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June 17, 2019 03:06 PM UTC

Thurlow: Republican Party Needs to Modify Core Beliefs

  • 24 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Dan Thurlow (R).

There’s no hope, of course, that Colorado Republicans will moderate their hard-line stance on guns, in the wake of the failure of pro-gun groups to find enough signatures to recall a Democratic lawmaker for supporting modest gun control laws after his son was murdered in the Aurora theater.

But I did find some hope in the form of former Colorado State Rep. Dan Thurlow, who’s been pushing fellow Republicans to change their stances on a variety of issues, instead of arguing about whether one consultant or another is to blame for one election disaster or another.

“When I was in business, the first thing you had to have was a good product, and yes, you had to have a good marketing strategy,” Thurlow told me. “But if you didn’t have a good product to begin with, you wouldn’t do very well in the marketplace. And that’s my premise about the current Republican Party in Colorado.”

“We seem to have become fixated on issues the voters have passed us by on,” Thurlow continued. “And that’s guns, and gay rights, and abortion.”

Thurlow stands out among Republicans for his willingness to specify changes to produce a better “product.”

Thurlow not only backed a red-flag bill, allowing guns to be taken from dangerous people, but he says the 2nd Amendment needs to be modified, and Republicans should alter their views on gun control.

“Our party seems to say, ‘NO! We absolutely will not move an inch on that issue!'” Thurlow has said. “And as a result [in Colorado elections], we are getting worse and worse outcomes.”

RELATED: Why Can’t Republicans Win in Colorado? Bad Election Campaign Tactics? Or Bad on the Issues that Matter Most?

Thurlow is a leader of Friends for the Future, which aims to score more Republican victories by fielding GOP candidates who better reflect their districts.

Republicans won’t win more elections by just changing campaign tactics (direct mail, consultants, digital ads), he says.

“I think the strategy and tactics were fine [last year],” he said in a radio battle with KCOL guest host Karen Kataline recently. (Listen below.)

The problem is that Republicans have to start “modifying our core beliefs,” he says. And not just on gun laws, but other third-rail issues for Colorado Republicans.

He continues to think, for example, that Colorado’s TABOR amendment should be altered to allow government to collect more money when the economy is growing.

“We have starved [our government] now for 25 years,” he said. “And we should go back to the voters – which is exactly what TABOR calls for – do we want to starve it anymore. Or have we starved it enough, and should we allow it to grow with the Colorado economy?”

Thurlow’s colleagues at Friends for the Future have said they want to take the straight jacket off the Republican Party, issue-wise, to make candidates more appealing.

“Some groups want to exclude anyone who doesn’t agree with them 100 percent,” former State Rep. Polly Lawrence told Colorado Public Radio, “and I think that’s a losing strategy. I am more of a, ‘if you agree with me 80 percent of the time, then we should be working together for a common goal.”

Lawrence has emphasized that Republicans should even be flexible abortion.

But if you look up and down the Colorado Republican Party, from its leaders like Ken Buck to activists like Kataline, you don’t see much support for Lawrence. It trickles out, in the form of former lawmaker Josh Penry and Thurlow, but Trump seems to be the magnet pulls the GOP in Colorado these days–in pretty much the opposite direction Thurlow wants to go.

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24 thoughts on “Thurlow: Republican Party Needs to Modify Core Beliefs”

  1. Gawd(ess) I miss Rachel's wisdom: 

    For the sake of the gospel, drop the persecution complex 

    "When Christian leaders predict God’s impending judgment on the U.S. in the wake of the Supreme Court (gay marriage) decision, arguing “our country’s foundations are being destroyed,” it suggests that slavery, genocide, extreme gender inequity, and Jim Crow weren’t serious enough to warrant a response from God, but now that our gay neighbors can get marriage licenses, all hell is sure to break lose. This reveals a profound ignorance regarding the suffering of other minority groups, both historically and presently. When white conservative Christians obsess over their own perceived oppression, it becomes incredibly difficult to engage in important conversations about religious, racial, and gender privilege that are necessary for creating a more just society." 

      1. Moderatus/PodestaEmails seems to support a Republican party that is all for small government except when the issue is controlling what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms.

        There, M.P.E. follows the lead of the fundamentalist and dominionist Christians who jointly control today's party, with the gun lobby..

    2. I hope Thurlow's reading and takes your advice. On Bizarro World, they know it am good to have smaller tent, not bigger tent, when you is trying to win popular election!

    3. Poddy, like your fearless leader in D.C. who fired the pollsters who brought him bad news, you attack Thurlow because he tells you why you keep losing elections. You really are an idiot.

    4. She was only 37 when she died.  Talk about the good dying young.  Franklin Graham will live to be 145.

      If there were a few thousand more Christians like Rachel, I'd still be agnostic.  But I wouldn't feel nearly as self-righteous about it.

  3. The principal core value of the GOP nowadays is "Take the money." God, guns and gays are but means to an end, the end being the separation of dumbass racist stump jumpers from their public assistance checks.

  4. Although I always vote for the Democratic candidate over here in GJ (hopefully there will always be one) I was pleasantly surprised by Thurlow. I don't think you should be equating him with Josh Penry. Thurlow is a much  more honorable person.

    1. A fair point. Penry and Wittwer called for moderation back in 2012, in the piece I linked to. But i don't see Penry getting into specifics issue-wise on how the GOP should change. 

            1. RELATED: Why Can’t Republicans Win in Colorado? Bad Election Campaign Tactics? Or Bad on the Issues that Matter Most?

              Failed Soul Searchers of 2012

              After Republicans lost big in 2012, Republican political operatives Josh Penry and Rob Witwer got a lot of attention for a Denver Post opinion piece arguing that the Republican Party had “sullied its brand,” and unless that changes, the GOP is unlikely to win a competitive statewide race in Colorado for the foreseeable future.”

                1. Jason's point was that there are/were three Colorado Republicans calling for their party to search their soul.

                  Is yours that that has rendered them irrelevant?

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