Executive Tyranny and the Fall of the Republic: Why We Must Restore Checks, Reform Power, and Protect Liberty

By Chaz Evanson, Candidate for Governor of Colorado

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3

I. The Rise of Executive Tyranny. Since the founding of the American Republic, the United States has operated on the principle that no man is above the law, not even the President. Power was to be divided, checked, and balanced. The Constitution was carefully crafted to prevent the very tyranny our Founders had fought a war to escape. Yet in Colorado and across the nation, that sacred balance has been systematically dismantled. Rule by law is giving way to rule by executive order.

Governor Jared Polis, who assumed office in January 2019, has issued 586 executive orders in less than six years, more than many presidents issued over entire terms. In 2020 alone, he issued 316 orders in the name of managing a crisis, but long after the crisis subsided, the pattern of unilateral rule remained. In December 2024, he rescinded 208 outdated orders, but the total number ever issued remained unchanged: 586. This is not the exercise of emergency powers, it is the erosion of representative government. It is executive tyranny in all but name.

And the question must be asked: Where is the legislature? Where are the people’s representatives—the constitutional counterbalance to one-man rule? Their silence is deafening. Their absence is dangerous. The people have been left voiceless while the pen of one man writes the rules that govern their lives.

II. A Republic Built on Restraint. In the early Republic, executive orders were practically nonexistent. George Washington issued just 8 executive orders. John Adams wrote only 1. Thomas Jefferson signed 4, and Abraham Lincoln, even while presiding over the bloodiest war in American history, issued only 48 wartime directives, 3 of which were formally numbered. For over a century, the American system operated on deliberation, not decree.

Why? Because checks and balances worked. State legislatures were vibrant centers of authority. The U.S. Senate was appointed by those legislatures, giving the states a direct voice in federal affairs. Governors understood their role: to enforce law, not invent it. Presidents knew the limits of their power. Legislatures debated policy. Courts interpreted law. The system was not perfect, but it was designed to restrain ambition and protect liberty.

That restraint began to break down in the early 20th century. With the rise of progressivism came a new theory of government: that centralized power could produce better, faster outcomes. The people were told that expertise should replace deliberation, that executive management was more efficient than representative debate. And so, one by one, the safeguards fell.

III. The Turning Point: The 17th Amendment. On April 8, 1913, the 17th Amendment was ratified. It stripped state legislatures of their constitutional power to appoint U.S. Senators and handed that power to popular vote. While this may sound democratic on the surface, the consequences were disastrous for federalism, balance of power, and the integrity of state governance.

And make no mistake: democracy is not the same as republican government. Our Founders explicitly warned against pure democracy because they understood its dangers. Democracies always fail. They descend into mob rule, and from mob rule into despotism and tyranny. James Madison called democracy "the most vile form of government." Thomas Jefferson believed that democracy would lead to the destruction of liberty. The Founders gave us a constitutional republic to ensure that law, virtue, and liberty, not popular impulse or majoritarian passion—would govern.

The 17th Amendment undermined that design. Before its ratification, senators were beholden to the legislatures of their states. This gave each state a direct seat at the federal table and helped preserve the delicate balance between national and state authority. But once the selection of senators became subject to nationalized popular campaigns and partisan politics, the states lost their voice. Power shifted upward, away from local control and toward federal consolidation.

It is no coincidence that prior to the 17th Amendment, only 1,805 executive orders had been issued in total. After it, that number exploded. As of today, over 14,000 executive orders have been issued by presidents from Woodrow Wilson onward, a nearly eightfold increase in executive action. Why? Because the system that once demanded cooperation and deliberation had been bypassed. There was no longer meaningful resistance from the states. The Senate no longer defended their interests. Legislatures no longer held federal officeholders accountable. And with no checks in place, the executive pen became the fastest path to power.

IV. Colorado: A Case Study in Collapse. What has played out nationally is mirrored here in Colorado. Governor Jared Polis has governed less like a servant of the people and more like a king with a crown. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he used his emergency powers not only to issue health guidelines, but to shutter businesses, restrict churches, close schools, limit gatherings, and reorient the economy according to his vision.

Not once did he submit his policies to a public vote. Not once did he seek enduring legislative approval. And not once did the legislature rise to the occasion and defend the rights of the people. The people were muzzled, locked down, and dismissed. Their freedoms were treated not as unalienable rights, but as privileges to be suspended at the governor’s discretion.

This is not how a free republic functions. This is how an empire governs.

V. The Reform We Need: Realigning Power with the People. It is time to restore the Republic. It is time to remember who we are. And it is time to say, without apology or hesitation: This is not the government our Founders gave us, and it is not the government we must leave to our children.

That is why I am running to be your Governor. And that is why I have laid out a plan to Restore, Reform, and Protect the foundations of liberty.

The Restore pillar calls us back to our founding principles, faith in God, virtue in leadership, and fidelity to the Constitution. The Protect pillar ensures that our unalienable rights—religious liberty, parental authority, free speech, the Second Amendment, and the sanctity of life—are defended without compromise. But it is the Reform pillar that directly confronts the failure of institutional guardrails and the abuse of executive power.

Under Reform, I will work not just to limit the use of executive orders, but to return constitutional power to the people of Colorado, beginning at the county level. That means restoring a true republican form of government, not just in rhetoric, but in structure and function.

To do this, I will implement three critical reforms:

1. A State Electoral College: restoring geographic balance and representation in statewide decisions by weighting influence through county delegates rather than simple population centers. This ensures that rural and urban voices are both heard, and prevents the tyranny of the majority.

2. A County-Based Ratification System: requiring that major statewide constitutional changes, emergency declarations, or sweeping policy shifts be ratified by a majority of counties, not just by simple legislative or executive fiat. This aligns state power with the consent of the governed.

3. A Constitutional Process for Senator Selection: working toward restoring a version of the pre-17th Amendment system at the state level by developing a county-delegated model for selecting state senators, ensuring they are accountable to their communities—not party machines or special interests. This is how we are meant to be connected to the federal government. It should operate like this: Boards of County Commissioners (BOCCs) select a representative to serve in the state senate; then, the state senate selects and sends two senators to represent Colorado in the United States Senate. This layered, representative system ensures that the voice of the people—through their counties—is heard at every level of governance. Furthermore, term limits must be mandated at the federal level, so that those in office never lose touch with whom they represent.

   
   

But perhaps most critically, I will use the existing authority of the Governor’s office to reposition the Boards of County Commissioners (BOCCs) as a living check on both the executive and legislative branches. I will regularly convene and consult with the BOCCs, leveraging their collective input to determine the validity, necessity, and constitutional alignment of major decisions. Their role as the voice of the people at the local level will no longer be ignored, it will be central to governance.

I will not write executive orders to bypass the will of the people, but I will not hesitate to use them in conjunction with the BOCCs and the Legislature when necessary to restore the constitutional rights that have been stripped away. Executive orders under my administration will be used sparingly, lawfully, and only to secure the liberties of Coloradans that have been violated by federal overreach or prior abuse.

This is what Reform looks like. Not just shifting power from one office to another—but decentralizing it back into the hands of the people, through local representation, constitutional realignment, and lawful restraint. This is not about party control. It is about principled self-government, the kind the Founders envisioned, and the kind Colorado desperately needs.

VI. Real Representation, Not Rulership. The problem is not merely the number of executive orders, it is the mindset behind them. We now have executives who believe it is their role to reshape society. We have bureaucrats who believe their expertise is a substitute for consent. And we have legislators who believe their silence is justified as long as it serves their party.

This is not what the Founders envisioned. James Madison warned, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” George Washington governed with restraint, understanding that power unchecked is power abused. Thomas Jefferson declared, “In questions of power... bind them down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

Those chains have been cut. It’s time to forge them anew.

VII. Let Us Restore the Foundation. This is a defining moment. The foundations are cracking. The people know something is wrong. They see the overreach. They feel the loss of liberty. But they don’t always know how it happened, or how to fight back.

Here is the truth: This didn’t begin with a virus. It began with the slow erosion of checks and balances. With the 17th Amendment. With the rise of a government that no longer fears the people but expects to be feared by them.

But we are not powerless. We are still citizens of a Republic, if we will fight to keep it.

My promise is this: I will not rule by pen. I will govern by principle. I will submit myself to the same law that governs you. And I will lead a movement to rebuild the walls of self-government, brick by brick, so that no future governor, of any party, can trample the rights of the people again.

Let us Restore what’s been lost. Reform what’s been broken. And Protect what remains.