With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein, a few tweaks of their lyrics seem appropriate for Colorado Republicans:

“How do you solve a problem like Dave Williams? Many a thing you know you would like to tell him, many a thing he ought to understand. But how do you make him stay and listen to all you say? I hate to have to say it, but I very firmly feel Dave’s not an asset to the party!”

Apparently, a growing chorus of Republicans are preparing to defenestrate their chairman. Though he’s not likely to be forced into the Russian scheme of “accidentally” falling from an upper-story balcony, it will require a 60% super-majority voting for his removal at a special state assembly to kick him to the curb.

Moderate, mainstream Republican “trad pols” would like the public to believe Williams’s antics “are not who we are.” Democrats have been bleating a similar refrain with respect to three-time Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. As the Atlantic writer and Congressional pundit Mark Leibovich has pointed out, “If the man can win, perhaps we should reconsider who we really are.” Although Trump has a firm grip of the red belt across half the country, he’s found little political purchase in the Centennial State. Asked to approve a you’re-not-welcome-here resolution, as have the Native American reservations in South Dakota delivered to their MAGA Governor, Kristi Noem, I’m confident it would handily win voter approval. Colorado is not, has not been, nor will it ever be Trump territory. Consequently, the election of a MAGA zealot as the state’s Republican party leader was bound to end badly.

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An amicable, no-fault divorce is highly unlikely. I strongly recommend to my Republican friends a visible law enforcement presence when, or if, a special assembly convenes. Otherwise, floor debate may mimic the regular fisticuff brawls witnessed in Taiwan’s parliament. Dave Williams has placed a priority on expunging MAGA heretics ahead of defeating Democrats. Only after enforcing internal consensus that Colorado elections are routinely rigged, trans rights an outrage, abortions immoral and Pride flags burned will his vision for the Republican Party achieve the moral purity required to launch a righteous crusade — democracy be damned. This political strategy requires a mind-boggling adherence to a set of beliefs nurtured in the fetid and fevered swamps of group-think fantasy. Small wonder so many Republican candidates fear their base voters far more than their Democratic opponents.

There is a temptation for Democrats to order up mint juleps and bowls of popcorn to revel in the bloodletting ahead. Without a doubt, a little schadenfreude has its pleasures. Upon reflection, however, there’s reason to regret the dissolution of the Colorado Republican Party in intramural strife. It should not be ignored that in another election cycle or two, unaffiliated voters will outnumber Democrats and Republicans together. Recent Democratic dominance is a far more fragile circumstance than is generally acknowledged. The threat of schism within Democratic ranks simmers as its center-left jousts with a growing progressive phalanx. As one wag has noted, reality seems to carry an intrinsic liberal bias yet that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to quarrel about among liberals.

Since it’s unlikely Americans will opt for replacing our current “first past the post” election arrangements with a parliamentary scheme, a strong democracy requires two healthy parties — one conservative and the other progressive. Compromise is the mortar which cements successful democracies in place. Whether a majority of Colorado Republicans concur is being put to the test by Dave Williams’s efforts to grow his party relying on a strategy of exclusion and pleasing prospective allies by offending MAGA non-believers. In the short run, this may be who Republicans are — as the offended flee for independence from his partisan extremism. The fact Williams is also pursuing his party’s nomination as its 2024 candidate in the 5th Congressional District makes the entire situation even more problematic. There are reasons why both parties have historically attempted to separate candidacies from party rule — the potential for internal rigging is simply too tempting.

No political party enthusiastically embraces an internal pogrom in an election year. Worse still for Colorado Republicans would be a victory in the upcoming primary for Dave Williams in the 5th Congressional District. Though he could graciously resign his party position in order to pursue the congressional seat, this solves only one problem. The likelihood Williams will pursue belligerent complaints about election results and attack every Coloradan who fails to subscribe to his standards of civic virtue appears inevitable. It is State Rep. Lisa Frizell, who played a key role in shaping the property tax compromise which passed during the recent session of the legislature, who observes, “As the Party of Rule and Lae, I speak for most Republicans when I say, we do not condone the abuse of power, corruption and hate coming from Dave Williams.”

The blogger, podcaster and general-purpose pundit Matt Yglesias recently wrote, “Throughout my career I’ve tried to resist the temptation to make unwarranted judgments about the character of people based on their political views.” So do I, for the most part, but as Yglesias goes on to say, “Something has changed for me in the Trump era. I struggle more than I once did to wall off a person’s character from their politics… (but) the lies that MAGA world parrots are so manifestly untrue, and the Trump ethic so manifestly cruel that they are difficult to set aside.” I sincerely wish the rebellion against Williams succeeds, not in hopes an ugly brawl will further cripple Republicans, rather so Coloradans may once again enjoy the benefits of an honorable opposition at the ballot box. Sadly, this result is far from assured.

It was Williams who petitioned the court to allow him to be listed as Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams on the primary ballot in 2022. How do you find a word for Dave? “A flibbertigibbet! A will-o’-the-wisp! A clown!”

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.