The Trump administration and the Colorado legislature are moving in opposite directions. This trend will test the durability of the Democratic Party in the state as its policies are crosswise with the dismantling of the federal bureaucracy and President Donald Trump’s policies in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration is firing federal workers for any connection to diversity, equity and inclusion enforcement. It’s eliminating programs related to civil rights; disability equity; education curricula related to Black, Brown, or American Indian history; enforcement of equal opportunity laws; consumer protections; and environmental justice programs. Immigrants are not welcome in Trump’s USA, clean air and water programs are degraded or junked, climate change is fake, and forest and fire management programs defy fake climate-change facts. Nevertheless, President Trump’s polling numbers are solid.

According to a Pew Research poll, Trump currently holds a 47% positive rating and a 51% negative rating, with people in “strongly held positions” on both sides. When individuals were asked if they approve his policies, however, 47% approve only a few of his plans with 35% supporting most of his policies.

Older adults, men, white adults and people with a high school diploma or less generally support Trump. Women, minority adults, people under 50 years of age and college graduates disapprove of Trump. That’s the scene in D.C. and across much of the nation.

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

In Colorado, on the other hand, it appears the Democratic-majority legislature is raising a finger to the Trump administration. The legislature will hear HB25-1149, “Comprehensive Black History and Culture Education in K-12,” to ensure Black history and culture studies are available and integrated into Colorado’s education standards. SB25-123, “Education Curriculum on Genocide against Native Americans,” will expand Holocaust and genocide studies to educate students about the “systemic persecution and atrocities committed against Native American populations,” especially about the Sand Creek Massacre and Colorado Native American residential and boarding schools.

SB25-063, “Library Resource Decision Standards for Public Schools,” sets procedures for evaluating material in K-12 schools. It particularly protects library staff from termination, demotion, discipline, or retaliation for refusing to remove a library resource. The history studies legislation directly challenges President Trump’s willingness to remove these historical events from school programs. The library bill goes after conservatives supported by Trump who want LGBTQ+ books removed along with the librarians who brought them into school resource centers.

Individuals with disabilities will gain stronger protections related to housing practices, public accommodations and civil rights violations with HB25-1239, “Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.” The bill extends deadlines for filing complaints and offers financial incentives for small businesses to correct violations. HB25-1213, “Updates to Medicaid” ensures Medicaid members receiving home and community-based services will not lose access to services, thus protecting continuity of care.

Consumer and tenant protection receive attention from a variety of bills. HB25-1010 directly confronts price gouging in sales of necessities. In times of crisis, necessary consumer product prices may not be raised by more than 10% above the average price of a product in the previous 90 days. SB25-157, “Deceptive Trade Practices Significant Impact Standard,” strengthens consumer protections by making it easier to prove public impact in deceptive trade practice cases. HB25-1249, HB25-1240, HB25-1236, HB25-1235, HB25-1207, HB25-1202, HB25-1196, HB25-1090 and SB25-020 are bills to strengthen the position of tenants in relation to landlords. We can only imagine what President Trump thinks of these policies.

Trump’s unwelcoming views on immigration are part of what got him elected. If HB25-1244, “Welcome, Reception, and Integration Grant Program,” passes, immigrants who have arrived in Colorado within three years will be eligible for culturally and linguistically appropriate services to help them integrate into their new communities. Immigrants included in this program are not eligible for federal assistance.

Water policy in the legislature is focused on conservation and quality standards. HB25-1115, “Water Supply Measurement and Forecasting Program,” is a bipartisan bill geared to refining snowpack measurements. HB25-1113 will limit grass in new residential developments. HB25-1099 will protect water from excessive pollution loads. So far, Trump’s water policy led to the release of irrigation water from the Sacramento rivers basin into California’s Central Valley Project ostensibly to improve supply in Los Angeles to combat wildfires. Unfortunately, the dispersal was too early to help the ag industry, and that water doesn’t go to Los Angeles.

The facts of climate change and pollution are fully embraced in a series of bills designed to make Colorado more resilient and less carbon and methane intensive. Democrats have introduced bills to optimize the electric transmission system in part by incentivizing utilities to use advanced transmission technologies (SB25-127), expedite clean energy technology permit applications (HB25-1096), and increase decarbonization by creating decarbonization performance standards for full implementation by 2040 (HB25-1269). HB25-1241, “Public Accessibility of Emissions Records,” requires companies with more than $1 billion in revenues to make public their air quality impacts by reporting on the pollution created by their enterprises including the manufacture and distribution of their products and emissions from their physical properties and transportation activities.

Get the picture? Colorado’s Democratic legislators are now on a national road not taken. The question is whether they’ll stick to the path or make a right turn.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.