{"id":1697678,"date":"2022-10-17T06:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1697678"},"modified":"2022-10-17T07:21:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T11:21:29","slug":"rob-natelson-the-progressive-democrat-who-pretends-hes-a-libertarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rob-natelson-the-progressive-democrat-who-pretends-hes-a-libertarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob Natelson: The \u201cProgressive\u201d Democrat Who Pretends He\u2019s a Libertarian"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frob-natelson-the-progressive-democrat-who-pretends-hes-a-libertarian%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1697678&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>I\u2019ve seen it before: A state governor wants to get national notice, so he starts a nationwide public relations campaign. If he is a liberal, his performance usually isn\u2019t much to brag about, since \u201cprogressive\u201d policies have a way of gumming things up. So the campaign re-packages the governor as something he isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Now Colorado\u2019s first-term liberal Democrat governor, Jared Polis, is playing that game. His national rebranding is as a \u201clibertarian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some conservative and libertarian <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/podcast\/2022\/04\/25\/jared-polis-the-most-libertarian-governor-in-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">national editors<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/09\/14\/democrat-jared-polis-presidential-potential-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">columnists<\/a> have fallen for it. If they had researched the record, they would have learned that, as one of my Independence Institute colleagues <a href=\"https:\/\/i2i.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Armstrong-Polis.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">concluded<\/a> in a recent study, \u201cMore government control over people\u2019s lives has been the dominant theme of Polis\u2019s administration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Colorado\u2019s Decline<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, I returned to Colorado after 24 years in Montana. Colorado used to be a great place to live\u2014partly because of the physical environment, but also because it was one of America\u2019s most liberty-minded states.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, though, the state has been on a downward slide. Since Polis was elected governor in 2018, the rate of descent has accelerated.<\/p>\n<p>Every time I drive to my office in central Denver, I see this once-beautiful city afflicted with vandalism, beggars, homeless encampments, and drugs. Colorado now <a href=\"https:\/\/i2i.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CSI_CO_REPORT_CAR-THEFT_FINAL-2.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">leads<\/a> the nation in automobile thefts, and statewide statistics show a spike in violent crime as well (<a href=\"https:\/\/i2i.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/co-crime-pdf.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>: 2022 statistics are only partial).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As one who regularly travels by automobile throughout the West, I can testify that Colorado\u2019s neglected roads are the worst in the region.<\/p>\n<p><strong>State COVID-19 Lockdowns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some writers give Polis credit for imposing COVID-19 mandates that were less harsh than those imposed by other Democrat governors. In fact, Polis\u2019s lockdown orders were atrocious. In an <a href=\"https:\/\/i2i.org\/latest-covid-orders-layer-chaos-over-confusion-add-to-risk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 30, 2020 op-ed<\/a>, I summarized the situation:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the last 50 days Coloradans have been pelted with 42 new or amended state Coronavirus executive orders. . . . [T]hey cumulatively regulate almost every aspect of your life. If you violate one, you face a fine of up to $1000 and jail time up to a year. Multiple violations could mean multiple penalties. . . . If a state decree permits what a county decree prohibits, the county one controls. If the county order permits what a state order prohibits, then the state order controls. You must follow whichever rule most restricts your freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These orders were poorly drafted and often nonsensical. One limited \u201csocial interactions\u201d in a way that seemed to ban even Zoom calls and in-person conversations with your spouse.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Polis\u2019s orders, like those of some other governors, discriminated among businesses in transparently political ways: Marijuana stores, mostly owned by lefties, were allowed to stay open, while more conservative businesses were forced to close.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the orders were flatly unconstitutional. For example, one purported to ban out-of-staters from traveling through Colorado unless they were returning home. Another tried to block Coloradans and out-of-staters from transporting most goods across the state.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/how-covid-lockdowns-destroy-small-businesses-and-aggravate-income-inequality_4125633.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one study<\/a>, Polis\u2019s lockdowns destroyed <em>43 percent of all Colorado small businesses<\/em>. Aside from the economic damage, the cost<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve seen it before: A state governor wants to get national notice, so he starts a nationwide public relations campaign. If he is a liberal, his performance usually isn\u2019t much to brag about, since \u201cprogressive\u201d policies have a way of gumming things up. So the campaign re-packages the governor as something he isn\u2019t. Now Colorado\u2019s &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1697680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1697678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1697678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1697680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1697678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1697678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1697678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}