It is increasingly evident the Colorado Republican Party under the current chairman, Dave Williams is intent on relegating itself into obscurity. It’s doing so far more effectively than the Democratic Party ever could, and is about the only thing the official state party does manage to do effectively.

It’s not because of any particular policy, or philosophical alignment, but solely due to the progressively unhinged and dictatorial behavior of the populist cabal that currently runs the show.

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The latest bewilderment was the ejection from last weekend’s GOP State Assembly of a mainstream political reporter who was covering the proceedings for the Colorado Sun, for the unconscionable sin of being a reporter. It’s unclear what State Party Chair Williams sought to accomplish with this move. The reporter in question was not some obscure, basement-dwelling far-left blogger, or one of those “First Amendment Auditor” nutjobs with homemade press “credentials” drawn in crayon; she was a seasoned, credentialed, professional reporter. The reasoning given was the publication the reporter worked for harbors a left-wing slant. Perhaps it does, but so what? Most of the media bears some degree of liberal bias. That’s been so for decades, it’s not a secret. One deals with that as one deals with other uncomfortable realities of life. You accept it as being so, and craft your message accordingly. Hopefully the strength of your message will resonate. You don’t throw a temper tantrum and display the same regard for freedom of the press as Fidel Castro did. Reportedly 9News and the Denver Post are also on the Enemies of the Party list. And the ire is not reserved for left-leaning outlets either; Williams has not been shy about his contempt for the publisher of the Gazette papers, who is far more conservative.

It’s as though he desires to make the Colorado Republican Party so insular as to guarantee it never, ever wins another election.

Williams was already under fire for upending long-standing rules that required the state party remain neutral in contested primaries. Not only is the state party injecting itself into primaries, but it is endorsing none other than Chairman Williams himself in a quite contested 5th Congressional District race. Word is the Chinese Communist Party is taking careful notes on how to maintain superficial allegiance to democratic principles in the course of holding predetermined elections.

More recently the party decided, unsurprisingly anymore, to register an endorsement in the very contested 4th CD race, the endorsement going, to the shock of no one, to the freshly transplanted Lauren Boebert. Rep. Richard Holtorf, one of the several candidates not-so-graced by the Williams State Party blessing, took the chairman to task, calling for his resignation. Holtorf is hardly the first, and not likely the last, conservative Republican to express dismay at the State GOP politburo.

The grip the Williams faction has exerted on the official party infrastructure in the state is unrelenting, and countenances no dissent. There could be a number of explanations for this – the temptation toward the ideologization of conservatism (ideology being traditionally anathema to conservatism, which has always staked its position as the politics of reality) the steady replacement of traditional conservative philosophy with populist whim; the submission to a demagogic cult of personality; and, of course, an excess of personal ambition.

In pursuit of all this, Williams is aping his personal idol, former President Donald Trump, adopting the worst of his qualities. He may be angling for a cozy position should Trump become president again. Whatever his calculations, they do not add up to anything approaching success for the party he ostensibly leads in the state; instead, his tactics are merely accelerating the state GOP’s race toward irrelevance.

The shame of all this is Colorado rather desperately needs an effective conservative party in the wings. One-party control is not healthy. The meager Republican minorities in the legislature are exceptionally well led, and are punching far above their weight, but the numbers are simply not conducive to effective advancement of public policy. The flurry of far-left legislation that gets past the filter of the remaining moderate Democrats have been exacerbating existing problems, and creating new ones, for the state. There is a role for an effective loyal opposition, never mind fantasizing about a conservative majority.

Conservatives who derive an excited high from the tactics of Dave Williams ought to remember the despair of the political hangover that accompanies the descent is far more consequential, and lasts far longer.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.