Freedom Unaffiliated

It makes no sense to be a Republican in Colorado. Or a Democrat for that matter.On the day I turned 18, even before I bought my first legal 3.2 beer (remember 3.2 beer?), I went to the courthouse and registered to vote (remember registering to vote?). I joined the Republican Party.Even at 18, I knew not affiliating with a party diluted the power of my vote.Sure, everyone gets to vote in November. But one vote among millions isn’t nearly as powerful as a vote in a primary.Back then, unaffiliated voters were locked out of primaries. Republicans voted in Republican primaries, Democrats in Democratic primaries.The smaller the electorate, the more your vote mattered.As a Republican primary voter, my ballot was one of only a couple hundred thousand. As a delegate to the Republican state assembly, my vote was one of only a few thousand. At the county assembly it was one of hundreds. At my neighborhood caucus, I was one of fewer than 10.At one point, my vote represented more than 10% of all votes cast. That’s leverage.Rise of the unaffiliatedsThen came Proposition 108 in 2016, which I voted against.Now those smug, sanctimonious “independents” get both a Republican and Democratic primary ballot and can choose which one to return.Yet my desire to leverage my vote never changed. So I became unaffiliated.And like most Colorado voters, I never looked back.We unaffiliateds get to vote in either primary. This year I’ve decided to return a Democratic ballot.To my fellow independents, isn’t it nice having choices? Those poor schmucks still clinging to the romance of party affiliation, shackled to organizations that long ago wandered past the hey-guys-let’s-not-get-crazy zone, don’t have the freedom we do.The still-affiliated can enjoy the purity of party membership while checking voicemail on their flip-phone, insulting Democrats by fax and waiting for next week’s TV Guide to arrive.To those still registered with a party, investing in Beanie Babies while wondering where the local Radio Shack moved, let me explain why I left.First, I live in the People’s Republic of Boulder.If I were still a Republican, I’d have almost no choices in the primary election. Only three of the 15 races on my Republican ballot are contested. Eight races have no candidate at all.No Republicans in Boulder has finally trickled down to no Republicans running for office.And unless you’re in complete denial, which has become a permanent condition among many Colorado Republicans, you know absolutely none of the Republican candidates on my Boulder ballot are going to win in November.That includes, sadly, Barbara Kirkmeyer, the only sane Republican running for governor.Now, if you live in a conservative part of the state where there are meaningful local races and candidates who can actually win, maybe returning a Republican ballot makes sense.But here’s the point: you don’t have to be a Republican to do that anymore.The only temptation I have to return a Republican ballot is to help Kirkmeyer win the nomination.Yes, she’ll lose to the Democratic nominee in November. Those in denial don’t need to flood my inbox explaining how me saying so will somehow cause that loss — message already received.But Barbara won’t embarrass the party. She won’t frighten suburban voters. And marginally speaking, she’d help Gabe Evans and a handful of legislative candidates who actually have a shot.Primaries decide electionsI’ve weighed that consideration against another reality.The winners of the Democratic primaries for governor and attorney general will almost certainly be the winners in November.The primary is the election.Democrats should probably leave their party, too. Why voluntarily surrender half your primary choices?Why chain yourself to a party label when Colorado law now lets you shop both aisles?The only remaining reason to stay registered with a party is if you actively participate in caucuses and assemblies and want to help place candidates on the primary ballot without petitioning on.If you’re registered with a party but never attend caucuses, you’re simply limiting your options under the current rules.Me, I’m returning a Democratic ballot. Not because I’m a Democrat. But because that’s where my vote has the most influence.And the prospect of a Colorado run by Democratic Socialists Phil Weiser and Jena Griswold is terrifying enough to make me spend it there.Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

Years ago, I interviewed a Canadian health-care broker whose job was helping his countrymen escape their own failing system.When their “free” health care turned into “free to wait until you die,” he’d save his clients by routing them to doctors in the U.S. who’d accept cash and rescue their lives.I asked him what advice he had for Americans. His answer terrified me.“I hope the U.S. won’t do what we’ve done with health care,” he said. I thought his reasoning was that he didn’t want to see Americans suffer and die because of medical socialism. But that wasn’t it.He said, “Because if you do, we’ll have nowhere to escape to.”That stuck with me. We are Canada’s health care lifeboat.Every bad system needs an escape hatch. Otherwise, you’re trapped.God Bless WyomingWhich brings me to the un-Colorado. Thank God for Wyoming.From energy to fiscal policy, civil liberties to tech laws, Wyoming is becoming Colorado’s lifeboat. And it is so much more than sneaking north to buy fireworks and gun magazines.Wyoming is becoming the gold standard, quite literally.In December the state purchased some 2,312 ounces of physical gold. Understanding printing money out of nowhere and constant debt spending eventually ends badly, they’re planning ahead.A new law requires 10% of their cash reserves be kept in physical gold. While the rest of the country debates modern monetary theory, Wyoming is quietly saying, “Maybe we should own something real.”For those of us who see Bitcoin as digital gold (like gold, Bitcoin has a limited supply), Wyoming again has the advantage.The Cowboy State was early in building a legal home for cryptocurrency companies. While Colorado chases away tech heavy-hitters like Palantir, Wyoming wants them.They passed laws to clarify crypto is private property, legalized both crypto banking and even Decentralized Autonomous Organizations — companies run by code instead of shareholders. The state even considered their own stable coin.Wyoming doesn’t want to repeat its biggest mistake. It invented the LLC, Limited Liability Corporations, in 1977 — and then watched Delaware steal the idea and become the business capital of America. They won’t let that happen with crypto.Colorado’s political class has been on a decade’s-long crusade to make energy more expensive, less reliable, and — if we’re really lucky — occasionally available.We’re shutting down always-available power to bet everything we have (and everything our kids have) on weather-dependent energy.We’re regulating oil and gas out of existence like they’re chemical weapons. And doing it all with the moral certainty of a vegan Boulderite lecturing a lion.Keeping the lights onMeanwhile, just north they’re doing something radical — keeping the lights on.Wyoming is actively developing next-generation nuclear power, including advanced modular reactors, backed by serious investment. They’re continuing to drill for oil and gas like a state that understands staying alive requires energy. Not slogans. Energy.And here’s the punchline: as Colorado makes it harder to produce power, we’re going to need more of Wyoming’s.They become the battery. We become the extension cord. We’ll virtue signal. They’ll power it.Take data centers — the physical backbone of everything from AI to your email to the movies you stream — they require massive, reliable, always-on electricity. Not “when the wind feels like cooperating” electricity.So where are they going?Not Colorado. Denver Mayor Mike Johnson even bragged he would not allow data centers to be built in his city. What a man!That’s like me saying I refuse to date leggy supermodels. None were going to date me anyway, so why not turn it into bravado.They’re heading to places like Wyoming (data centers, not supermodels), where policymakers haven’t declared war on electrons.But data centers will still be used by Coloradans. So, it doesn’t reduce energy use. It just exports the jobs, tax revenue and opportunity north.And oh, they’re not chasing gun owners or entrepreneurs out of their state via laws that treat them like Nazi used-car salesmen with leprosy.Now, don’t get me wrong. Colorado still has incredible advantages — talent, beauty, lifestyle and a long history of innovation.But advantages can be squandered. Canada already proved that.Because if we didn’t have Wyoming, we might have nowhere to escape to.Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

The governor and progressive Democrats that dominate the state legislature and every statewide office in Colorado have been masterful ― if not ethical and honest ― in devising devious schemes to circumvent the TABOR amendment in the Colorado Constitution. That’s the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, passed by a 1992 voter-initiated ballot measure that bypassed the legislature. It limited government spending and barred the legislature from increasing taxes or imposing new ones without the consent of the voters. Democrats have always despised TABOR.Their favorite ploys have included misrepresenting taxes as “fees” and funding spending programs through tax credits. Because those credits reduce government revenues, they’re the equivalent of government spending but isn’t accounted for as such.Four Big Ugly BillsNow, the Democrats’ legislative super majority has presented a package of four bills championed by its Communist Coalition, the likes of Emily Sirota, Lorena Garcia, Mike Weissman, Julie Gonzales, and others. The bills “decouple” Colorado’s tax code from the federal government’s to “rebalance” Colorado’s tax code. Translating that into forthright language, “decouple” means denying tax deductions to businesses that the federal government allows. “Rebalance” means sharply inflating taxes and government spending.This wording is too clever by half to have come from the progressive nitwits that run the legislature. The fingerprints of the Colorado Fiscal Institute (CFI), who “helped” write the bills are all over it. CFI spokeswoman and policy manager Caroline Nutter is stumping for these bills. CFI is the local affiliate of the State Priorities Partnership, a nationwide network of radical progressive policy groups that call for large-scale redistribution of income and social justice legislation. Nutter’s endorsement is not a plus; it’s a red flag warning. CFI has partnered with the left-wing Bell Policy Center, another local brain-trust for socialist Democrats, working to pass these bills as well as a ballot initiative to replace Colorado’s flat income tax with a soak-the rich graduated income tax.The bills target Colorado businesses and President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) which averted huge tax increases for individuals and businesses, replacing that with tax relief. Instead, Colorado will get Four Big Ugly Bills (FBUB).End-run around TABORTo make income-tax filing simpler for individuals, Colorado transfers your federal adjusted gross income onto your Colorado tax return, thereby passing federal tax deductions directly onto your Colorado tax return, lowering your tax bill. One of the FBUBs would ditch this principle and brazenly disallow businesses numerous federal tax deductions, thus raising their taxes. This scheme circumvents TABOR’s ban on tax-rate increases and enables the Democrats to disallow deductions, giving them a back-door tax increase.Such as this one: A FBUB end-run around TABOR is baring businesses from treating the salaries of high-paid executives as an operating expense, thereby raising a company’s tax bill. Government mandates minimum wages but has no power over salary maximums. That is up to stockholders, directors, and managers.One more: Another FBUB disallows the deduction for interest expenses on debt for large corporations. That’s nuts, this is a legitimate expense. Yet others would limit the full deduction of carried-forward operating losses for established businesses and deny early-stage start-up enterprises tax deductions for losses that could help them survive. This kind of stuff is so idiotic only a socialist could dream it up. There’s no logic behind it; it’s just a desperate tax grab to enable tax-crazy Democrats to continue their budget busting, out-of-control spending spree.Palantir Technologies, an artificial intelligence (AI) giant and Colorado’s biggest corporation by market capitalization came here in 2020 to escape California’s culture, anti-business taxes, and regulations. CEO Alex Karp has announced Palantir is relocating to Florida to escape the same problems in Colorado, which include the over-regulating of AI.In response, the local president of the militant Service Employees International Union, declared, “Good riddance!” This mentality is self-destructive insanity. Colorado’s reputation as a business-friendly state is down the toilet. Many more companies will follow Palantir’s lead, costing Colorado jobs and tax revenue. Progressive Democrat policy like FBUB is economically suicidal, as the flight of businesses and upper income taxpayers from New York, California, and Illinois has demonstrated.Driving out producers and coddling criminals, illegal aliens, and freeloaders is a bad formula for Colorado’s future.The uninterrupted string of Democrat governors over the past 20 years has stacked the state Supreme Court with progressive justices who’ve blessed the Democrats’ deceitful tactics that violate TABOR’s limitations on taxation and spending without the consent of voters. This latest FBUB overreach is so blatantly unconstitutional under TABOR, it might be too much even for the Colorado Supremes. We can hope.Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.