It’s tempting to pontificate on last week’s election results, but another ill-considered analysis will only shed more shade than light. It could be several months before we fully comprehend what voters really want. Suffice it to say, it’s not likely to be what they will get. Nearly 15 million voters who threw President-elect Donald Trump to the curb in 2020 failed to show up on Nov. 5. Even half of them could have prevented his restoration. The upside to their dereliction is they can always return in 2028 to express either their satisfaction or irate disgust. Democracies operate on the principle: ‘the customer is always right.'”

Democrats are in for more than a few troubled nights wrestling with midnight demons. Triggering these night sweats should be a recognition that desiring the right things is no substitute for delivering them. When half of American families report they couldn’t find $400 to cover an emergency expense, despite residing in the reportedly strongest economy in the world, the definition of “strongest” requires closer inspection. It would be helpful to match Washington’s public policy priorities up against Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. When 70% of our neighbors feel the economy sucks, it probably does for them. No chorus claiming, “You don’t know how lucky you are,” will persuade them otherwise.

Donald Trump is only the second U.S. president re-elected after losing his first term reelection campaign. Trump has secured a rare achievement amongst his 45 predecessors. Grover Cleveland, returning to office in 1892, soon faced a financial collapse and the depression of 1893. Twenty years elapsed before another Democrat was sent to the White House. I only recount this history, because destiny is always unpredictable. Both presidential candidates this year promised to bring down grocery prices. The only deflationary period in recent American history is remembered as the Great Depression. While gas prices hop up and down in response to supply disruptions, we will have to adapt to $7 bacon and $25 restaurant lunches.

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Trump’s mention the principle governing his second term do-over will be “promises made, promises kept” raises his vow to pursue “Operation Aurora.” One of the privileges of residing in Colorado is we can usually go months at a time little affected or concerned about the political turmoil in Washington D.C. On a powder day in Summit County, deportation policy remains a barely discernible worry. Yet, an administration that threatens arrests will commence on day one is headed our way early in 2025. How Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Mike Coffman plan to greet this invading horde of federal marshals and border patrol agents is unknown, but they will need to be on the same page.

Johnston has already declared his position as one of non-cooperation with any federal mass deportation program. With Colorado having voted heavily against Trump again this year and being one of the few states to have moved left, rather than right in 2024, it’s unlikely Trump will attempt to mollify public empathy for Venezuelans fleeing from the corruption of the communist regime impoverishing their homeland. While visiting Colorado last month, the president-elect promised, “We will send elite squads of ICE, border patrol and federal enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left.” Once here, it’s safe to presume they will also round up refugees with Temporary Protected Status (Ukrainians, Haitians and others) as well as those with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) protection — kids who have graduated from our high schools and attend Colorado colleges.

Coloradans can expect to be the first Americans to confront a federal deportation program intending to expel a million persons annually. Trump has no affection for our state. He was enraged in 2016 when Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz captured all our delegates to the Republican national convention, charging our election system was rigged. This year, when the Colorado Supreme Court tossed him off the Colorado primary ballot for fostering the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Congress, he was equally displeased. He has repeatedly and erroneously blamed Democrats for this, when the plaintiffs were all Republicans, he has also attacked our Gov. Polis as an incompetent and clueless twit. Trump might be better advised to commence his deportation campaign in a more welcoming state, like Alabama, where local law enforcement is more willing to accommodate federal forces.

Of course, if he can muscle his way to a successful round-up inside Colorado, he will learn lessons which can then be deployed throughout the country. If his troops fail, however, there will be tested tactics available to Americans opposing indiscriminate deportations elsewhere. Much like the false tale of immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, the role of Venezuelan gang depredations in Aurora are largely imaginary. The last thing we need would be armed confrontations between federal agents and local law enforcement. These could quickly lead to the opening shots in the second civil war far too many MAGA enthusiasts seem to yearn for.

With proper planning, Colorado should be able to produce a policy debacle that sends the White House back to the drawing board. Our president-elect expresses his personal fear immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country. I fear a bloodbath that claims the lives of tax paying, hardworking men, women and children who are laboring at jobs most Americans aren’t willing to perform. If we think we need help, we’ll ask for it.

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