A guest editorial by M.A. Rothman, with comments from TPOL

Mr. Rothman published this on Monday, 29 June: (our comments in italics)

𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐒 — 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝟒𝐑-𝟒𝐃

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled today that Democrats cannot use ballot initiatives to gerrymander the state’s congressional map and deliver themselves a permanent supermajority. The ruling is a clean win for election integrity.

At best, it is a clean win for procedure and practice, and leaves the question open in the longer term. This is something that Colorado and other “Blue States” have done and faced in the past. We predict that they will in the future. We note that the 4R-4D headline is very optimistic: Colorado is as rife with election fraud (and punishing those who seek to fight against it) as any other State. And the very recent SCOTUS Nazgul decision ensures Colorado continues to enjoy a license to do so: several of those GOP seats are far from safe!

Three ballot initiatives — numbered 240, 241, and 242, backed by a group called “Coloradans for a Level Playing Field” — would have redrawn Colorado’s congressional map to give Democrats seven of the state’s eight seats in Congress. The current delegation sits at 4R-4D. The plan was to flip three Republican seats for 2028 and 2030, 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 through rigged redistricting.

This is the latest act in the continuing drama of Gerrymandering across the nation, as the two old parties continue to see who can pretend to dominate Congress and many states, to get a tiny bit more of the loot stolen by governments into their pockets, those of their supporters, and those of their families. But again, especially given the fragmented nature of the Colorado GOP, lovers of liberty are better off in 150-year-old Colorado with some balance in the publicly-pushed conflict. For one thing, we’ve seen how the domination of Colorado in the General Assembly and the Executive and Judicial branches has damaged the Centennial State. As has happened in California, New York, Massachusetts and elsewhere.

But there is a problem.

The court found that the initiatives violated Colorado’s constitution by bundling multiple changes into a single ballot measure — violating the single-subject requirement. Justice Richard Gabriel wrote that allowing “interlocking measures like those at issue here would allow proponents to achieve indirectly what they could not achieve directly” — an 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. The court said no.

What too many reviewers and commentators have so far refused to talk about is this. This is a procedural victory against the Democratic coup. But it provides exactly what the Democrats (#1 Hater of Liberty in Colorado and all Fifty States) have been working on for decades. They will continue to corrupt the electorate of Colorado, and they will continue to push for more and more insane policies and actions. They know that the public – including voters – will see compromise as a good thing. So it is only a matter of time – probably only a few years, before the next effort to make Colorado permanently blue is launched. With better chances of winning. As Mr. Roth points out in the next paragraph.

This is the Democrat playbook when they can’t win outright: rewrite the rules, rig the maps, and push through structural changes designed to make their electoral advantages permanent. In Colorado — a state they’ve already been winning — that wasn’t enough. They needed to lock it in forever. The delegation stays 4R-4D, and 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 before they could be installed.

Of course, he does not point out that that the GOP will do exactly the same thing. They use the same playbook. Indeed, it was the efforts in Texas and Florida that seem to have prompted this matter in California, Colorado, and elsewhere. Does it matter if our prison uniform stipes run horizontally (GOP) or vertically (Democratic)?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 — 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬.

Unfortunately, that is the refrain of those who believe in democracy, and not in the idea of limited (and as little as possible if not none) government. Where voters do not see themselves as vicars of the Almighty, and elections (for people and issues) are decided by one more vote of a normally small minority of residents and even voters than the other side gets. Colorado’s General Assembly resembles the corrupt House of Commons in Great Britain more and more. And we point out, has far more power than the Commons had in the time of George III or even Victoria. And it is that power than is to be feared, more than which old party will wield it.