Way back in 2010, which seems like yesterday but was 15 years ago, I was asked by the then-leadership of the Colorado State Democratic Party to head up the committee to create the state party platform to be submitted to the state party convention and would then, if it passed a simple voice vote, become the “official” policy positions of the Dems that year.

I noticed a few things right off the bat. First, our Colorado platform in previous years was up to and exceeding 60 pages in length. The party platform formally, as it were, took positions on dozens of issues, some quite serious and some quite frivolous.

I thought a 60-page length was nuts. And worse, that type of platform, in my view, created opportunities for GOPers to nit and pick at particular items that could then be taken out of context and shouted out as “things the Dems want.”

So, I reached out to each of the elected Dems in the state House and Senate and talked with most of them. And every one of the electeds, as we called them, agreed a shorter, tighter platform would be a good idea. Heck, California’s Democratic Party platform that year was all of four pages long, and only stated broad principles. And because, as electeds, each of those folks could vote in the platform committee, along with the three dozen or so locally selected committee members, I was hopeful we might be able to make a seminal change in our platform structure.

Stay up to speed: Sign up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

Well, when the day came and I gaveled the committee to order, sadly not a single one of the electeds showed up. One state party leader did, and I remain quite grateful for the moral support. I gave my impassioned speech as a then-recent congressional candidate, urging the committee not to saddle our candidates with a giant platform no one person could completely agree with, yet which gave our opposition ammunition to use against us. A few people applauded, and my proposal for a 5-page broad platform was defeated by a vote of roughly 67-0. As the chair, I didn’t vote.

We then spent the next several hours debating dozens of items for inclusion in the platform, ranging from vital education policy to whether the Democratic Party should officially accept rock and roll as our party music. We did. I remain a John Denver fan.

Sigh…

I was reminded of that silliness recently when reading Ernest Luning’s recent terrific cover story on Colorado Politics, examining the ongoing chaos and new legal challenges within the Colorado Republican Party, as well as the lingering effects of the failed coup last summer.

Technically speaking, the actual and legal Colorado GOP is suing six other Republicans over the failed coup, when some (who sure seem like radical Trumpers to me) sought to oust Dave Williams as state party chair, along with his leadership team.

I’ve written before on the infighting within the Colorado GOP. Some of that, perhaps even most of the yelling, is between Trumpers and the more rational not-Trumpers within the Republicans. Well, apparently asking everyone to calm down and think about what they were doing didn’t work, and now both sides find themselves in court, with the battle raging over who will get to run the party in the years ahead.

Recall please a rogue GOP element tried over a series of events in the warm months of 2024, to, well, like I said, have a coup to overturn the legally elected GOP party leadership. They went so far as to have their own “official committee” meetings. They lost, as zealots so often do, and now are facing a backlash as Williams and the GOP sue the folks who started the coup attempt for libel.

The lawsuit comes in at 42 pages long — not quite like a party platform, but pretty hefty. The suit alleges the rival group of Republicans engaged in “a series of unethical, dishonorable, and fraudulent actions designed to cling to power.” And the lawsuit “also details an alleged scheme to return the state party’s former attorney, Chris Murray, to his lucrative position.”

One of the individuals named in the suit is Brita Horn (which, frankly, sounds like a really good quality electric toothbrush, but I digress…), who is also running for state party chair, amid the mess that is today’s Colorado GOP. Horn issued a statement (though she said she is yet to be served by the court) that, of course, attacked the Dems for somehow being responsible (for weaponizing the legal system, which is a really great example of projection), and called Williams and his team “RINOs,” for “Republicans in Name Only.” You know, liberals.

I can’t help but notice though the state GOP has reportedly spent at least $100,000 in legal fees fighting the rebels, we in the Dem Party seem pretty calm, at least on the state level. Heck, back in 2010, as I noted, we likely spent the most time arguing about rock and roll, not sue and attack. And again, John Denver, please.

Back when I arrived in Colorado, in 1988, to begin teaching political science at the Air Force Academy, Colorado was thought of as a reddish state, maybe tiling toward purple. These days the Centennial State looks at least purple and maybe a light shade of blue, at least statewide. Though we have our national embarrassment in the form of a certain CD4 member of congress, overall, Colorado is running along without too much name-calling. Having a terrific governor helps.

What will happen in the GOP lawsuit? I have no idea, other than that both sides will be spending lots of money that would be much better spent on campaigns. But as long as the Trump miasma hangs over the GOPers, I predict they will continue to fight about who is the purest and they will continue to lose elections.

Fingers crossed.

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.