality and hopelessness for the poor, as the rich become "Hickenloopers", dwelling in the dream of 1955.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
15
One point stood out for me. The Greatest Generation wasn't so divided because so many served together in life - or - death combat. After that, political squabbles seemed minor and petty. The blood of all Americans indeed runs red.
74
@Mary, which is why I take exception the constant analysis of the U.S. divided up into States. It does nothing but separate us culturally, economically and politically. Indeed, today, our blood runs "green" because it's always about the money.
30
@Mary
This is also why a compulsory period of national service for young adults, as an alternative to the draft (the so-called environment that would be the "moral equivalent of war" without the shooting) might be a good idea to help lessen some of our national divisions.
15
@Mary Well, I suppose all of that insight about the 'greatest generation' could be true, as long as you leave out the inconvenient truths of post-WWII 2nd class citizenship of (and downright hostility towards) black folks, Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, non-Christians, and the circumscribed role women were allowed to play in our 'victorious' society. Little things, I guess.
4