Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Commentary

Commentary Questions Whether Colorado Leaders Mirror The Power They Protest
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Commentary Questions Whether Colorado Leaders Mirror The Power They Protest

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Complete Colorado Though most of us celebrate “No Kings Day” on July 4, the Trump-deranged got a head start last weekend with rallies around the state. Attendees bravely fought oppression by blocking traffic for people with jobs. Rally-goers demanded freedom from tyranny, many right after voting to ban all but beige house paint at their HOA meetings. After pausing briefly to DoorDash something gluten-free, they returned to the barricades to secure democracy in Colorado for one more day. They risked everything, except mild discomfort, to call the guy who won both the popular vote and the electoral vote a tyrant. Yes, I’m having fun at their expense. And yes, they have a point. When you build a country on principles instead of a per...
Colorado Budget Shortfall Sparks Questions Over Spending Priorities
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Budget Shortfall Sparks Questions Over Spending Priorities

By Rep. Scott Bottoms | Commentary, Complete Colorado The Colorado House of Representatives recently received the unwelcome news that the state faces a $1.5 billion shortfall as they craft the state’s budget for fiscal year 2026-27. This troubling development comes on top of last year’s $750 million deficit. The shortfalls are odd because overall government spending has increased dramatically: since 2019 (the year Democrats took over the House, Senate, and governor’s office), Colorado’s population has increased by 4.4%, while at the same time, the state’s annual budget has increased by 43.6% (roughly 10 times the rate of population growth). Think about that. Fiscal malpractice In the midst of these fiscal straits, you’d think legislators...
Wyoming Positions Itself As Energy Leader For The Mountain West Colorado Pushes Risky Bet
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Wyoming Positions Itself As Energy Leader For The Mountain West Colorado Pushes Risky Bet

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Complete Colorado Years ago, I interviewed a Canadian health-care broker whose job was helping his countrymen escape their own failing system. When their “free” health care turned into “free to wait until you die,” he’d save his clients by routing them to doctors in the U.S. who’d accept cash and rescue their lives. I asked him what advice he had for Americans. His answer terrified me. “I hope the U.S. won’t do what we’ve done with health care,” he said. I thought his reasoning was that he didn’t want to see Americans suffer and die because of medical socialism. But that wasn’t it. He said, “Because if you do, we’ll have nowhere to escape to.” That stuck with me. We are Canada’s health care lifeboat. Every bad sy...
Planned Outages And Policy Goals Fuel Concerns About Colorado Energy Future
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Planned Outages And Policy Goals Fuel Concerns About Colorado Energy Future

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Complete Colorado I’ve lived in Colorado since 1970. And you know what Colorado had back in 1970? High winds blowing down the Front Range. I moved to Boulder in 1984 and have been there ever since. And you know what Boulder has had all that time? A freakin’ lot of high winds. I remember as a college kid walking around the CU campus after windstorms, stepping around uprooted trees and massive broken branches that made the sidewalks impassable. I’ve seen rooftop shingles go flying off Boulder buildings, signs ripped down, and semi-trucks overturned. All of which is to say that for the last 55 years I have personally witnessed a crap-ton of high winds in our mountain state. But only in the last few months have I witnessed our ...
Trump Strike On Iran Exposes Deep Divide Inside Foreign Policy Establishment
The American Mind, Approved, Commentary, National

Trump Strike On Iran Exposes Deep Divide Inside Foreign Policy Establishment

By Jennica Pounds | Commentary, The American Mind Operation Epic Fury and the collapse of the multilateral myth. t first glance, it seems that the Western establishment should welcome Operation Epic Fury. As Joshua Lisec and I document in our upcoming book, Unelected, the entire post-World War II order has been built on the premise that global security depends on the spread of democracy (or the downfall of tyrants at the very least). As United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a 2001 speech, there is “a need for more democracy on the global level, which is what the United Nations has been about from the very beginning.” The global order is no fan of Iran. Atlantic writer and former National Endowment for Democracy board member Anne Appl...
Colorado Joins Other Blue States On California’s Risky Fiscal Road
New York Post, Approved, Commentary, National

Colorado Joins Other Blue States On California’s Risky Fiscal Road

By John Mac Ghlionn | Commentary, New York Post Colorado used to be the West’s answer to California — all the mountains, none of the madness. Pro-growth, lightly regulated, and magnetically attractive to the kind of ambitious people California was slowly driving out. That equilibrium is gone. The strivers arrived from the Golden State, shifted the politics leftward, and brought the policy preferences that made them leave in the first place. The results are arriving on schedule. Population growth has slowed. The labor force has contracted. Denver now trails Midwestern peers in economic momentum. Housing costs have climbed to coastal absurdity, with typical homes demanding more than six times median income. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NEW YORK POST...
Colorado Regulatory Climate Draws Scrutiny After Palantir Relocates Headquarters to Florida
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Regulatory Climate Draws Scrutiny After Palantir Relocates Headquarters to Florida

By Vanessa Rutledge | Commentary, Complete Colorado The technology company Palantir recently announced it is relocating its headquarters from Denver to Miami. This is not a minor startup leaving quietly. Palantir is the largest public company headquartered in Colorado when measured by market capitalization. It is one of the most prominent and profitable artificial intelligence companies in the country. In explaining its reasoning, Palantir made no bones about what prompted the move. In its 2025 10-K filing, the company stated: “In addition, Colorado has passed a Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence bill introducing state-level oversight of ‘high-risk’ AI systems, which mirrors language and several provisions appearing in the EU AIA.” That is a dir...
Parents Are Losing Authority and Washington Must Act
Daily Citizen, Approved, Commentary, National

Parents Are Losing Authority and Washington Must Act

By Emily Washburn | Commentary, Daily Citizen Erin Friday champions parental rights at the highest levels of government. The attorney and mother spent last week on Capitol Hill, rallying to keep boys out of girls sports and urging members of congress to protect parents who do not affirm their children’s sexual identity confusion. Earlier this month, Friday met with the White House Domestic Policy Council to propose an executive order she’d written to prevent family courts and child placement organizations from discriminating against parents who affirm their children’s sex. Friday’s passionate defense of parents began in 2020, when her 13-year-old daughter declared herself “transgender.” “Her school secretly socially transitioned her wh...
From Obstruction to Oppression: How the Media Rewrites ICE Enforcement
The Federalist, Approved, Commentary, National

From Obstruction to Oppression: How the Media Rewrites ICE Enforcement

By: M.D. Kittle | Commentary, The Federalist Corporate media outlets have covered the Minneapolis ICE story like they’ve covered much of Homeland Security’s efforts to secure the homeland: dishonestly. Aliya Rahman says she feels “lucky to be alive,” that the days since federal law enforcement officials dragged her out of her car have been “traumatizing and overwhelming.”  Corporate media outlets will tell you that, too. All of them. The same story, the same narrative. The “disabled woman” was just trying to get to her doctor’s appointment, they report, pushing the left’s message that Rahman is another victim of President Donald Trump’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents and their roundup of poor “undocumented” immigrants. What they wo...
Poll Shows Coloradans Want the Center, But Democrats Focused on Progressive Agenda
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State, Uncategorized

Poll Shows Coloradans Want the Center, But Democrats Focused on Progressive Agenda

By Mark Hillman | Complete Colorado The Colorado General Assembly returns for its annual 120-day session on Jan. 14, evoking a four-month visceral cringe from Coloradans who dread the next round of legislative fiats certain to be imposed upon us. Coloradans are in a restless mood lately.  It’s no secret a majority of Colorado voters has little affection for President Trump, but they’re not exactly cheerleaders for Democrats either. A December poll by Keating Research, which often works with Democrat clients, found disapproval of the Colorado Democratic Party at 55% – only slightly better than the 58% disapproval of Colorado Republicans. A majority said Colorado is headed in the wrong direction and expressed little confidence in the state legislature, w...