Well, it’s mid-December, and the Colorado state Republican Party has begun that awkward and unpleasant task required of all political parties following massive electoral defeats: a look back at what went wrong and why. And as these GOPers ponder their shortcomings, the winners are moving forward. Two recent Colorado Politics stories highlight these differences and what they show is quite interesting, especially from the point of view of a moderate Democrat like me.

A story from last week took an in-depth look at what is going on within the state GOP right now. For context, these GOPers are meeting to reflect on a true shellacking in November. The Republicans entered the 2022 election cycle holding a single statewide office, and found after Election Day that they now held, well, zero. Heidi Ganahl had been a CU regent and was the Republican nominee for governor. She lost by a massive and historic 19 percentage points. You’d have to go back to 1990 for a more decisive loss, when Roy Romer won his second term by 26 points.

Up and down the ballot, 2022 was a disaster for a party that was, both within Colorado and nationally, hampered by, well, lousy candidates often spouting nutty conspiracy theories.

Entering the election many of the most successful GOP candidates, in terms of winning their party’s nomination, were strong Trumpers and election deniers. From Tina Peters, who is facing seven felony charges here in Colorado, to Herschel Walker in Georgia, and across our great land, the Trumpier and nuttier the candidate, the more likely it seemed that he or she would win the GOP nomination for a variety of offices.

And, well, they pretty much all lost.

So where do thoughtful and reflective Republicans place blame for their debacle? Well, for some, you conclude that the GOP lost because they were not conservative and crazy enough. To be fair, they don’t actually use the word “crazy.” Rather, as seen in a recent press conference by GOP activists, you attack the establishment GOP as being too moderate, and not jumping far enough into the morass that is election denial. Even Trump recently stating that parts, if not all, of the Constitution should be “terminated” isn’t enough for these most extreme GOPers to back away from the big lie. Of course, as a partisan Dem, I’d love to see the GOP continue to nominate candidates based on nothing more than Trump loyalty, as that greatly increases the odds of electing more Dems.

And as the GOP engages in a public food fight, another Colorado Politics story highlights what one of the winners has been up to.

Back in 2008, during my own failed run for the U.S. Congress, I happened across a very nice young guy who was smart as a whip and very capable. I was pleased that he helped out a bit on my campaign, and I stayed in touch with him. His name is Jason Crow, or as most folks know him now, Congressman Jason Crow.

Crow is a fellow military vet and served as an Army Ranger with distinction, as demonstrated by his several combat medals. When he came home from two combat tours, Crow decided to run for Congress and happily won. And as a military vet and national security expert, Crow has been quite active in his role as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and, interestingly, as a member of a little-known but important part of NATO: the Parliamentary Assembly. Crow is quite an expert when it comes to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and his views are highly respected.

When I started out my military career, I was an ICBM launch officer, aiming missiles at our adversaries. We were regularly briefed on the then-Soviet Union’s military strength, and I recall being impressed by their numerical advantages in Europe when it came to tanks, troops and other weapons of war.

But as it turns out, as Crow notes, Russia is not the great military power, at least in terms of conventional non-nuclear weapons, that we may have thought it was. Crow is sure Ukraine is actually likely to win this war, whenever the day arrives that Vladimir Putin realizes he just can’t win and is forced to the negotiation table.

Crow notes the Ukrainian military has reformed their offensive operations in a way that has become quite effective when dealing with Russian forces. Crow has visited Ukraine twice, including recently during the war, and he has become an important figure in U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Those two CoPo stories point out a world of difference between Colorado’s political winners and losers. While the state GOP squabbles and fights, the elected Dems are plugging away at local, state and national issues. Personally, I hope the GOP ineptitude continues. Heck, Tina Peters is even now mulling over running for state GOP chair. Former GOP leader Dick Wadhams noted, with no doubt an ironic tongue firmly placed in cheek, that “the good news for Tina, if she runs for state chair, I don’t think there’s anything in the bylaws that prohibit a state chair from serving from a jail cell.”

And so, dear readers, to awkwardly recast a great Robert Frost poem and a bit of Lewis Carroll, the Colorado GOP has decided to take the road less traveled. But that road is more likely to end in a mad hatter’s tea party than in electoral success. The Dems, it seems, are content to deal with reality, and that will very likely serve them much better.

Stay tuned.

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.