Colorado’s Democratic establishment can be expected to wave off a Fox News Digital mini-documentary this past weekend thumb-nailing Colorado’s lurch to the hard left. Consider the source, they’ll scoff, dismissing it as alarmist rhetoric by the usual suspects.

But it’s that establishment that’s in denial — and is whistling past the graveyard.

The word is out. And it’s a bad look on the national stage, yet again, for The Centennial State. 

This time, it’s not for our soaring crime — like Colorado’s No. 1 ranking for car theft a few years ago — or for the state’s skyrocketing cost of living. It’s for Colorado’s embrace of extreme, reckless politics. 

Notably, the ascent of Democratic Socialists in Colorado’s dominant Democratic Party — and what it stands to cost us in the end.

No doubt, most prominent politicos among the state’s ruling Democrats already were wishing the public would ignore one of those profiled in the 10-minute documentary, Melat Kiros. 

The Democratic Socialist firebrand, who toppled 15-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the June 30 party primary, is heavily favored to win the Nov. 3 general election in the Denver-centered, overwhelmingly Democratic 1st Congressional District. Kiros’ anti-Israel diatribes and her comfort with rising antisemitism on the political fringe leave the party in an awkward position, to say the least.

The Fox piece includes a soundbite of Kiros raging at the system, or the machine, or whatever it is socialists rage at. But the documentary makes clear the real danger isn’t her podium pounding; it’s what her world view bodes for Colorado’s beleaguered business community — i.e., the state’s job creators. 

Already under siege from years of an increasingly anti-business legislature, which has heaped one costly regulation after another on employers, business leaders are now bracing for the worst. No less a point man than Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President JJ Ament makes that painfully clear to viewers.

Ament told Fox, ”I tell people sort of as a joke, but not really, that I want pro-business. I’ll settle for not crazy.” 

It makes you wince because it’s true, and the desperation is palpable. 

And it’s on national TV

Fox tells its audience, “Colorado, according to Ament, has changed significantly over the past decade or more as the state has come under single-party Democratic control, shifting from one of the top 10 states for business to a place where increasing regulations and higher taxes have made it more difficult to operate a business.”

Of course, even if Kiros wins in November, it’s the Democratic Socialists and their fellow travelers in state office — notably the legislature as well as Denver’s City Council — who have the most impact on Colorado’s ebbing status as a place to do business. The Fox piece points that out, too.

The report notes, “As DSA-backed candidates took seats on the Denver City Council in 2023, the chamber warned that Colorado was becoming ‘increasingly hostile to business.’ “

Kiros is perhaps the icing on the cake — and the new socialist standard bearer — and she’s on display, for the whole country to see.

You can bet those who have the capital to pump into Colorado’s economy — or, to invest elsewhere — are watching, too. 

View the Fox report: https://www.foxnews.com/media/ill-settle-not-crazy-denver-business-leaders-brace-socialist-shift-after-big-win-dsa