The Caucus is the most basic form of Republican Representative government, and allows an easy avenue for all citizens to participate in choosing those who govern us, and to keep the processes and political parties accountable to the voters…
— from the Mesa County GOP website.
Let’s get one thing straight, right away. I’m 100% behind the democratic process, and that includes allowing complete fools to run for office and vote in elections. If we didn’t allow fools to participate, we’d have a serious shortage of elected officials. And voters.
And I’m 100% behind the party caucus process, which gives the average Joe and Jane their chance to help formulate their state’s party platform.
Like, for example, the process that recently took place in Mesa County. Mesa County is home to Grand Junction, Colorado’s only certified “Metropolitan Statistical Area” west of the Front Range. Mesa County is a lot like Archuleta County, except all the mountains had their tops removed, somehow. Hence the name, “Mesa County”. But you probably knew that already.
It’s also a county that’s been in the news lately, thanks to a never-ending controversy around County Clerk Tina M. Peters, who only wanted to keep the elections honest, but wound up in jail.
Then, to add insult to injury, she had her concealed-carry permit suspended. Undaunted, she’s now running for the GOP nomination for Colorado Secretary of State.
You can’t keep a good woman down.
Ms. Peters has the full support of many Republicans in Mesa County, and some of those same supporters participated in the party assembly last Saturday in Grand Junction. The activities at the assembly included an opportunity to vote on 46 proposed resolutions, some of which will be passed on to the state Republican Party assembly in Colorado Springs on Saturday, April 9.
Among the 46 proposed resolutions were a few that I probably would have voted for, if I lived in Grand Junction and were a Republican.
Like, for instance:
1. RESOLVED: The Republican Party supports the registration and regulation of journalism to protect against the Marxist agenda.
I have always thought the U.S. Constitution got things off on the wrong foot, when the First Amendment guaranteed the freedom of the press. What were they smoking? You would think the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 had no idea how dangerous newspapers are.
Why, in heaven’s name, do I need a license to be a barber… but not to be a journalist? No barber in his right mind would promote the Marxist agenda, but journalists do it every day. And twice on Sunday.
Just to be clear, I am not considered a ‘journalist’ by anyone I know. Except maybe by my mother. “My son Louis is a journalist in Colorado,” she tells people, and I don’t make a big deal out of asking her to stop. But the truth is, I just write a humor column, occasionally… and normally it has nothing to do with politics… and whenever it has to do with politics, I think everyone can see that I don’t mean a word I’m saying.
But once the Republicans put the regulations in place, and they start licensing authentic journalists, my mom is going to have to keep her mouth shut.
2. RESOLVED: The Republican Party supports protecting religious speech, and specifically, protecting it from being labeled ‘hate speech’.
This makes perfect sense to me. I’ve always thought a person should be able to say things like, “Love thy neighbor as thyself…” or “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…” without it being labeled ‘hate speech’.
When somebody says, “Workers of the world, unite”… now that’s hate speech.
13. RESOLVED: The Republican Party supports the abolition of Daylight Savings Time clock changes.
Who can argue with that one?
15. RESOLVED: The Republican Party supports making Ivermectin an over-the-counter (OTC) drug.
Or that one?
Unfortunately, the Mesa County GOP had not yet posted the ballot results on their website when I was writing this column on Thursday evening, so we’re all going to be sitting on pins and needles until we can find out how the voting went.
There was one resolution that I hope didn’t get approved.
46. RESOLVED: The Republican Party opposes socialist & communist policies and tyranny, and publicly denounces Democrats & the Democrat Party as communists.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m as opposed to socialism and communism and tyranny as the next guy. But I don’t like denouncing people, publicly or otherwise. I think it would be more friendly and congenial if the Republicans simply suggested — without being pushy or demanding — that the Democrats change the name of their party to “The American Communist Party”. It would make everything so much clearer, for everyone.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.