Mile-High Marxists: Will the Communists Conquer Colorado?

Members of the Democratic Socialists of America gather outside of a Trump owned building on May Day in New York on May 01, 2019. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Commentary

Colorado is suffering under socialism. This once proudly Republican Western state is getting bluer and bluer.

Not only does the state have a far-left governor in Jared Polis, but bona fide Marxists and communists are winning public office in the Denver area and competing statewide.

Denver has a small Communist Party USA club and some Maoist presence in the form of Liberation Road and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and even a small section of the pro-North Korea Party for Socialism and Liberation. But the real mover and shaker on the Mile-High left is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Despite its “moderate”-sounding name, the DSA is a bona fide communist organization that advocates for the abolition of all prisons, borders, and, through its Green New Deal, all significant private business and the U.S. military.

Colorado has had a tiny DSA presence in Boulder and Denver since the 1980s, but since the “Bernie revolution” in 2016 and the election of President Donald Trump, the small “c” communists have massively increased their number, activity, and influence.

Today, the DSA has a major local in Denver (about 300 members), a smaller branch in Boulder, plus active units in Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and La Plata County (Durango).

In March 2018, the Democratic Party of Denver officially explicitly adopted socialism into its platform:

“We believe the economy should be democratically owned and controlled in order to serve the needs of the many, not to make profits for the few.”

The move was organized by Denver DSAers who petitioned Denver County Democratic Assembly delegates to vote for an amendment to the official party platform.

The amendment passed with overwhelming support and is now part of the Democratic Party of Denver’s platform preamble.

According to the socialist journal In These Times:

“Denver DSA chair Kristofer Dubbels tells In These Times that there was initially some open opposition to the proposal, including a number of delegates who told him it ‘would never pass.’ When the vote came up, however, of the nearly 1,000 delegates present, roughly 90 percent raised their cards in approval.

“Earlier in the month, 15 members of Denver DSA were elected as delegates during the Democratic Party of Denver caucus, running on a pledge to bring new enthusiasm to the party and help spark more engagement from youth (nearly all of the newly elected delegates are under 30). They say they were surprised by how little resistance they faced, and how open the local party was to the empowering of a slate of socialists.” Not content with changing the Democratic Party from within, the DSA has also campaigned to elect several socialists to public office in the state.

One of Denver DSA’s first electoral forays was the unsuccessful attempt to elect socialist-feminist Julie Banuelos to the Denver school board in November 2017.

Success came in 2018 with the election of another DSA member, Julie Gonzalez, to the Colorado state senate on the Democratic ticket.

According to Denver DSA News in July 2018:

“Congratulations to our first state senator in Colorado! On June 26, Julie Gonzales and her team had a big win in the Democratic state primary for Senate District 34. Denver DSA is honored to have worked alongside Julie since endorsing her last year. Dozens of our members contributed by knocking doors, phone banking, creating a campaign ad, and more. Julie joined DSA shortly after her victory.”

The DSA also worked statewide on an unsuccessful campaign to elect left-wing Democrat Bernard Douthit as Colorado state treasurer.

Fort Collins DSA was fired up about Douthit’s campaign:

“Fort Collins Democratic Socialists of America are excited to announce our endorsement of Bernard Douthit for State Treasurer of Colorado. We believe public banking is an important issue worth fighting for and we look forward to helping Douthit’s campaign create a state bank for Colorado.”

The biggest shock to conservative Coloradans came in June 2019, when DSA member Candi CdeBaca won a nonpartisan seat on the Denver city council.

At a candidate forum on April 7, CdeBaca openly stated:

“I don’t believe that our current economic system actually works. Capitalism, by design, is extractive, and in order to generate profit in a capitalist system, something has to be exploited. ... I believe in community ownership of land, labor, resources, and distribution of those resources. And so, whatever that morphs into, I think is what will serve community the best, and I’m excited to usher it in by any means necessary.”

And it doesn’t end there.

For the 2020 election cycle, Denver DSA is working on a second shot to elect Banuelos to the Denver school board and to elect another comrade, disability rights advocate Radhika Nath, to serve beside her. DSA member Nath supports the “flip the board” movement, which aims to move the school board, currently serving 88,000 students, way to the left.

In the City of Aurora, which adjoins Denver, DSA member Juan Marcano, an activist with Aurora Residents for Transparency and Transformation and Colorado People’s Action, is running for city council.

To the north, Boulder DSA is endorsing housing advocate Junie Joseph for a seat on the city council. According to Boulder DSA:

“Junie stands in solidarity with our unhoused friends and neighbors and will fight to expand housing and shelter services, to provide year round walk-up emergency shelter, and provide EcoPasses to all Boulder residents experiencing homelessness.”

This is hardly radical by Boulder standards, so Joseph with a few dozen DSA door-knockers may have a real shot at the seat.

The DSA may also support far-left Boulder-based congressman Joe Neguse in 2020—though he probably won’t need too much help.

Denver DSAers also will likely support far-left Colorado state Rep. Crisanta Duran in her primary race against not quite so far-left U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the Denver-centered Congressional District 1 next year.

Almost certainly the DSA will back left-winger Andrew Romanoff in the very crowded Democratic Senate primary next year. Even if former Colorado Governor and short-lived U.S. presidential candidate John Hickenlooper wins the Democratic primary, the DSA will probably hold their noses and quietly campaign for him.

The almost as moderate Republican incumbent Cory Gardner in the most likely Democratic Senate pick-up of the 2020 cycle, and the DSA will probably find him a very tempting target.

I first toured Colorado in 2012. I’ve spent a lot of time in that majestic state and I have many good friends there. If I’d told my Colorado Republican and Tea Party friends back in 2012 that, in a few years, bona fide communists and Marxists would soon be winning public office in their state, most of them would have laughed. They’re not laughing now.

I know that if properly mobilized, there are still more than enough patriots left in Colorado to take the state back. If enough ex-Republicans, independents, moderate Democrats, and Libertarians realize the gravity of the Marxist threat Colorado faces, they could easily mobilize the numbers to defeat the hard left.

That has to happen and happen soon: 2020 may well be Colorado’s last chance to avoid becoming California in the Rockies.

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.