Rosen: Progressives not as ‘Elite’ as They Like to Think

By Mike Rosen, Complete Colorado Page 2

Progressivism as a social and political movement in the United States has its roots in the late 19th century, temporarily winning the presidency with the election of President Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Progressives rejected conservative constitutionalism which imposed limits on government to safeguard individual liberty and the creative spirit and efficiency of a private enterprise market economy. Instead, progressives shifted to their vision of social justice and unlimited government.

Wilson sought to create an “administrative state” with power centralized in the federal government to suit the superior wisdom of unelected bureaucrats. Of the same mindset was Beatrice Webb, a British social justice activist and intellectual, instrumental in the founding of the socialist Fabian Society in England. Webb envisioned a British government administered by “an elite of unassuming bureaucrats.” (An oxymoron [contradiction in terms] if ever there was one.) As Winston Churchill once noted, “After a time, civil servants tend to become no longer servants and no longer civil.”

True elites are those whose talent, objectively, is at the very top of their field. Arnold Palmer was an elite golfer; Albert Einstein, an elite physicist; Michelangelo, an elite artist. “Elitists,” on the other hand, are those who simply imagine themselves to be elite and want to subordinate others to their will. When it advances their political agenda, progressives are unabashedly elitist. They profess to be the champions of the common people but don’t trust them to make the right decisions. As inveterate busybodies and nannyists, they presume to protect us from ourselves through government mandates and regulations on everything from what we eat, to how we travel, to where we live, to what we say, all decided by liberal elitists who know what’s best for us.

If I need open-heart surgery, I certainly want to be operated on by an elite surgeon. And I believe in meritocracy. Individual excellence deserves to be suitably rewarded and doing so breeds more of it in others. This is economic justice based on skills, effort, and performance. The progressive notion of “social justice” is based not on merit but on Karl Marx’s socialist maxim, “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.” With that mentality, progressives wield the heavy hand of government to penalize those who have earned elite status while rewarding mediocrity, sloth, and failure. We already do more than enough redistribution of income to the needy with progressive tax rates and a cornucopia of government spending programs.

Pompous progressives declare they want only the “best and brightest” in government to “run our country.” Obviously, individual judgment varies widely about who are the best and brightest. But I don’t want anyone, much less government or politicians, to “run our country.” That’s a statist view, and the state is not the whole of society. Government is only one piece of our society, along with our economy, culture, and religious freedom; that last piece specifically separated by the Constitution from government control. It’s the height of pretentious progressive elitism to believe that any group of bureaucrats or politicians is smart enough to run our intricate market economy. The Soviet Union tried that and failed miserably.

I’m not an anarchist. I recognize the need for government, as long as it’s limited government. Our society should mostly run itself within a reasonable body of laws, living with the risk that some people will make poor choices. That’s the nature of a free society. It was William F. Buckley Jr. who once stated he’d rather be governed by the first 400 people in the Boston telephone book than by the (best and brightest) faculty of Harvard.

Sometime before the Obama presidency, leftist Democrats and their media echo chamber ditched their traditional “liberal” label which had tarnished in the general public eye. Symbolic of the party’s leftward lurch, they magically translabled into neo “progressives.” Radical leftist outliers like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren suddenly became the Democrat mainstream with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a squad of even crazier lefties taking their place on the lunatic fringe. President Biden’s handlers have embraced their ideology and advanced this progressive agenda. Sadly, so has Denver and Colorado state government, to our detriment.

How could this happen? Well, a hundred years ago, Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italy’s Communist party, differed from his fellow comrades declaring socialism would come to pass without the need for violent revolution. “In the new order,” he prophesied that, “socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.” Looks like he was right. I hope it’s not too late for enough American voters to come to their senses.

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for CompleteColorado.com.

Caldara: Remembering A More Tolerant Colorado

by Jon Caldara: President, Independence Institute

I’m honored to abuse this space to opine on the political downfall of the once liberty-loving state of Colorado. But the state has lost something more than personal and economic freedom, though it’s harder to put a precise measurement to it.

We have lost being, well, being nice. I miss Coloradans being pleasant, helpful and joking around with each other, particularly with strangers.

Coloradans used to be light, pleasant, enjoyable. In a different age one might use the word “gay.”

Coloradans have become rude, judgmental and tribal. Maybe it’s bound to happen as more groups control and command how other groups should live, work, commute — even talk.

Growing up here, Colorado seemed damn near without classes, without a sense of one group of people being superior to another group.

There was a time you’d see two men walking down the street, each wearing jeans and plaid flannel shirts. One of them could be making a living throwing chains on an oil rig, the other could be the wealthy owner of a petroleum company who owned that rig, and you wouldn’t have the slightest clue who was who.

Folks weren’t always out to find personal offense as they seem to be now. Today to be a Coloradan is to be righteous, angry and always a victim.

I was just reminded of it again:

I’ve been lobbied by friends and family to try this wild new thing called “Trader Joe’s,” which they claim has been around for decades. Personally, if you can find something at Costco, is it really worth buying? Why buy a bottle of ketchup when you can buy a barrel of it that can rot in your cupboard? That’s just good plain manthinking.

So, to prove I can try something new I took my son to Trader Joe’s in the most accepting, tolerant, friendly town in the state, Boulder.

You might recall my 18-year-old son has Down syndrome. It is very obvious by his appearance he is severely developmentally delayed. Whenever my son, Chance, and I are together it’s playtime. We joke and clown around, trying to include those around us because, well, it’s fun.

When we got to the Trader Joe’s checkout there were two open stations, one with a male attendant, one female, both in their mid-twenties. Playfully I said to Chance, “Which lane should we choose, the one with the guy or the lady?” And then smiling at both, letting them know I was playing with my son, I said tongue-in-cheek, “I think you should choose the one with the pretty girl.”

At this the male clerk turned this playful moment into a teachable moment for this clearly un-educated, hateful older man. He schooled us by saying clearly for all around, in the opposite of a playful way, “F*** the binary. F*** the binary!”

Apparently, I sinned by delineating him from his coworker based on obvious biological sex.

As we were leaving, he volunteered his next opinion to us, “Ignorance is bliss.” I assume that was directed at me, and not my mentally delayed son.

Yes, this was only one little vignette, but it is perfect example of the new Colorado. It’s the intolerant bullying of the new enlightened, tolerant class. And they are here to let us know who’s in charge.

They are empowered, even at work, to basically say, “F*** you, you’re ignorant,” to a customer twice his age, and enjoy the superiority of knowing they’re making the world a better place in the process.

Colorado now has a fractured social stratum. There are those who are regulated vs. those who demand ever more regulation of others; those who are victims vs. those who are accused oppressors; those who write the new Orwellian speech codes vs. those who are chilled by them; those who enforce the new speech codes yelling, “F*** the binary” and those who just want to buy groceries with their kids.

Some will read this and think, “Really, Caldara? We took Native Americans’ land here in Colorado, treated immigrants inhumanely, (and on and on) but privileged little you misses the days when young people didn’t use their voices for needed social justice.”

Maybe. Maybe I have become the new Archie Bunker. But then most of the people I know who also grew up in Colorado, including my liberal friends, are also turning into Archie Bunker — and remembering a more friendly time here.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

Trans Women in Sports

by Bill O’Reilly

Here’s something I don’t understand. Many Americans who are liberals believe the system in this country is unfair, and they want to change that.

Then they go ahead and support things that are unfair.

Best example: allowing people who were born male to compete against women in sports. Not. Fair.

If an adult wants to use medical science to change gender, that’s allowed under the Constitution. Pursuit of happiness. Some object to the “trans” movement on religious grounds; others say it violates the natural order (you don’t fool around with mother nature). However, changing genders is legal, and supporters say it’s “life affirming.”

The problem is that masculine DNA is physically stronger than feminine DNA in most cases. And that doesn’t change under a surgeon’s knife. So, using unassailable logic, it is not FAIR to have people born male competing in physical arenas with females.

Okay? Got it?

But no, the loons want what they want. And the left, in general, supports it.

I realize how powerful political correctness is among the woke left. I also know an injustice when I see it.

Level the playing field. Leave women’s sports the way they were.

Graduates not pictured:

Robert Mack Anderson

Xzavier Rey Aragon

Sarah Merrie Asebedo

Yahir Tadeo Borunda

Balderra

Perla Vianey Bueno Carreon

Bianca Aylin Chumba

Juan Uriel Corona-

Dominguez

Alonso Corral

Douglas Gardner Decker

Jonathan Delgado

Alan Andres Diaz

Andres Dominguez

Eric David Duran

Maricheli Figueroa

Anna Paola Filigheddu

Alan Alberto Flores Sixtos

Iris Fuentes Grijalva

Ignasio Cruz Galvan

Brenda Merced Garcia Nunez

AngelRae Marie Gasca

Adriana Liset Gonzales

Demetrius Malachi Hernandez

Edgar Hernandez

Juan Leobrado Hernandez

Noel Mateo Jackson

Xander Cole Jorgensen

Jeffrey John Kappelmann

Ella Rae Keeney

Justin David Lapp

Apolonia Ellen Lechnir

Emanuel Mauri Lira

Celia Llamas Carballo

Christopher Daniel Lopez

Felipe Luna Aceves

Ricardo Macareno Reyna

The Lost Creek Guide & all its Advertisers wish the 2023 graduates the best in life!

Jacob James Martinez

Zaevyn Lalinda Martinez

Edwin Daniel Martinez Bernal

Alex Alexander Mcculley

Kevin Tieler McGrew

Giancarlo Mendez Delgado

Aura Marie Montoya

Ana Maria Morales Cisneros

Hector Adrian Morales Mendoza

Ryan Carl O’Quinn

Emiko Yoko Ohkawa

Adrian Isaias Ortiz

Emmanuel Ortiz

Mehki Jordan Ortiz

Israel Paulin

Erick Perez Mendez

Antonio Perez Rodriguez

Edgar Miguel Quintana Ortiz

Josue Julian Ramirez Gurrola

Luis Fernando Ramirez Reyes

Samantha Kay Gillaspie Rawaillot

Kimberly Denise Rivera

Samantha Lee Rivera Gonzales

Arturo Rodriguez

Rebecca Celeste Shapiro

Julian Junior Suarezmar

Emily Torres

Luis Angel Torres

Micah Daniel Torres

Kimberly Johana Torres

Marroquin

Deysi Vaca Aguilar

Anthony Jaden Valdez

Hunter Troy VanHorne

Southeast Weld Chamber of Commerce Hosts Annual Inter Chamber Gathering at Lily’s Farm Fresh Event Center in Keenesburg

The Southeast Weld Chamber of Commerce hosted its Annual Inter Chamber of Commerce meeting at Lily Fresh Farms Event Center. The event was well attended with many chambers represented. There were well over 100 folks attending. The Kentucky Derby theme was well received as was the Best Hat and Bow Tie competition. United Power and High Plains Bank were participating sponsors. A big thanks to all as it was a great event.

New Thrift Store Opening Fort Lupton, Colorado!

In the past few years, we have seen many tests, our ability to overcome has been greater than the test we have endured. Since the pandemic many families have struggled to stay afloat. We all know very well how the cost of everything we need has gone up, from groceries to basic household items. That why I made the commitment to myself, my God, and my community to do something that will help. We have spent the last three years just like everyone else, unsure about how we are going to survive and yet here we are “surviving these harsh economic circumstances”.

The Pandemic has been hard on a lot of families, I am no exception. I was devastated when I got the call at 6 am in the morning that my sister, Sonia, had passed away due to complications with Covid. I simply couldn’t believe this had happened and so it did! We were so close to retirement and going into business for ourselves I never thought something like this could happen to her, she was only 56 years old, considered to be healthy, a vibrant young woman with dreams of retiring and becoming a business owner, we had a plan to work until we were 60 and then start a business to help the community, we lived in. Our idea was to start a thrift store so that we could offer things that people wanted or needed at affordable prices. Well, that was taken when she passed, so in her honor I have decided to go it alone, and this year 2023, on March 7th I did just that, I opened a thrift store in Fort Lupton Colorado called LOW DOLLAR OUTLET, it is located at 1200 Dexter St Unit W7, Fort Lupton, Colorado right next to Domino’s Pizza, we are a small store but have big deals and we are packed with great merchandise, new and slightly used. Our commitment to the local communities is to make life affordable whether you are looking for clothes, small appliances, small accent furniture, gifts, toys, tools, whatever you need we have it, and it won’t break the bank. I search far and wide to bring the best for our customers. Here are some of our daily specials and some of the great deals that we offer.

Our hours of operation:

Tuesday - Friday 8AM - 4PM

Saturday- 9AM - 3PM

Sunday and Monday, CLOSED

Tuesday - Senior day (55+) special discounts Wednesday - Wacky Wednesday (crazy deals)

Thursday - Code word day... (follow us on Facebook to get the code word) and the amount of discount for that day!

Friday is Frenzy Friday..., another day of crazy deals, we do bag sales and spin the discount wheel located at the store.

Saturday we always do something special to help you save on items.

And every time you shop with us and spend a minimum of $15 you get an entry into our end of the month shopping spree the more you shop the more entries you get. and one lucky winner will get to shop at our store for up to $100 in merchandise. So that is all I have hope you all will come in for a visit and see what we are doing it always new and exciting at LOW DOLLAR OUTLET!

Get Ready to Rodeo at the Aims Community College Alumni Stampede Social

GREELEY, CO – May 25, 2023 – Dust off your boots and pull on your hat. It’s time for the annual Aims Alumni Night at the Greeley Stampede. The Aims Foundation hosts its social on June 29. This popular event brings Aims graduates and families together to meet, connect and enjoy the excitement of the 101st annual Greeley Stampede.

The cost is $25 for alumni and $30 for each non-alumni adult guest. Tickets for children ten and under are $15. Parking is $10 per car. The event includes dinner and admission to the PRCA finals.

The social begins at 4:30 p.m. in Island Grove Regional Park 4-H Building and features delicious barbeque from Georgia Boys. A cash bar is also available at the event. Enjoy music and an appearance from the Aims mascot Arty the Aardvark, and Bucky, the mascot for the Greeley Stampede. Country Kick Up will treat all of us to lessons in line dancing. Kick up your heels and show us your dance moves.

At 6:30 p.m., the fun moves into the exclusive Aims alumni section for the PRCA Pro Rodeo finals in the Island Grove arena.

Tickets are limited, so purchase yours by June 12. Visit aims.co/stampede-social to buy tickets and get more information. Call the Aims Foundation at 970-339-6556 or email foundation@aims.edu with questions.

Since 1967, more than 35,000 people have graduated from Aims Community College. You are an Aims alum if you graduated with a degree or certificate from Aims or have even taken one class. Learn more and join the Aims Alumni Connection at aims.co/alumni.

About Aims Community College

Aims Community College is one of the most progressive two-year colleges in Colorado. Founded more than 50 years ago in Greeley, Aims has since established locations in Fort Lupton, Loveland and Windsor. Curriculum now includes 4,000 day, evening, weekend and online courses annually in more than 200 degree and certificate programs. Aims Community College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Aims Community College is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution. aims.edu

Aims Community College 2022 Alumni Rodeo Event

Pictures provided by Aims Communications

Fort Lupton Library Mother’s Day Tea

By Julie Dandio

Pictures by Kim Thomsen

The Fort Lupton Library upheld their long-standing Mother’s Day tea party tradition this year on Saturday, May 6. The date coincided with the British Coronation of King Charles III, making it a wonderful opportunity to merge the two festivities. The library was decorated with elegance in the colors of the Union Jack flag and provided a spread of tea sandwiches, scones, and cupcakes. Attendees enjoyed viewing the Coronation and engaging in conversation with friends and family from the Fort Lupton community.