What happened to all the liberals who claimed “dissent is patriotic” during the Trump years? 

Now the dissent is on the center-right, and data are showing a shift toward more conservative views as people are increasingly fed up with not just the unending assault from wokeness, but the shambolic results of liberal policies on crime, drug use, incarceration, homelessness and more.

What we are witnessing in this time of polarization and unrest is the rise of quiet, but powerful dissent. A movement of feet and pocketbooks, taking back not only one’s bedrock right to personal values but also the basic determination to have safe places to live, work, play and raise a family.

For too long, we have been told to acquiesce to that which we find unacceptable or intolerable. What the left is discovering is free people have many ways to dissent, often more powerful than voting or screeching on social media. We can quietly say, “that’s enough for me” and make a change.

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For many years, folks on the left criticized the rise of social conservatives, particularly faith-focused groups such as Colorado-based Focus on the Family as “wanting to impose their morality on others.”

But isn’t that precisely what the left is doing now, as aggressively and in-your-face as possible? Those who do not happen to share their woke passions are cast out of the gates of society. As the economist Arthur Brooks often says, you cannot insult people into agreement.

Much of the attention, of course, came from the disastrous Bud Light effort to turn what was the King of Beers into the Queen of Beers, with a resulting 30% drop in sales.  Target’s gender-bending swimsuit section also earned consumer ire. 

But it’s deeper than just these bone headed, in-your-face marketing efforts.

The data are backing up Americans are increasingly fed up.

Gallup, the respected polling institution, recently released its annual “Values and Beliefs survey” that showed a marked shift toward conservative or very conservative views on social issues, growing 8 percentage points in just two years. The 38% mark is the highest it has been in this survey since 2012.

The number of Americans who say they hold liberal or very liberal views on social issues has dipped to 29%, down from 34%in the same two years.  

These numbers are also moving rightward on economic issues, with 44% of Americans saying they have conservative of very conservative views, the highest level since a 46% mark in 2012.

Gallup tags the shift, accurately in my view, to “a time when many states are considering policies regarding transgender matters, abortion, crime, drug use and the teaching of gender and sexuality in schools.” But it runs deeper than that, with a growing sense among average, non-political people that basic institutions aren’t functioning, and one’s daily experience of life is harder, coarser and way off track.

It’s often been said to not follow the headlines; follow the trendlines.

The Common Sense Institute, which is increasingly the go-to source for in-depth, serious public policy research in Colorado, recently held a forum focusing on very concerning trends.   

Want to know why people are shifting right? It’s not just a reaction to weird wokeness. Colorado is first among the states in auto theft, second in crimes against property and fourth in total crime. The increase in crime almost exactly tracks the decrease in prison population thanks to specific laws passed by the progressive Colorado legislature. Homelessness and open illegal drug use is pervasive, and not just in downtown Denver

As a result, the state’s net migration (the number of people moving in versus moving out) declined 80% in the past two years. Colorado ranks 18th, dropping from third place. This trend is bolstered by cell-phone usage data that pegs the number of people in downtown Denver way below pre-pandemic levels. Office vacancies downtown are sky-high compared to the more tolerable Tech Center to where many former downtown employers have decamped.

So if you think it’s just a bunch of intolerant knuckle-draggers who are in a twist over a trans person in a tub drinking Bud Light or irritated over Target swimsuit displays, you’re kidding yourself.

Policymakers across the spectrum pay attention: Coloradans are dissenting. They are voting with their feet. And that dissent is as healthy as it is powerful. 

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.