If you are upset with the increasing regulatory burden in Colorado, the exodus of too many large employers, accelerating property taxes, the condition of the roads, and all of the funding for transit schemes with low demand, of course, you can lay the blame on Democrats who control all levers of state government.

The same holds if your misgiving centers on annual efforts to undermine TABOR, ever-more-costly health insurance premiums, over-the-top bills to take away parental custody for misgendering a child, sentencing reductions for various crimes, and so on.

Though whatever your gripe, you might reserve a small dollop of your scorn for their Republican counterparts who over and over again have opted for relentless infighting, outright extremism and resulting irrelevance over doing what is required to serve as a competitive, respectable, viable counterforce.

Otherwise put, if you are a Coloradan of more conservative bent, your animus should be directed as much at the powers on your own side as across the aisle.

One-party rule seldom produces good governance, whether we are talking about Democrats in California or Republicans in Florida. Unilateralism, whether blue or red, inevitably breeds excess and arrogance.

True, Democrats own the policies they have put in place, good, bad and otherwise. But in a way, Republicans hold some of that responsibility as well for their retreat from the obligations of effective opposition.

Not only have Democrats taken total command of our state’s politics over the last decade or two, but they now feel they can operate with impunity and indulge ideological passions without significant consequence.

Recent polls have shown a notable decline in approval of all top Democratic officeholders. But none of them, or their parties, assess themselves as remotely endangered. No fair-minded observer expects a Republican to truly compete for high office around here anytime soon.

In many respects, Colorado Republicans have done this to themselves. Their theme song could be taken from M*A*S*H, “Suicide is Painless.”

For too long, the party apparatus has been led by people serious in their zealotry but unserious about the enterprise of politics. They have regularly treated it as an exercise in subtraction and division, a fundamental misreading of how the process works.

The party chair for the 2023-2024 cycle was Dave Williams, a former firebrand legislator from Colorado Springs. Breaking with long-held precedent, he used his position to promote unelectable hard-right candidates in primary races across the state.

Not incidentally, one of those primaries was his own as he sought an open congressional seat before losing decisively to now-Congressman Jeff Crank.

For his troubles and blind loyalty to all things MAGA, Williams was rewarded with a Trump post as senior advisor to the International Trade Administration. His vice chair, Hope Scheppelman, was also promised an administration job in return for abandoning her no-hope challenge to Rep. Jeff Hurd.

Please refresh us on the status of that swamp-drainage.

Williams’s successor as state chair, Brita Horn, was run out of town over the last few months. The state assembly she led had more ballots cast than registered delegates. This in the party preaching “election integrity” and where “free Tina” and 2020 election denialism are prerequisites to advancement.

A meeting of the state central committee to pick the next chair is set for the end of May in Buena Vista. (Suggested town slogan: “Why not?”) In the party’s pursuit of an ever-deeper bottom, a leading candidate for the top role is QAnon-adjacent podcaster Joe Oltmann.

If this were a contest for the state’s most repugnant resident, Oltmann would be a top contender. He vocally supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Following Trump’s defeat in 2020, Oltmann engaged in discussions with the discredited, now-disbarred John Eastman, the father of the loopy legal theories behind the “Stop the Steal” movement.

More recently, Oltmann has called for the execution by hanging of Gov. Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, referring to them as part of a “synagogue of Satan.” Most often, purveyors at least try to disguise their antisemitism.

Now, true to their spirit of subtraction, the state GOP is involved in litigation to get around Proposition 108, overwhelmingly approved by voters ten years ago, which allows unaffiliated registrants to participate in primary elections. The signal here is not even subtle. It is a raised middle finger to the 51 percent of Colorado voters who choose to be unaffiliated.

Republicans might as well erect a sign reading, “True believers only.” Please explain how that will fuel any kind of rebound or comeback.

On top of all this, the party is broke. Donors have run fast and far away. Geez, wonder why.

Adult supervision is desperately needed. Lacking any statewide elected officials of prominence, it is incumbent on the four Republican members of Congress – Jeff Hurd, Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert – to come together and find a stable, seasoned hand to helm their party. The clown show needs to be retired.

Myriad factors have propelled the Democratic domination of Colorado politics. But Republicans have been a willing accomplice in making it all too easy.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and The Gazette. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann