As often as I have written about the massive political divide that our nation faces, it would be quite something to find an issue that united, say, the entire Colorado delegation to the US House and Senate. I mean, what could John Hickenlooper and Lauren Boebert agree on?

Well, as it turns out, there is such an issue, as was noted in a recent Colorado Politics article.

My regular reader (hi Jeff!) will recall that I don’t have a great deal of respect (cough… any… cough) for a certain former president and serial liar. And when I put on my old political science professor’s hat, I find it continually amazing that today’s GOP seems to remain so completely wedded to the orders of a guy who lost the popular vote twice and had an equal number of impeachments.

While there is increasing evidence that some of Trump’s grip on the heartbeat of the Republican party might just be weakening a bit for some members, generally you can count on our most junior House member, Lauren Boebert, to always remain loyal to Trump and to offer a rant or two in defense of the alleged genius of the man.

So, it is a bit of a surprise to see that the entire delegation signed a letter to President Biden, asking him to undo one very specific action Trump took in the last few days of his time as president.

What can unite everyone? Space, as it turns out.

As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who started my military career in the ICBM/space world, I’m very familiar with the massive investment the Department of Defense has made in Colorado in terms of space operations and such. But if you live outside the five-military-base area around Colorado Springs, you might be surprised to learn that billions have been spent on, well, I’ll just say really cool technologies around space operations, and that they are almost entirely controlled (directly or indirectly) from bases in Colorado. Our Denver readers may well be familiar with what some locals call the Buckley golf balls, the white radar domes on the base that do, well, stuff.

So, what is it about space that is so uniting? The evidence is strong that our former president is rather petty and, well, vengeful. And so, on Jan. 13, 2021, with only a few days left in his presidency, Trump announced that the entire Space Command would be moved from the already built and operating facilities in Colorado to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Trump crowed that he alone made the decision and issued the order, regardless of any military advice he may have received.

Now, having already created a new US Space Force, you might have hoped that Trump would leave well enough alone, but no. With a week left in office, he decided that he didn’t want the billions in DOD spending and tens of thousands of jobs to be in a blue state, Colorado. No, with no real study or examination of the issue, Trump ordered the military to pack up their bags and head for the deep red state of Alabama. Take that, Colorado!

Colorado already houses the bulk of the new Space Force, with most space infrastructure already here and up and running; the decision to order thousands of military personnel and associated civilians to pack up and head south seemed (and still seems) to be a petty and petulant decision from a man-child.

The letter to Biden is basically a simple message: we already have everything set up here in Colorado and it works great. Leave it alone.

As the lawmakers point out, during a time of increasing Russian aggression, increasingly bold moves by China in the South China Sea and elsewhere, and other national security challenges, it is a particularly unfortunate time to tell everyone to stop what they are doing and move south.

If you have been on the grounds of Peterson Air Force Base – I’m sorry, Peterson Space Force Base (after 25 years in uniform, this one is going to take me a while to get right) – you have seen the remarkable and costly buildings that support space operations. Schriever Air – I-mean Space – Force Base has amazing stuff, as does Cheyenne Mountain and other Colorado-based facilities.

Now, while it is true that people like Hickenlooper, and my old boss Michael Bennet, might agree on asking Biden for help, it is quite a pleasant shock to see the hard-right GOPers sign on too. Doug Lamborn (who kicked my butt in the 2008 election) represents most of these military operations, and he is solidly on board. I’m pleased that he would break with Trump, given how ridiculously supportive he has been in the past of some of Trump’s whoppers, but given his district, it makes sense. The one that really surprised me was Boebert, who has not demonstrated much insight on defense matters, nor on any real subject, beyond blather and boasting. So good for her for signing on (likely the last pro-Boebert thing I’ll say for a while, I’m guessing).

A cynical observer might mock the delegation as just being “homers” (not Simpsons, but of the home team). Sure, they all want the bases to stay for provincial economic reasons. But in the case of the order to move Space Command, it really is more than that.

Trump appears to have made a major defense decision from a petty and vindictive place. I can’t stay in the White House (spoiler: he really did lose), and so I’ll mess up what I can when I’m on the way out the door. Sigh…

I hope we will see such cooperation continue on other subjects, as the delegation has shown that they can get together on at least this issue. I’m not too optimistic about that, but fingers crossed.

For now, perhaps we can settle on trying to keep Space Command where it belongs.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.