Democrats across America have used the talking point “destroying democracy” to describe anything they don’t like.
It’s Donald Trump. It’s identification for voting. It’s secured ballot counts.
Now, apparently, it’s majority Democrats.
That’s because a report at Complete Colorado explains how majority Democrats in the state are trying to banish citizen comment from the state’s “democracy.” Democrats hold the majority in both the House and Senate in Colorado, as well as the governor’s office.
This is the state where all Democrats on the state Supreme Court tried to ban President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. This is the state that has gone to the Supreme Court, twice, in its attempts to dictate the thoughts and censor the statements of business owners.
And lost twice.
Now the Complete Colorado article confirms, “A new Democrat-backed bill moving rapidly through the Colorado legislature poses a serious threat to one of the most fundamental rights in our state Constitution: the right of citizens to initiate laws through the petition process.”
This comes at a time when lawmakers also are attacking the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a constitutional amendment from decades back that requires voter approval for tax increases beyond the growth of the population and inflation.
It’s already been undermined by state lawmakers who repeatedly have claimed that their new taxes actually are not taxes but “fees.”
For example, there are road and bridge “fees” that apply only to Colorado registered vehicles, whose owners must pay to use roads and bridges. Of course, travelers using the same roads and bridges pay no such “fees.”
Leftist courts in the state have agreed that those taxes, in fact, are “fees.”
The reported noted the legislation already has passed the House and a Senate committee.
It would “significantly restrict the ability of Coloradans to bring citizen initiatives forward. Among other provisions, it shortens an already tight timeline for title-setting, imposes new procedural hurdles, and adds new fines of up to $1,500 on petition organizers for non-compliance with reporting requirements,” the report said.
“What makes this particularly alarming is the inclusion of the ‘safety clause’ — legislative language that declares the bill is necessary for the immediate preservation of public peace, health, or safety. The practical effect? Voters are prohibited from filing a referendum to challenge the law at the ballot box. It’s an ironic — and telling — twist that a bill restricting petition rights also blocks any citizen-led challenge of its own passage.”
The report noted both Republicans and Democrats previously have used the initiative process.
The moves in Colorado, the report warned, “reflect a troubling trend: elected officials using their power not to expand democratic engagement, but to restrict it. Colorado voters have repeatedly voiced support for transparency, fiscal limits, and the right to challenge government action through the initiative process. Yet here we are again — with those same rights back on the chopping block.”
