Caldara’s advocacy for Stapleton crude and wrong

Re: “I left the Republican Party; now I want Dems to take over,” and “Walker Stapleton could win,” July 8 commentaries

One of the reasons Max Boot gave for leaving the Republican Party was that Donald Trump’s presidency has contributed to “the debasement of political discourse” in the United States. Ironically, in the same July 8 Perspective Jon Caldara’s column on this year’s race for governor demonstrated how Trump’s habit of demonizing opponents spreads in our political culture. In recounting recent Colorado political history, Caldara wrote that Cory Gardner defeated Mark “Uterus” to replace him in U.S. Senate. Perhaps, Caldara can explain what he meant and how it contributes to the political dialogue in Colorado. Dolph Grundman, Arvada

Jon Caldara advocates for Walker Stapleton because Colorado might otherwise become “New California.” According to Mr. Caldara, Jared Polis is a “progressive elitist” who would “crush working people with new taxes and regulations” and, hence, he “belongs in San Francisco.”

California is not a perfect model. Most notably, California has an acute shortage of affordable housing and severe homelessness in its urban centers.

The reality is that there is no perfect model. All states have issues. The question is which is the better, albeit imperfect, model? Unlike California, Texas is a deep-red state with no income taxes and few regulations. Would “New Texas” be a better model for Colorado working people?

Statistics from the Federal Reserve suggest otherwise. California has a minimum wage of $11, average hourly earnings of $30.60 and a median household income of $66,637. In Texas, these figures are $7.25, $25.58 and $58,146.

The higher wages (and taxes and regulations) of California have not “killed jobs” as conservatives often argue. The unemployment rate in California is 4.2 percent, only slightly higher than the Texas unemployment rate of 4.1 percent.

Instead, with higher incomes, a smaller percentage of Californians (11 percent) receive food stamps than Texans (13.4 percent).

Access to high-quality, public universities is critical for the upward mobility of the working class. U.S. News & World Report ranks six California state universities in the top 50 of U.S. universities. These six state universities enroll more than 100,000 undergraduates. By contrast, no Texas state university makes the list.

These statistics (among others) demonstrate that working people in Colorado would benefit more from the progressive policies adopted by California than from the conservative policies adopted by Texas. Fabrice Georis, Denver