Here in Colorado.
We actually took it a step further
and really devolved to local
authority. And so we had a very
different approach. And some of our,
you know, big blue cities and some
of our rural areas, we left it in
local hands because these are real
trade offs.
That's Jared Polis, the Democratic
governor of Colorado, talking about
his approach to mask mandates.
In December, he told a Colorado
public radio station that..
Public health doesn't get to tell
people what to wear.
I mean, that's that's you know,
that's it's just not their job.
And he withstood pressure to impose
mandates during the
Omicron spike.
Polis' approach of evolving decision making
seems to be working.
Colorado has one of the lowest COVID
death rates in the country.
The state's also growing while
California and New York shrink.
Florida is ascendant, but Governor
Ron DeSantis is becoming a
culture warrior in ways that are
sure to backfire.
Polis, on the other hand, is
bringing an unmistakably libertarian
flavoring to the Centennial State.
His embrace of letting people decide
extends to other areas, too,
such as child rearing.
It's very reasonable to raise your
child in different ways.
Some parents are helicopter parents,
right where they watch your kid
every moment in the playground.
And other parents want their kid to,
you know, go to blocks in their
home, play on the playground, and
return home by dinner.
Polis championed the Reasonable
Independence for Children bill, a
free range parenting law designed to
stop state overreach when it comes
to things like letting your kids
play outside.
He says the law will allow Child
Protective Services to focus
instead on serious cases
of harm.
We wanted to be clear that like,
in fact, yes, your kids can,
can, can play alone.
It's reasonably safe.
That's how kids learn.
The 46 year old Polis, who is openly
gay, married and the father of two,
says he got his laissez faire
sensibility from being raised by
ex hippies.
I used to hike in the mountains near
my home when I was, you know, ten
with the friend, you know?
I mean, without parents, I respect
freedom. I think that it's great
that Colorado has people that are
deeply religious and conservative
as long as they don't enforce their
values on others. We have people
that are very,
you know, hedonistic.
I mean, you have you name it.
I mean, it's great because you can
free you free to be the way you
want. That's the way it should be.
Polis started two charter schools
and is a defender of abortion
rights. He recently signed a law
guaranteeing a woman's right to
choose, and he's relaxed laws on
occupational licensing.
Back in 2014, as a member
of Congress, he was accepting
Bitcoin for campaign contributions
while his colleagues were calling
for it to be banned.
A serial tech entrepreneur who has
amassed a fortune estimated by
ProPublica, to be in the hundreds
of millions before entering
politics, Polis is committed to a
strong economy and says the
proper state income tax rate
should be zero.
We've cut the income tax twice since
I've been in office. When I came in,
it was 4.63%.
Now it's 4.55%.
We also cut property taxes for two
years. Will need to renew some of
that. Income is not a good thing to
tax because it taxes productivity.
As a society, we like income.
We want people to make income.
He's a strong supporter of free
speech and wants to keep the
government from regulating social
media an increasingly popular cause
among progressives and
conservatives.
The government needs to tread very,
very lightly when it comes
to any
speech based regulation
of tech or any other industry.
I would say federally there is a
role for antitrust law.
Now we can have a whole discussion
on that. You don't want to overdo
that. I would argue it's a very
competitive space when you talk
about social media in general.
You know, if somebody offers a
better service, they'll get there.
There's a number of leverage off in
services if somebody has a better
search than Google.
There's nothing to stop people from
going over using that.
But that's the realm that should be
had when it comes to speech.
The only real actual item
should be the same as, you know, a
direct a direct threat.
Right? I mean, I will kill so-and-so
so that it's actionable is illegal.
But but other speech, it can be
construed misinformation,
disinformation, political speech.
It should be refuted if it's
misinformation or disinformation.
But there's not a government role in
banning all that.
Polis says he's happy that the
election of Joe Biden restored
rationality to government, but
he feels like not enough policy has
changed, even with the Democrats
controlling Congress, especially
when it comes to immigration and
free trade.
But I really believe that tariffs
and immigration would solve
inflation.
It really would. It would it would
it would wipe it out.
And neither party is very good on
that right now.
Trump took a hard turn against
TPP and trade deals and free
trade instituted tons of tariffs.
Biden has slowly unwound
a few, but hasn't hasn't
really committed to it.
Immigration. Trump was awful.
The worst.
Biden a little better, but
I wish I wish much better.
And comprehensive reform still
seems elusive no matter who controls
Congress, Democrats or Republicans.
I mean, it's hopeless for the
Republicans, don't get me wrong.
But even with Democrats in charge of
Congress, I don't see a lot of
movement on comprehensive
immigration reform policies.
Polis is no minarchist and while
critical of President Joe Biden on
immigration and free trade, stands
by his argument made in the pages of
reason in 2014 that
libertarians should vote for
Democratic candidates because they
are supportive of individual liberty
and freedom. He's called for carbon
taxes while recognizing their
potential to become slush funds for
expansive new government programs.
And in April, he signed the largest
budget in Colorado history.
Yet in a country that's highly
polarized, he's succeeding by
governing mostly from the middle and
is hopeful that..
Our experiment as a republic
we're about a quarter of a millennia
old will be 250 years old
and just a couple more years.
I think that means it's time for
our awkward adolescence.
I think it's a time for
rediscovering who we are absolutely
legitimately.
And the left is right on this coming
to terms with legacies of slavery
and racism that absolutely existed.
And pretending they didn't doesn't
serve anybody.
And then, of course, on the right,
understanding that there's not some
collective guilt today for what
might have happened 100 or 200 years
ago. It's important to be honest
about it. But just by being honest
about what your great grandfather
might have done doesn't mean that
you have culpability.
There's not we don't believe in
blood guilt in our country.
And so I just you
know, there's just a lot of rhetoric
on both sides. It's hurtful to this.
But I think gradually there'll be
something that kind of builds out
from the middle that leads to a
higher level of understanding as
we emerge from adolescence into our
hopefully wise adult years, where
we preserve the tenets of liberal
democracy and our rights and
free enterprise.