It’s Not Your Problems: It’s Your Allergy to Solving Them

Here’s the uncomfortable truth the Colorado Republican establishment keeps tripping over like a rake in a cartoon. “The issue is not that we have problems - the issue is that we have problems with our problems.”

Every serious political movement faces challenges over time. Voter registration gaps (like what we are seeing in Colorado with UAF’s). Messaging failures. Demographic shifts. A hostile media environment. None of that is unique to Colorado Republicans. What is unique is how our state party responds to those realities with denial, finger-pointing, and a frantic rush to silence the true grassroots when they ask obvious questions.

Let’s talk voter rolls (as this is the hot topic of the day) because numbers, inconvenient as they are, have a nasty habit of refusing to shut up. Recent releases and analyses of Colorado’s voter registration data show exactly what true grassroots activists have been warning about for years: a rapidly expanding bloc of unaffiliated voters now dominates the electorate, and worse, they increasingly dominate the party decision-making process itself. Through open primaries and establishment appeasement, the Colorado GOP has accomplished outsourcing its future to voters who have no loyalty to Republican values and principles. And then party leadership acts shocked when turnout collapses, candidates waffle, and elections are lost by razor-thin margins or worse, the “blowout”.

You don’t fix a leaking roof by arguing that rain is unfair. You fix it by getting on the ladder. But Colorado GOP leadership doesn’t want a ladder. They don’t want conservative conviction. They want “electability”, which is code for, “don’t scare the unaffiliateds who already aren’t voting for us.”

Here’s the real problem: The true grassroots sees the problems clearly: weak candidates, watered-down platforms, donor-class gatekeeping, and a party terrified of its own base. The establishment sees those same problems and says, “Yes, but if we just didn’t talk about them, we can win.” That’s not a strategy. That’s cowardice with a consulting fee.

Bold positions win elections. Clear values mobilize voters. Contrast creates turnout. The Republican Party didn’t build its brand by being a wallflower, managerial, and perpetually apologetic. It won when it stood for something: smaller government, secure elections, parental rights, law and order, and a cultural backbone stiff enough to withstand a social media tantrum.

Instead, the party insists we are to soften the language, trim the principles, and trust the same people who’ve been losing for a decade plus to suddenly start winning if only the true grassroots would sit down and behave. No. Absolutely not! The issue is not that Colorado Republicans face hard problems. The issue is that too many in leadership are offended by the existence of those problems and hostile to anyone who points them out and advocates for change. Until the Colorado GOP chooses courage over comfort, vision over appeasement, and conviction over consultant-approved mush, don’t expect different results.



Elections aren’t lost because conservatives are too bold. They’re lost because the party is too afraid to be anything.