Two prominent Republicans, Dick Wadhams and Jon Caldara, won the argument with their fellow GOPers over eliminating a Republican primary.

The two men worried that GOP primary resisters, when left to their limited numbers, would nominate right-wing conspiracy theorists who deny the results of the 2020 election, back the rampage at the nation’s capitol, and support using horse de-worming medicine as an antidote to COVID. We’ll have to see whether a primary will nominate “better” candidates.

Wadhams wants candidates like former Sen. Wayne Allard or former Gov. Bill Owens. Allard, after all, ran on a platform to balance the federal budget, reduce regulation, and delegate authority to state and local government, policies that Wadhams sees as winning. He adds that if Republicans laud former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and positive business environment, GOP candidates will ride to victory in 2022.

Caldara similarly advocates for reduced taxes — lower income taxes and tobacco and vaping taxes to return fee money used to support, among other priorities, rural hospitals in the time of COVID, medical care for low income residents, and much-needed transportation improvements. He also advocates to reduce oil and gas regulation, repeal 15-round ammunition limits on guns, and enable local governments to reduce the minimum wage below the state mandate.

For objective analysts of these platform suggestions, their policies are brain twisters.

To Wadhams proposals. “Balanced” and “budget” don’t apply as Republican principles anymore, if they ever did. The nation’s deficits soared during the Trump administration due to tax cuts for corporations and billionaires followed by the mismanaged COVID calamity.

Wadham’s view of state’s rights is a head spinner. Today, delegating legislation related to women’s medical decisions to GOP state governments has left women bereft of their personal rights. Texas is now down to six weeks for women to make decisions related to pregnancy, a timeline that’s ridiculous. State’s rights mandates against masking in Florida, Texas, and Mississippi have resulted in overflowing hospitals, increases in COVID deaths, and see-you-in-court fights between state and local governments.

To Caldara’s proposals. Tax cuts in Colorado have already trimmed public education to barely sustainable levels. That’s an “oh well” for the opinion leader. He slams public schools for their lack of “intellectual diversity” while extolling charters as a poultice to public school “socialism.” Public schools barely have enough money to teach 2×2 = ? to third graders yet alone the principles of Marx-Engels’ 1848 pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto.

Like Wadhams, Caldara loves local control. He’d have Republicans double-down on local control’s special powers for good government. As examples, Caldara proposes giving local governments the right to lower tobacco and vaping taxes, both of which were approved by initiative of the most local of local government controllers, Colorado’s registered voters. Caldara also wants GOP legislators to allow cities to lower the state’s minimum wage. But the minimum wage was also approved by initiative of the most local of local government controllers, voters in 2016, bringing minimum pay to the outrageous number of $12/hour.

De-regulation of the oil and gas industry is high on both Wadhams’ and Caldara’s list of winning GOP policies. They’re proposing this in the face of the heat, drought, fires, particulate pollution, and ozone contamination of the state this summer, with the energy industry as one of the leading players in producing our daily haze.

Caldara objects to Boulder Valley School District’s policy on mask-wearing to protect children and adults from COVID. He believes his child with Down’s Syndrome can’t thrive in school without seeing faces. Fair enough. But Caldara’s support of less-regulated energy production will hurt children with asthma and other severe respiratory ailments. He clearly wants what’s best for his own child, but to hell with the rest of ailing kids? Is that too harsh?

Not when Caldara’s views on ammunition magazines are added to his GOP-platform wish list. Limiting ammunition to 15 round magazines is too restrictive for the absolute 2nd amendment rights promoter because there’s a gun out there that can only shoot with 16 round magazines. OMG!

Wadhams and Caldara haven’t gone full-on Trumpian Mar a Largo, apparently. But they want Colorado to go full-on swaggering Texas. There’s a GOP role model they can live with.