Oh, what a difference a year makes! Twelve months after Gov. Jared Polis’s widely panned 2021 “MeatOut Day,” the Democrat tweeted pictures of himself firing a shotgun and yucking it up at a shooting park in Adams County.

“Good times, good laughs, and some good shots at Colorado Clays,” touted Polis on March 19. “Recently, we purchased the Colorado Clays Shooting Park in Adams County and will manage it within Colorado Parks and Wildlife as a state recreation area.”

Looking at the tweet, you might fool yourself into thinking Polis is apt for hunting – one of the biggest ways we often get our meat – or that he supports Coloradans’ constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. Don’t buy any of it.

When Polis originally declared March 20, 2021 to be MeatOut Day, he fell prey to significant criticism from the cattle industry and its allies. That’s because his proclamation knocked meat producers, praised Coloradans “reducing their meat consumption” and was but the latest in a line of anti-ag activities by his administration.

MeatOut Day was so broadly slammed, even other states like Oklahoma viewed Colorado as the laughingstock of the country. Coloradans everywhere joined in a call from the Colorado Cattleman’s Association for a “Meat In Day” to support the beef and meat industries. It was a unifying moment – just not in the way Polis anticipated.

“I need to give him an award because he’s probably the salesman of the year…He has awakened the sleeping giant,” State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg told me on KNUS radio at the time. “This has been a systematic attack on agriculture. This isn’t the first time. You can look at a number of different things he has done to poke agriculture in the eye.”

Among the other examples Sonnenberg cited was the recent appointment of Ellen Kessler to the state veterinarian board. Kessler has since stepped down to “protect” Polis after facing criticism for numerous, disgusting statements about the livestock industry. Last week, the animal rights activist was herself charged with 13 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.

As for the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, Polis’s track record is terrible. For example, he signed six gun control bills into law last year – including one which “lifted Colorado’s ban on local governments passing stricter gun laws than the state’s.” SB2021-256 disregarded Coloradans’ rights and opened the floodgates for potentially pernicious and excessive local regulation of a fundamental, constitutional right.

The law embodies the principle behind the outrageous SB181 concerning oil and gas, which Polis signed in 2019. In that legislation, ostensibly rooted in the idea of “local control,” Polis empowered local governments to exceed Colorado’s statewide energy regulations – but forbade them from seeking lesser restrictions. SB256 does the same thing, only it subordinates an individual’s gun rights to greater, local gun control. Local communities can’t go beneath the state’s gun control floor.

Needless to say, Polis’s shooting adventure at best amounts to a weak, symbolic gesture akin to his 2021 “Colorado Livestock Proud Day” declaration – only issued due to the outrage over MeatOut Day. Moreover, the Colorado Clays outing is far from the first time Polis has tried to course-correct while running for reelection – and, perhaps more importantly, leading toward the 2024 presidential campaign.

Last September, he declared at a conservative conference that Colorado’s income tax “should be zero.” While some on the right took the bait – flaunting Polis’s statement and attempting to use his statement to push for the zero income tax idea – I cautioned against giving into the temptation.

“As tempting as it is to cheer Polis endorsing an end to Colorado’s income tax, we must not ignore his many caveats and clever arguments,” I advised, pointing to the governor’s extensive track-record of signing numerous anti-constitutional fee increases into law.

Then, as I wrote in December, Polis hit the national TV circuit to look like the “sensible Democrat” on COVID-19 restrictions. National media hyped him up as the Democratic governor who’d long since abandoned state mask mandates.

Polis attempted to “fabricate a distinction between his previous actions and his refusals now to issue statewide orders,” I elucidated. That is, he tried to have it both ways. “The governor’s attitude can be summed up like this: ‘Don’t look at me – I don’t think we should have mask mandates. But local authorities should get to institute them if they want. Blame them – then, vote for me!'”

Let’s be real: Polis persists in an unabashed pattern of political ploys and reelection campaign cynicism. He shows no signs of slowing down. If you got fooled by Polis once, twice or even thrice last year, don’t let yourself get fooled again.

Jimmy Sengenberger is host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 6-9am on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts “Jimmy at the Crossroads,” a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.