Why You Should Join the Colorado Ronald Reagan Club

Why are conspiracy theorists taking over the Republican Party? The internet has a multitude of explanations, from psychology to economics to history to technology. From my own experiences in Colorado, a simple explanation presents itself: they’re the ones showing up. They show up and take (unpaid) party offices that determine who the state party leadership will be, who will be automatically placed on the primary ballot without needing to collect signatures, and who replaces a state legislator when they die or resign. They show up and work as politicians’ un-or-underpaid staffers. Increasingly, they’re showing up and running for office themselves.

In contrast, the Reaganite Right is demoralized. People angrily declare the party “isn’t for me anymore,” change their registration to unaffiliated, pour themselves a glass of wine and wait for the party to “collapse” without them. (It will not.) I reached out to the people on the Nikki Haley Campaign’s Colorado Leadership Team, asking if there was a caucus, institute, or really anything at all for Colorado Republicans closer ideologically to Haley than Trump. The ones who responded said that no, there wasn’t, so I went ahead and created one. The Colorado Ronald Reagan Club is a big-tent group for non-conspiratorial Republicans. Whether you think of yourself as moderate, conservative, or libertarian, if you like Reagan more than Rogan, I want you with us. Our focus is real-world political activism in Colorado, not building another online echo chamber. If you’re already convinced, sign up here, participation is free. Reaganite conservatism is not the fossil some make it out to be, either nationally or in Colorado. Nikki Haley won a third of the vote in the 2024 Colorado Republican Primary, a bloc that could punch above its weight if organized effectively.

You may still be skeptical, reluctant to sign up for what might be just another source of e-begging spam emails. You may be contemptuous of the whole idea of “activism,” after all, the “activists” you know tend to be annoying people. What does “activism” even mean?

Here’s a concrete example: show up to an event your local politician will be at and ask them a question. Make your viewpoint heard. Most politicians are at least mildly idealistic, they want to represent their voters. The cynic within them sees you and thinks, “hey, this person could volunteer or give money to a rival if I anger them, I’d better not.” Activism means signing up to testify in support of or opposition to a bill, this is particularly important at the municipal level and for less-ideological things like zoning changes, where the views of those who sign up to speak are often mistaken for “the community.”

Activism means participating in your local county Republican Party, which is a democracy whose members elect, directly or indirectly, the chairs of the county GOP and the state GOP. You may be thinking, “I don’t remember doing that,” and that’s the thing, very few Republicans participate in the process. Activism means canvassing (going door to door talking to voters), working as a staffer, all the way up to running for office yourself. Learn about all this and more at https://www.coloradoreaganclub.com/