Polis takes every opportunity to hurt rural Coloradans
As someone who spent my teenage years growing up in rural Colorado, I understand that Jared Polis’ disregard for non-metro areas isn’t just wrong and offensive – it’s destructive.
Ask county commissioners from the Eastern Plains and they’ll tell you when Gov. Polis comes to their county, they don’t even get notified until the night before. He’s not interested in meeting with rural leaders; he just wants a photo op.
When the state’s top executive can’t be bothered to have a real conversation with the local leaders who understand real, on-theground needs, it’s no wonder that Colorado’s energy and agriculture industries are hurting.
Rural Colorado dads trying to provide for their families are having to take jobs that pay them $5,000 to $10,000 less just so they can save on gas. Farmers and ranchers are paying triple the cost of fertilizer. Diesel prices are astronomical, and generational family farms are at risk of shutting down if they can’t make it through the year.
Nebraska is threatening to take Colorado water, and Jared Polis laughs it off – I’ve personally stood by and listened to him laugh about it. He doesn’t take rural concerns seriously. To him, it’s one big joke.
If he’s not laughing, Jared
Polis is silent. When his appointee to the State Board of Veterinary Medicine resigned after the Colorado Republican Party condemned her for calling ranchers “lazy and nasty,” Polis said nothing. No apology – even though Ellen Kessler had been known for years for making terrible comments about kids’ 4-H programs – a view Polis was well aware of when he appointed her. When his husband called rural Coloradans “incessant whiners” who should “stop biting the hand that feeds them,” Polis, once again, was silent.
We all remember how the Governor’s Meat Out Day caused him to suffer an embarrassing backlash. Colorado likes our beef! In his latest demonstration of disregard for agricultural communities, Polis posted on Twitter: “We appreciate our ranchers and you can find Colorado beef, our number one export, at coloradoproud.com.” He included a photo of a cow licking its nose, complete with the Colorado state symbol, his name, and a bell around the cow’s neck. Turns out the cow wasn’t “Colorado beef” at all. It was a stock photo of a European cow from the Alps in Bavaria.
Rural Colorado understands it better than most: Jared Polis is an out of touch elitist who sits in his $5 million condo in Boulder while Colorado has a housing crisis. He refuses to repeal the gas tax he signed into law that’s crushing working families, and he approved 85 new taxes and fees in his first three years while he’s found loopholes to get out of paying his own taxes. He’s been sitting in Boulder, refusing to debate in rural Colorado, telling us what choices we can’t make anymore, informing us that he can run our lives and choose our jobs better than we can. He’s been sitting there destroying Colorado energy and disregarding rural Colorado, plotting how to buy his seat in November.
We can’t let him do it.