Colorado Is Following California Down the Path of Progressive Excess, Especially on Religious and Speech Liberties
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Crazy Colorado | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." October 19, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author says Colorado is turning into another California: it has become reliably Democratic and keeps passing laws that push LGBTQ rights at the expense of Christians' religious and speech freedoms. He points to the Supreme Court repeatedly overturning those efforts as proof the state has gone too far.
Conclusion
Colorado is becoming a 'crazy' state in the mold of California: it has moved from red to solidly blue and is pursuing progressive policies, especially on LGBTQ issues, that repeatedly violate constitutional liberties.
Premises
- Colorado has shifted from reliably red to stubbornly blue, with Democrats controlling the governorship, both U.S. Senate seats, the attorney general, the secretary of state, and both legislative chambers, driven by marijuana culture, an influx of Californians, and a leftward-skewing younger population
- Colorado has shown hostility to Donald Trump, including attempting to remove him from the 2024 ballot (struck down by the Supreme Court) and the controversy over his state Capitol portrait
- Colorado's sanctuary-city policies and the Aurora Tren de Aragua incident made it a focal point of immigration problems, which the Left allegedly ignored or downplayed
- Colorado has repeatedly tried to subordinate Christians' religious and speech liberties to LGBTQ rights, as in the Masterpiece Cakeshop cases and the Lorie Smith web designer case, and has lost at the Supreme Court
- Colorado's Kelly Loving Act and its conversion-therapy ban compel or restrict speech, and the Supreme Court struck down the ban 8–1
- Colorado's exclusion of Catholic preschools from state funding over enrollment preferences is inconsistent, since the program allows other schools to prefer enrollment by race, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and similar exclusions have lost at the Court
Assumptions
- Moving left politically is equivalent to becoming 'crazy' or 'wacky' like California
- Repeated Supreme Court losses show the state is acting with extreme or crazed intent, rather than testing contested legal questions in good faith
- Religious liberty and free-speech claims should generally prevail over anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people
- Colorado's problems, including immigration, are attributable to Democratic governance rather than to broader factors
- Anecdotal incidents are representative of the state's overall direction
- Marijuana legalization and cultural 'weirdness' are signs of decline rather than neutral policy choices