Would like to know about the political landscape in Colorado?

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Same as politicians everyhere else. They make promises during the campaign season, then sell out to the highest bidders once they are in office. Party makes no differnece. Liberal or conservative labels make no difference. Third party candidates have less than a snowballs chance in hell of getting elected.

That's pretty much the size of it!

[seethelight]

Originally Posted by REIRehabber

Do you know how things are in the Denver and Ft Collins area? I would like to avoid the Elitist crowd.

Just make sure you cover yourself from head to toe in american flags and I am sure the elitists would leave you alone. It's sort of a repellent for elitists. You know they are everywhere, even in Colorado Springs. They might even be living next store to you should you move to Colorado.

Perhaps you could get some elitist uncovering goggles to ferret them out.

[zenkonami]

Personally, I like the elite. It's the snobs I snub my nose at.

[fumanchu41]

Seethelight,
I sense some sarcasm. I'm not a fan of snobs or elitists. Oh, I thought they were one in the same.

[jazzlover]

I hesitate to post on this topic because it is so inane, but there has been so much misinformation posted that I think the record should be set straight. First, people tend to hear about the ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative "hotbeds" in Colorado, but they make up a relatively small part of the Colorado political landscape. Yes, Boulder and some of the mountain resorts tend to be very liberal, and Colorado Springs and some of the Denver suburbs tend to be very conservative--but even that is an overly broad generalization. And, quite honestly, most of the people at those political extremes tend to be transplants--not natives or long-time residents of the state.

Most of Colorado, and most Coloradans tend to be politically moderate. Even the party registrations tend not to be necessarily indicative. Why? Because many of these moderates tend to follow ideologies that don't fit the common mould. For example, a lot of southern Colorado, including Pueblo, tends to vote Democratic. But those Democrats tend to be "union Democrats" that may be somewhat liberal on economic issues, but tend to be pretty conservative on social issues. Waving the banner for gun control, for example, won't sit well at all with a lot of them. In the metro areas, there are quite a few "suburban Republicans." They tend to be pretty staunch fiscal conservatives, but may be pretty liberal on social issues. For example, in that group, there are a lot of "pro-choice" Republicans. In the rural areas, there tend to be a lot of fairly conservative people, but they don't forget that--in most of those areas--government is the biggest employer. So, they talk a conservative line, but elect representation that will promise to "bring home the pork" to the district.

Up until fairly recently, Colorado had a long history of electing moderates from both political parties. Those people didn't always follow their own party's ideology, either. Some examples: Ralph Carr, the Republican Governor of Colorado at the beginning of World War II, stood nearly alone both in Colorado and nationally when he decried the internment of Japanese-American citizens. He called it racism and bigotry--which it was. This decades before "civil rights" became a defining national issue especially embraced by liberal Democrats. Then there was the Republican Legislature and Republican Governor John A. Love (Colorado's best Governor in the last three-quarters of a century in my view) that made Colorado the first state to legalize abortion. Not very stereotypical, huh? Then there was Democratic Governor Dick Lamm. He was widely perceived as an environmentalist Governor after he led the charge to scuttle Colorado hosting the 1976 Winter Olympics. Lost in the history was the fact that some of his main opposition to the Olympic bid was that it was clearly a political boondoggle to privatize the profits from the Olympics to mostly out-of-state interests, while socializing nearly all of the costs on the Colorado taxpayers. The initiative to stop the Olympics would have failed had not thousands upon thousands of fiscally conservative (and mostly Republican) voters joined the environmentalists in saying "no."

Colorado has also had a long history of "ticket-splitting." "Voting for the person" is much more common here than elsewhere. As for me, I've been in the political fray for a few decades now. I have friends at all ends of the political spectrum in Colorado--but nearly none of them fit what people perceive as the "red/blue" stereotypes. I don't either. I'm a "Teddy Roosevelt" Republican, which means that I'm a strident conservationist while, at the same time, being a staunch fiscal conservative. I also hate big business as much as I hate big government. Both take the country to no good ends. So what am I? Conservative? Liberal? Well, I'm neither--and both. Just like most Coloradans--the ones with brains, that is.

[thespian666]

I'm getting the idea that snooty = well-educated and/or liberal. In my experience (in PA, CA aaand CO) snooty = country club and country club might be well-educated to some, but, more often than not, faaaaaar from liberal.) I get a little irritated by words like this getting tossed around without proper reference points. And yes, I'm liberal...in a way, or "a liberal" as people might say.

I love your fair state by the way - all you need is a larger lake with waves and sand...and less turbulence out of DIA.

[tfox]

I do agree with most of what Katiana and Jazzlover have said.

For the benefit of the OP, I'd say that nowhere in Colorado is really all that liberal; the mountain resort towns like Aspen and Vail are the closest you'd find to liberal. There are a few areas, such as the eastern plains, for example, that are reliably conservative, but even they are not AS conservative as rural areas in many other states.

By in-state standards, Boulder County is said to be liberal, and Colorado Springs and all of El Paso County is said to be conservative, but I've argued that neither is as extremely tipped in either direction as its made out to be. Within Metro Denver, Denver the city (which accounts for only 20% of the metro population) tends to be a bit on the liberal side, but not to the extent that many other big cities tend to be. Denver's suburbs largely tend to mirror the nation as a whole, though the southern suburbs are known to be somewhat conservative.

So there you have it. Really, unless your political proclivities are strongly slanted one way or the other, you'll be fine anywhere in state. In Metro Denver, where I live, I'd say that things are balanced such that anywhere on the political spectrum will feel very comfortable.

[Bideshi]

At the risk of stating the obvious (judging from national election results going back a couple of decades), our nation is roughly split down the middle. Your have about a equal chance of running into an ultra-liberal or an ultra-conservative on a given day. Most of us fall somewhere in between. There are hot spots of every persuasion, of course. Colorado Springs has a rep for being ultra conservative and bible-thumping Christian, but I have found scant evidence of that on these forums.

[Mike from back east]

JazzLover said it best and said it eloquently. Not much left to be said, so I'll thank him sincerely and close the thread now.

Discussions of national trends and issues belong in the P&OC Forum, which is much more focused on such topics.