Liberty For All
Bottom Line Up Front: Liberty is the rule, restraint the exception. Our administration will ask of every policy: is this restriction truly necessary? Can we achieve the goal in a way that preserves more freedom? Often, empowering people yields better results than heavy-handed control. We trust in liberty – it’s both a moral imperative and, we believe, the engine of creativity and prosperity. With Liberty for All, Colorado will attract free spirits, entrepreneurs, and families looking for a place where they can live and thrive without undue interference. We want Colorado to again be known as a liberty-loving state in the spirit of the Rocky Mountain pioneers.
a. Foundational Ideal: We commit to Liberty for All as a guiding star of governance. Liberty – true freedom – is the birthright of every person. “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” says Leviticus 25:10, a verse cast onto America’s Liberty Bell. Liberty is not license to harm others, but the freedom to think, speak, worship, work, and pursue one’s dreams without undue restraint. Our Founders fought a revolution for liberty and framed a Constitution to secure “the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” When we say liberty for all, we mean every individual should be free from oppression, whether from tyrannical government, majority mob, or special interests. This includes those we disagree with – liberty is for the unpopular, the minority viewpoint, the dissenter. It includes the poor as well as the rich, the rural farmer as well as the city activist. We aspire to maximize each person’s sphere of freedom consistent with an orderly society.
b. Constitutional Guarantees: The Bill of Rights enumerates key liberties: speech, press, religion, assembly, petition, bearing arms, due process, etc. Originalism demands we enforce these as robustly as intended. “Liberty for all” also resonates with the 14th Amendment’s promise that no state shall deprive any person of liberty without due process, nor deny equal protection of the laws. Colorado’s constitution similarly affirms essential liberties (for example, Article II of our state constitution is a Bill of Rights including e.g. Section 10, freedom of speech). Our policies will scrupulously honor these liberties. Where conflict arises between public policy and individual liberty, we will err on the side of freedom. For instance, public health is important, but we won’t trample individual bodily autonomy (hence Vaccine Choice). Public safety is crucial, but we won’t nullify the right to self-defense (hence Right to Bear Arms – Uninfringed).
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c. Colorado Policy Conflicts:
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1. Pandemic Response and Civil Liberties: The COVID-19 pandemic saw unprecedented restrictions on liberty in Colorado: stay-at-home orders, business closures, church capacity limits, mask and vaccine mandates in certain sectors. While some measures may have been justified early on, we must ensure that even in emergencies, liberty is respected to the greatest extent. In retrospect, blanket lockdowns harmed small businesses and individual freedoms. We propose a Pandemic Bill of Rights for Colorado to balance future responses – guaranteeing, for example, that religious services won’t be treated more strictly than secular activities (a church is as essential as any store, per the First Amendment), and that any quarantine or mandate is narrowly tailored and time-limited. Liberty for all means even in crisis, people keep core freedoms – like the freedom to worship, to work (subject to reasonable health precautions), to travel, and to make personal medical decisions.
2. Economic Liberty: Colorado’s burgeoning regulatory state (the 6th most regulated in the nation) can choke economic liberty – the right to earn a living and use one’s property freely. We stand for removing needless licensure requirements (especially those not related to health/safety). For example, hair braiders were once required to get cosmetology licenses; Colorado did exempt them in 2015 – that’s good. We’ll look for similar barriers to strip away. We support the gig economy and independent contractors’ freedom to work (be cautious about importing something like California’s AB5, which hurt freelancers). We also defend farmers, energy workers, and others from over-regulation that limits how they can use their land or skills.
3. Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties: “Liberty for all” means ensuring government doesn’t unjustly take someone’s freedom. We will safeguard due process and fight practices like civil asset forfeiture without conviction (Colorado made progress by requiring a conviction in many cases – we will enforce and tighten that). We’ll ensure bail practices don’t keep people jailed pre-trial just for being poor (support reasonable bail reform while still protecting public safety). Police powers must be exercised with respect for individual rights – so we support body cams and proper training to prevent abuses. That said, supporting police in maintaining law and order is also key to liberty (anarchy destroys freedom), so it’s a balance. Every person, regardless of background, should feel their liberties are protected by law enforcement, not threatened.
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4. Surveillance and Privacy: Modern technology poses new risks to liberty. We champion the right to privacy – the right to be left alone from unwarranted government intrusion. Colorado passed a data privacy act in 2021 for consumer data; we’ll enforce it and consider expanding privacy protections. We will require any government surveillance (e.g., use of drones, license plate readers, or cell phone tracking) to have strict oversight and probable cause warrants when targeting individuals. Liberty for all entails that innocent citizens aren’t broadly spied upon. We also oppose any “social credit”-like systems; one’s exercise of rights (like speech or gun ownership) should not result in clandestine government blacklisting.
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5. In education liberty for all includes intellectual freedom. We support students’ and faculty’s rights to speak and think freely, even if their opinions dissent from campus orthodoxy. We’ll promote viewpoint diversity and bar taxpayer-funded institutions from penalizing protected speech. Liberty for all means we uphold their rights equally. For instance, disabled individuals have the right to access public life (ADA accommodations – not a diminution of liberty but ensuring they can equally exercise it). We will faithfully execute such laws. Another example: we oppose involuntary commitment or treatment absent due process – mental health care must respect individual autonomy and rights.