Blue by You

We’re watching as too many red states get redder, veer towards White Christian nationalism and autocracy, believing that somehow these “values” reflect both US Constitutional correctness and New Testament doctrine. They reflect neither. The Constitution is filled with basic rights that protect individual freedoms, as long as they do not crush the rights of others. The 13th, 14th, 15th and 24th Amendments are obsessed with expanding and protecting the right of every citizen to vote. It is clear that the thrust of the entire Constitution, as amended, is all about inclusion, making sure every legitimate American voice counts. Likewise, the New Testament admonishes us not to sit in judgment of others, to turn the other cheek, love those around us and treat others with honor and dignity.

But these embedded values are now labeled “woke,” a term that conceals White supremacy to some, and where even the most academic/judicial definition is addressed – activism against social injustice – “woke” seems like a most positive value. “Republican presidential hopefuls are vowing to wage a war on ‘woke,’ but a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the word as a positive attribute, not a negative one… Fifty-six percent of those surveyed say the term means ‘to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.’ That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans… Overall, 39% say instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, ‘to be overly politically correct and police others' words.’ That's the view of 56% of Republicans.” USA Today, March 8th. Kindness, inclusion, diversity and tolerance are bad? Huh? Your pastor said what?

We are watching a massive political realignment across the United States. For example, once a bastion of progressive values in a conservative Midwest, Iowa is swinging redder by the day: “Republicans in the Iowa legislature, empowered by the state’s recent “red wave,” have embarked on an ambitious new agenda that includes a costly school choice bill and legislation targeting the LGBTQ community, a historic divergence from Iowa’s history as a civil rights bastion.

“Even as teens draped in rainbow flags crowded into the Capitol rotunda chanting ‘We say gay’ on March 8, Iowa lawmakers quickly passed three bills related to gay and transgender rights, culminating with a measure to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth that is awaiting Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’s signature…

“‘This isn’t the Iowa I know,’ said Lee Schott, pastor of Valley United Methodist Church in West Des Moines, who called herself ‘progressive’ politically. She was standing outside the House chamber on a recent weekday, hoping to lobby Republican legislators against the transgender bills — and not having much luck.” Washington Post, March 20th. Playing the Florida Governor DeSantis’ line: Stop Woke and Don’t Say Gay. Wyoming, the first state to accord voting rights to women, has crushed any mention of LGBTQ+ or gender treatment and limited athletic competition is state schools to the gender determined at birth.

But you do not see that red tide rising in some of the most unexpected states, from Georgia and increasingly in the once-very-conservative Western United States. This exclusionary, judgmental negativity that has redefined the Republican Party, what many simply call the MAGA GOP, isn’t finding traction in what was once gun-totin’ cowboy country, the old Wild West. As reported by Mark Z. Barabak for the March 21st Los Angeles Times: “In the last two decades, the Republican ranks in Colorado have shrunk drastically, to just a quarter of registered voters, as the once reliably red state has turned a distinct shade of blue.

“The transformation is part of a larger political shift across the West: along the Pacific Coast, through the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, into the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado and New Mexico. Once a Republican bulwark, the region has become Democratic bedrock. That, in turn, has reshaped presidential politics nationwide.

“With a big chunk of the West — California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington — seemingly locked up, Democrats are free to focus more heavily on the perennial battlegrounds of the Midwest and venture into once-solidly Republican states such as Georgia… The changes didn’t just happen, like the snow embroidering the Rockies in winter, or the runoff that swells Colorado’s icy rivers in the spring. It took money, strategy, demographic changes and, not least, a sharp rightward turn by Republicans.

“The series, called ‘The New West,’ begins in Colorado, as no state in the region has changed its partisan coloration as emphatically over the last two decades. ‘From a Western swing state, it has become a Democratic stronghold,’ said pollster Floyd Ciruli, who’s sampled public opinion in Colorado for more than 40 years.

“In 2004, Democrats essentially gave up and wrote the place off; they’ve carried Colorado in every presidential contest since. In 2020, Joe Biden romped to a 13-point win over President Trump, the largest Democratic victory here in more than half a century.” Indeed, whether because Republicans seemed to have turned against people of color – including first Americans – or dumbed down their non-tax-avoiding-constituency, as tech corridors have exploded in Western States (read: educated classed move in and moving up), there’s not much in current GOP policies that improves life for most of us. Lots of negative stuff. Very little in the way of a better life, unless you are rich.

With increasing urbanization, Colorado is not the state where barely educated MAGA GOP goddess, Trump-worshipping Lauren Boebert (she finally did a GED diploma) holds sway over a vast tract of southern and western Colorado land (the massive third House district). Her primarily rural district has none of Colorado’s major urban areas. But her loud tone and willingness to push and shove to get headlines, suggests to many that she is the voice of Colorado. She sure isn’t! She won her House seat 50.1% vs her Democratic opponent’s 49.9%. And the story of Colorado’s move to the blue light district just may be the story of the future of America. You have to wonder why Republicans love to cut education budgets and fiercely control what is taught in the classrooms. It couldn’t be that the GOP has decreasing traction as educational levels rise, could it?

I’m Peter Dekom, and watching these demographic shifts does offer some hope that, perhaps, the United States just might prefer “democracy” to what substitutes for “patriotism” but is in reality autocratic demagoguery.