The legislative session in 2013 was blistering for Democrats as they shoved one unpopular bill after another through the Democratic-controlled legislature and across the Democrat Governor’s desk. After a 2014 election that was messier than a kick to a fresh cow pile on a hot day, Democrats are trying to mend fences, according to a new article in the Denver Post:
“The goal of such measures is to win backing for Democrats or solidify support for Republicans out here where residents remember a bitter 2013 legislative session more than any of the bills introduced this session — folks who say they have grown tired of Front Range politicians meddling with how they live their lives or conduct their business.
Politics is about personal philosophies as much as legislation, said Ken Davidson, a regular at Mom’s Kitchen Cafe in Otis who has lived nearly all his 69 years in Otis or in nearby Akron.
‘It’s about our beliefs out here,’ he said. ‘We believe in hard work, self-reliance, family values. And we live off this land out here, so we have to take care of it.'”
Democrats may talk a big game, but a quick check of Democrats’ support of legislation that would have allowed rural Colorado to avoid Democrats’ meddling with their lives shows Democrats are all hat, no cattle.
The biggest challenge to Colorado’s rural population was the much-hated rural renewable electricity mandates, which are sending electric bills through the roof. But, Democrats killed this year’s bill that would have eased the mandates. What about Republicans’ attempts to roll back the irrational gun grabs fro 2013 which left rural Colorado seeing red? Democrats have so far killed all those, too. Rural Colorado is mad about water issues in agricultural areas and Democrats have failed miserably on that issue, too.
It’s clear is that Democrats want the support of rural Colorado without actually offering any support of their own in return. The folks out in Otis, Colorado may not have as many roads as Denver, but they sure have street smarts enough to know that Democrats are offering a bad deal.