Colorado Governor Jared Polis in recent days has been pushing for a taxpayer-funded boondoggle, a “pedestrian bridge” between the state capitol and a downtown park that could cost more than 28 million dollars. That kind of money is still a lot for a state with a population of fewer than six million people.
What’s worse, the local media and the public have generally panned the idea since the most common reaction to renderings of the bridge is revulsion at how ugly and unnecessary it is. Moreover, Governor Polis can’t seem to offer an explanation as to why the bridge is necessary. One local new affiliate suggested that seemly no one supports the project except the governor and some of his wealthy donors. The implication, of course, is that Polis’s friends will benefit directly from the taxpayer dollars that will be spent to construct what most normal people regard as an eyesore.
I bring this up because it is just the latest illustration of what is business as usual for Jared Polis, a savvy politician who is skilled at rewarding his political allies, but has little disregard for the property and freedom of his constituents.
Most readers, of course, will hardly be surprised to learn that a Democrat governor is not exactly fighting the good fight for fiscal or political restraint.
On the other hand, it is important to remind the readers of Polis’s real record because Polis has also tried to cultivate an image as some kind of libertarian. Few in Colorado have been fooled by this ruse, but certain naive libertarian activists have fallen for it.
Reason Magazine‘s head editor Nick Gillespie, for example, has spent years trying to sell Jared Polis as America’s “most libertarian governor.”
It’s difficult to see how anyone who actually values private property and free markets could come to this conclustion. The absurdity of the claim, in fact, has been demonstrated in detail by Ari Armstrong in a 2022 document called “The Tax-and-Regulate Reality behind Governor Polis’s Libertarian Image.”
Armstrong shows how, under Polis, government regulations on businesses have multiplied with new Polis-supported laws requiring new mandates for unpaid leave, new taxes, new subsidies, and new wage controls. Polis’s tenure has been a disaster for gun rights. One of Polis’s schemes has also been to support “local control” that only allows for local prerogatives when they mean more regulation and government control than the state-mandated minimums. Local control is not allowed, on the other hand, if it would lead to less government regulation.
Under Polis, Colorado has become a place far less hospitable to opening and running a business. Polis also, of course, implemented California-like covid lockdowns, mask mandates, and other restrictions. Those business that did not comply were forcibly shut down by armed agents of the state, with Polis’s blessing.
Yet, libertarians like Gillespie have been dewy-eyed cheerleaders for Polis. Why? Well, in a 2022 article, Gillespie essentially says that Polis is the nation’s “most libertarian” governor because of things that Polis said. Polis for example, has occasionally made some remarks saying the income tax should be lower. Polis’s actual policies, of course, do nothing to reduce the net overall tax burden.
In fact, the tax-and-regulation burden in Colorado was increasing while Gillespie was gaslighting his readers on Polis’s record. Gillespie even praises Polis for his covid lockdowns and covid mandates saying, apparently crediting Colorado’s relatively low covid death total—which can easily be explained by the fact Colorado is consistently one of the healthiest states in the Union overall—to Polis’s covid mandates.
When it comes to decentralization, Gillespie only praises it selectively in a manner similar to Polis. That is, Gillespie says it’s good that Polis eventually backed off on his dictatorial health mandates and allowed local governments to decide on mask mandates. (Polis only allowed this after a period of centralized mandatory mask mandates throughout much of 2020.)
Of course, on things Gillespie likes, decentralization is a bad thing. Thus, Gillespie praises Polis for a statewide mandate that allows no local control on abortion. Under Polis’s leadership, no city or county is allowed to regulate or curtail abortion in any way under Polis’s mandate. Gillespie cheers this.
In fact, it seems the main motivating factor behind Gillespie’s declaration of Polis’s libertarian status was the fact that Polis is vehemently pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage.
This is understandable when we consider that Gillespie is an elderly baby boomer still clinging to a 1970s version of libertarianism. In that way of thinking, social policy is what really defines one as a libertarian. Thus, Jared Polis could spend years imposing lockdowns, shredding gun rights, and slamming businesses with new regulations. But, Polis likes abortion and gay marriage, so that makes him the most libertarian governor in America.
