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May 13, 2019 12:32 PM UTC

"Stand For Colorado" Rallies--The Power Of Dozens

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Colorado Public Radio reports from Grand Junction’s sleeper of a “Stand for Colorado” rally:

When 89-year-old Tom Foster saw only a few people mulling around, he thought he had the wrong time.

“You know, at my age, I’m accused of that every once in a while,” he said with a smile.

Foster was intent on staying, however, and said he was “disappointed” in people. He believes their “apathy” is helping erode the Constitution and the U.S. as a whole.

Clearly, revolution is at hand.

—–

Stand for Colorado rally in Grand Junction.

Last week we took note of conservative rallies scheduled for Friday evening across the state, organized by a Denver AM radio host in protest of Democratic control of the state government and the results of this year’s action-packed legislative session. Featuring a variety of speakers representing the Republican political coalition from the oil and gas industry to religious activists protesting “the hypersexualization of our children,” these rallies received a considerable amount of pre-event publicity from local media–enough that a large turnout wasn’t an unreasonable expectation.

Except, as the Denver Post reports and you can see from the photo above, not so much!

Late Friday afternoon, about 200 conservatives stood at the west steps of the Capitol for 90 minutes and cheered while activist speakers denounced nearly every major Democratic bill of the 2019 session as byproducts of socialism, corruption, sexual promiscuity or government overreach.

“We are wild, we are crazy and we’re going to force local control right down their throats, the way they forced (Senate Bill) 181 down our throats,” said Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer, referring to an oil and gas regulation bill…

Organizers reiterated repeatedly that their theme was “Freedom versus force.” California was said to be controlling Colorado’s votes and its policies. Planned Parenthood was said to be grooming future abortion customers by teaching sex education. Public school students were said to be “marinating in ideas like capitalism is evil and socialism is not that bad.”

Headline from the Grand Junction Sentinel (5/11/19)

Two hundred protesters was the very generous estimate given for the biggest of the “Stand for Colorado” rallies at the state capitol in Denver by the Post, which may have been more like half that depending on your camera angle. In other cities it was more like a handful of local conservative usual suspects–the Grand Junction Sentinel’s glass-half-full count of the rally there was “more than 50.” Which leads to the next question: objectively speaking, was this turnout a failure? A show of weakness for bellicose conservatives where they put so much effort into demonstrating grassroots power?

Seriously, how the hell is it not? Rally crowd size isn’t the sole indicator of support, of course, but if throw one you need to not embarrass yourself. After the high bar set in recent years by (clockwise from top) Women’s Marches, public school teacher walk-outs, Jeffco students rallying to save AP History, and one of numerous protests in support of abortion rights outside Sen. Cory Gardner’s offices in 2017, the same couple hundred protesters showing up to listen to the same intemperate speeches they’ve been hearing since the birth of the “Tea Party” movement just doesn’t pack the intimidating punch it’s supposed to.

We’ve said it before–if you can’t compete, don’t try.

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12 thoughts on ““Stand For Colorado” Rallies–The Power Of Dozens”

  1. Look on the bright side … more people attended than were speaking. Probably even more than the speakers and their family members, or the speakers and those they brought with them in their vehicles.

    Then again, they were competing with both the Friday afternoon happy hours AND those who wanted to get out of town for a spring weekend.

     

  3. Public school students were said to be “marinating in ideas like capitalism is evil and socialism is not that bad.”

     

    Hey Einsteins, public schools aren't the only people talking about out-of-control capitalism as an existential threat to the US….

    The kings of capitalism are finally worried about the growing gap between rich and poor

    This month Dalio, founder of Bridgewater, the world’s biggest hedge fund, an investor in low-wage employers including Walmart and KFC, and a man worth about $18bn according to Forbes, became the latest in a bank of billionaires to go public about his fears of widening income inequality.

    The yawning gap between rich and poor is a “national emergency”, Dalio wrote in an 8,000-plus-word blogpost on LinkedIn (where else?) that poses an “existential risk for the US”.

    “I believe that all good things taken to an extreme can be self-destructive and that everything must evolve or die. This is now true for capitalism,” he wrote.

    2. There's enough stupid in those quotes to last the entire week. PoddyMouth, you can take a few days off.  

      Those zany, 51st-state bootstrappers: an eternal font of cognitive dissonance. 

      “We are wild, we are crazy and we’re going to force local control right down their throats, the way they forced (Senate Bill) 181 down our throats,” said Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer, referring to an oil and gas regulation bill…

      I think we can all agree on the crazy part.  Would Barb share her mailing address? I'd like to send her a bill for my suppressed corn and wheat yields from her crazy local control decisions.  Asking for a friend.  

        1. Two words: cognitive.  dissonance.   It's a good thing self-awareness isn't a prerequisite for falling to the top of Weld County politics.  

          I'm speculating her Bikers for Trump took it hook, line and sinker. 

      2. Kirkmeyer was referring to the part of SB181 that would allow her and her fellow Weld County Commissioners to continue doing as they have done for the last 20 years, thus turning Greeley and its surrounding areas into "Frack City":

        Let the gas and oil industry drill wherever and whenever the heck they want, emit whatever pollutants in whatever quantities, and any resident or consumer with a complaint about it will be forever damned as "Anti-jobs" or  a "Boulder snowflake".

        181 does say that a local municipality will

         have the authority to restrict where drilling can take place, impose standards for water and air quality, and enforce their rules through inspections and fines.

        Kirkmeyer and the Weld BoCC had a good giggle over that one.

        2. The slippery slope to eroding the Constitution.

          Or something.  

          Occidental Shareholders Vote for Climate Proposal

          BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK), the world's largest asset manager, supported the climate resolution, an early indication that financial management firms are beginning to think differently about their energy investments. This is the first time BlackRock voted for a shareholder proposal on climate risk that company management opposed.

          1. Occidental is an interesting oil company. It will soon be the largest oil extraction company in Weld County, and they are also the leaders in a proprietary technology that limits air pollution by burying carbon in the ground (or converting it into clean fuel). It also has invested in the first zero emissions power plant.

            So all of those oil and gas jobs (32 thousand million bajillion!!*) in Weld County are going to depend on a business model that is (gasp!) environmentally conscious…..

            * depending on the multiplying factors one uses…..right, V?

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